Having a real love-hate relationship with The Surge right now. Overall, the game is definitely a step up from Lords of the Fallen, which was just a poor mans Dark Souls, and while this game is just trying to be a scifi Dark Souls, it has a number unique elements that I enjoy and find cool.
Seeing that it is a wannabe Dark Souls/Bloodborne game, I think it struggles to create gameplay that makes sense and struggles to stack up to those games. It's hard to figure out attacks you can or can't block and between enemies, as there's just a lack of consistency with these attacks. In Souls games, you can usually block most attacks unless the attack is a grab, a massive power strike, magic, or something that might knock you off balance. In Surge, they attack straight through the block and do huge damage.
The scrub enemies have a running lunge that can't be blocked, so you have to dodge. It's the only noticeable normal enemy attack that has a good tell. The two handed faster guys have a running lunge with multiple strikes, but it can be blocked. His unblockable is a quick strike with not much of a tell. There's a slow hammer guy who also has a charge, but is blockable, but his uppercut hammer doesn't have a very great tell and is a double unblockable. Souls games tend to have a lot more leeway with dodging, blocking and even offering you health items. Surge I don't feel has enough of that, which makes it way harder than it should be and relies on seemingly random pickups for the implants which deal with like boosts and health recovery. Even Nioh did better (It has it's roots in the Ninja Gaiden series, but very much adopts a lot of Souls in it). Sure, I know what the attacks are now, but it makes some feel impossible to get away from, especially when you are stuck into certain attacks and that all enemies so far have an attack like this. This was never a thing with the Souls games.
It doesn't help that I can't play quite how I want. I tend to like heavy build guys if I get the option, but the heavy armor in this is so slow, combined with slow weapons, and when you bring in the blocking issues, and how it doesn't deflect enough damage, I have no reason to play that way. I couldn't beat the 1st boss with it. So far, it's best to go with the lighter armor, and have a heavy weapon, because you get an attack speed buff wearing the full light armor and I believe more energy for strikes and are just way faster in general.
Where Souls is frustrating because it's such a genuine challenge, but I can learn to get better, Surge feels more artificial in its difficulty at the moment to me.
Anyone else playing the game right now that can share their view on it?
