Surge Playthrough

*My first day playing this game was after working a 12 hour shift at a very physical job. I was exhausted so that may have affected my experience*

The initial start of the game is done really well. You’re shown some information about a company that is trying to save the world and humanity at the same time with different tech. Your character has decided to become one of their employees. Being in a wheelchair to start, the Creo offers bionic implants that will not only allow him to walk again but also to do things beyond regular human capabilities.  You get onto the table where your body is strapped in for the procedure. The machine registers you as unconscious so that it may begin the surgery. With no other humans around, your screams bounce off the metallic walls as screws are drilled into your bones and an implant into your brain.

You wake in a junkyard. Apparently the procedure didn’t work? But hey, you can work for the first time in years! Only problem is that everything in this junkyard that is moving wants to attack you.
From here forward I will say the game does a mediocre job walking you through what to do. Yes the information is there but it is easy to miss. As you push forward you come across different enemies that get a lot tougher. Eventually you reach an area that I believe will become your base of operations, more or less. From there I only pushed forward a little further, managing to chop the arm off another bionic human and taking his weapon. Not long after that I was killed and called it a night myself.

Upon starting the game today I realized that when you die you drop all the materials that you have on you. You can get it back but only if you manage to make it to where you were killed in under 2 ½ minutes. As I played through the rest of the day this proved to be easy at times and not even worth attempting at others. This became extremely frustrating when I would get lost.

Exploring the world leaves me with a lot of questions. Namely, where do I go? There is basically no guidance meaning that I keep finding myself in areas that I can’t handle and dying. While there are some doors that you can open bringing you back to your base of operations, they are easy to miss. If you do find those doors, the game becomes a continual grind of killing, going back to your base to upgrade, killing those enemies that respond again. Not that I mind this kind of gameplay in the least, it’s just not what I was expecting. 

After having found numerous new parts and weapons I am feeling a little more confident with the game. Gear for both legs (one crafted, one found), an arm piece, and finding a few doors that will bring me back to base quickly have really helped. I just need to get it out of my head that I can get “a little further” before going back to base. My drive is basically what’s killing me more than anything so far.

A breakthrough!

I finally made some actual progress in the game! I had been struggling to get anywhere even with having crafted a full set of gear. That's a piece for each arm, one for each leg, a body piece and a head piece. Even with all that I was still struggling against the mini boss, a non-hostile wrecker bot. I decided to craft all new gear that is lighter but less protective instead and instantly the whole game has been better. I can fly through enemies easily and even tougher enemies I can actually manage to dodge now. I then upgraded my “laser sword” (that’s not what it’s called, just what it looks like). I still managed to be killed by the actual boss BUT I was able to hold my ground for a little bit! I’m starting to have a little more confidence with this game now. The initial hurdles to semi teach yourself the game make it tough but after getting past that it has been a lot more fun.

P.s. something that I realized a lot later than I should have. When you lock onto an enemy, you can choose to target specific body parts and gain gear from chopping them off. I assumed that when you don’t adjust the targeted part that it was automatically choosing the main body, it is not. So for harvesting main body parts you need to be sure you choose that specifically.

It has taken me playing across 4 different sessions to finally understand why they might have made a follow up to this game. 

Now that I understand the mechanics of collecting materials and getting good at combos/dodging and blocking, it's a lot of fun. 

There are some major hurdles in the game and even now I am still finding issue with some of the ways it was set up. Mainly finding the "short cuts" back to my base of operations. They aren't made to stand out in the slightest and are easily missed. Other than that the first area has been very easy to navigate. Likely because I've had to run through it so many times. 

I also managed to kill the level boss!!! Not on the first try mind you. Or the second. Or the third. Honestly I lost count at how many attempts it took but since switching to lighter gear it was a lot more manageable. In fighting him I am unsure whether the game glitched or I was just not attacking the right side, but it almost killed me. I took him down and just couldn't seem to line up the final blow no matter what angle I reached from. I'm the end I was able to knock him over again and take him down permanently!

After taking him out it opened up a couple things. There's an area past them that goes underground. Fought my way through some enemies, including one who was locked up. I thought maybe releasing him would play to my benefit as he was asking for help. Instead he immediately attacked me when his doors opened. He did have this new, giant hammer-like, weapon that he dropped upon his death (remember to target the weapon arm). 

As you go further down there seems to be a floor that is entirely covered in poison gas or toxic water. There are still enemies down there as well (drones) so not only are you having to fight them, you are constantly having your health drained by the environment as well. I didn’t stay there long before moving on out to the train. Finally heading to a new section of the map.

Ok so immediately it seems like a lot more went wrong than just my operation. The whole facility looks like it ended up under attack. There are damaged materials all over and some human bodies as well. Nice big blood trails that’ll lead you to a human resting against some object where they must have crawled to prop themselves up as they took their last breaths.

As I continued to explore this new area I got myself an attack drone! Although he basically does no damage unless I use my built up energy to summon him, he is good at getting guys' attention. 

This leads me to the pair of baton wielding badassess that quickly left me in a crumpled mass on the floor. They did exactly the same the second time (although I at least got a couple hits in that time). By the third time I smartened up and was able to pull one away from the other using the drone to fire off a few shots. I managed to kill the first one but the second one is just too much for me at the moment. 

As I continued exploring I have found a few living people!From them I was able to find out that something has gone wrong with the neural uplink. One guy mentioned that it seemed like he was in someone else’s head for a bit. It makes me think that’s why so many of the enemies are acting like zombies in the bionic suits. I definitely don’t feel bad for chopping off limbs now. Not that I did before After helping them out I was also able to get myself a new weapon! 

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Much like the first zone, I am still finding this zone to be a little confusing. I’m sure as time goes on I will understand it more and, fingers crossed, be able to take out baton guy #2