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The Surge 2 - Information Thread, update - reviews from OpenCritic posted


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Game Information

Game Title: The Surge 2

Platforms:

  • PlayStation 4 (Sep 23, 2019)
  • Xbox One (Sep 23, 2019)
  • PC (Sep 23, 2019)


Publishers: Focus Home Interactive, Deck13
    

Review Aggregator

OpenCritic - 75 average - 59% recommended

Critic Reviews


GamingTrend - 95 / 100

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The Surge 2 is a must-play for fans of the soulslike genre. With incredibly well-designed areas, excellent combat featuring a wider variety of enemies, and a story that proves itself worth being invested in by the end, it improves upon its predecessor in almost every area and is absolutely worth your time.


Attack of the Fanboy - 4.5 / 5 stars

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The Surge 2 is an exceptional Soulslike, with top of it’s class combat, stellar level design and a crafting system that makes experimenting fun and simple.


GameSkinny - 9 / 10 stars

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With more options, more weapons, and a much bigger environment to play with, The Surge improves on everything from its predecessor.


Windows Central - 4.5 / 5 stars

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The Surge 2 is full of surprises, but not the ones you'd expect.


3DNews - Russian - 8.5 / 10

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The Surge 2 beats its predecessor in every aspect. One of the best souls-like games ever made.


DualShockers - 8.5 / 10

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Deck13 and Focus Home Interactive make The Surge better, stronger, and faster than it was with this sequel.


Generación Xbox - Spanish - 8.5 / 10

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The Surge 2 is as brutal as it is fun


Hobby Consolas - Spanish - 85 / 100

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The Surge 2 is that kind of game where you clearly notice all it's problems... but you can't stop enjoying anyway. Once you've started slicing and dicing to dress with the limbs of your enemies, you'll have to cut your own hands to put the controller down.


PowerUp! - 8.4 / 10

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The Surge 2 keeps what was great about the first game and improves upon it many times over. It still has some issues but The Surge 2 is an incredibly enjoyable, hugely playable game


Bloody Disgusting - 4 / 5 stars

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These are still pretty minor grievances because all The Surge 2 really needed to do to be an improvement was to be a bit more interesting, and it's definitely that. Refined combat, an intriguing and varied place to explore, and just more variety, in general, are huge contributors to The Surge 2's success as a hardcore action RPG and as a sequel. It's not ripping up any rulebooks or striking out with all that much fresh ambition, but it is a supremely confident followup to a bang average game.


Game Rant - 4 / 5 stars

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The Surge 2 is a better game than its predecessor, with improved exploration, satisfying customization, and tough-as-nails boss fights.


GameSpot - 8 / 10

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Deep, varied, and punchy combat make The Surge 2 worth the effort, even if you have to bear through its lifeless story.


GameWatcher - 8 / 10

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If you want a sci-fi, difficult timing-based combat game with that unforgiving hardcore Dark Souls touch, you can't go wrong with The Surge 2.


God is a Geek - 8 / 10

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It may make some of the same mistakes as the first game, but The Surge 2 still manages to improve upon it in every way, to create a brutal but rewarding sequel


PlayStation Universe - 8 / 10

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The Surge 2 is a much better, engaging, and rewarding experience than the first game. Dozens of quality of life improvements, more interesting environments and characters, and the addition of parrying makes The Surge 2 a must-play for anyone who even slightly enjoyed their time with the first game. However, the game holds itself back from being an excellent souls-like with some poor lighting in areas, intense difficulty spikes, and a final area that is just plain unfun.


Saving Content - 4 / 5 stars

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My time in Jericho City has been a combat fueled, cyberpunk nightmare come true. What we have here is a sequel that sticks to what it the series does well and expands on it. The bigger maps and hub like city have been an absolute joy to explore. The fighting is as visceral and engaging as ever. The boss battles are demanding and sometimes towering. The defeats will be devastating, the victories bitter sweet. The Surge has returned and it’s time to put on the exosuit, start the body modification, and figure out what happened to Jericho City.


Total Gaming Network - 4 / 5 stars

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The Surge 2 is better than its predecessor in almost every regard. If you liked the first game, you're going to love this one.


Wccftech - 8 / 10

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The Surge 2 is a definite improvement over the original game in pretty much every possible way. Combat is much faster and smoother, with an offense-oriented focus that makes it even more engaging, exploration is much more interesting thanks to the improved world design and the story will keep players moving from one dangerous district of Jericho City to the next in search of answers. The technical issues currently found in the game, unfortunately, do damage the experience a bit, and so does the fact that, despite the changes, The Surge 2 doesn't offer anything substantially different from the original game.


Cerealkillerz - German - 7.9 / 10

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The Surge 2 stays despite of a bunch of nice changes the only Souslike title that is only recommendable for hardcore fans. Neither the story, nor the boss fights are memorable and many weak design decisions everyone will encounter through their playthrough makes this title as arduous as The Surge.


IGN Italy - Italian - 7.7 / 10

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The Surge 2 is a good sequel that adds new content and further improves the gameplay, but fails to correct the defects of the first episode of the series.


IGN - 7.6 / 10

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The Surge 2 checks many of the boxes for a successful sequel, but this sci-fi action RPG falls just short or recapturing the full dismembering joy of the original.


Video Chums - 7.6 / 10

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Although The Surge 2 is certainly a better game than its predecessor, it still has a long way to go to reach the highs of similar titles.


Destructoid - 7.5 / 10

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While Deck13 still has some work to do, The Surge 2 is a massive step up from its predecessor in just about every respect. For the first time, I'm actually excited to see what the studio is working on next.


Easy Allies - 7.5 / 10

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The Surge 2 won't blow you away by any means, but enjoyable combat and exploration offer enough to keep you challenged and engaged.


Press Start - 7.5 / 10

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The Surge 2 successfully builds upon the original game in practically every way – offering a larger roster of bosses, more equipment to pillage, and a bigger, more organic open-world to explore. A few pacing issues and some issues with the visuals aside, The Surge 2 offers a greater variety of experiences over its predecessor and is easily Deck13's best.


Fextralife - 7.4 / 10

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The Surge 2 picks up where The Surge left off and inches forward in both quality and execution. If you are a fan of the previous title you will feel right at home, and I highly recommend it. Even though it has its flaws, it does enough to warrant a purchase if you enjoy Action RPGs, and is likely the best Action RPG (that isn't an expansion) until Elden Ring sometime next year.


Cultured Vultures - 7 / 10

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The Surge 2 builds on what made the original a sleeper hit, but it regrettably maintains some of the visual and design foibles that deserved to be improved on in a second outing.


Everyeye.it - Italian - 7 / 10

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If you loved the first game, even with all its flaws, you should still give the sequel a chance


GameMAG - Russian - 7 / 10

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The Surge 2 is better than original. Good story and interesting gameplay with reworked leveling system, the ability to replenish health during the battle and dozens of unique weapons give you many options to search for martial art and self-realization. But loading screens, lack of detailed maps and grind are disappointment. However, even so the game is worth to go through it at least once - especially if you like Dark Souls.


GamesRadar+ - 3.5 / 5 stars

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The Surge 2 offers the hard-earned pleasures of Souls-style combat, with less of genre's signature sting


RPG Site - 7 / 10

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This sequel improves upon the original in a few ways but misses the mark elsewhere.


Stevivor - 7 / 10

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Despite some of the technical issues and difficulty scaling, The Surge 2 is a fun game that should satisfy those looking for a souls-like experience. The combat is rewarding, and the directional blocking system is definitely something I would love to see implemented into other action games.


Just Push Start - 3 / 5

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I could probably explain The Surge 2's shortcomings for another 10 paragraphs, but it doesn't change the fact that it's a fun game that makes a lot of mistakes. Considering there are over 80 weapons, though I only felt the need to use one, is disappointing, just like armor sets skills that are inferior to what you'd gain from using different pieces. Toss in a fairly random story about a cult, lackluster graphics, probably one of the hardest games to navigate I've ever played and it's easy to say The Surge 2 manages to build on the original but it isn't to the point where you should be rushing out to play it.


Push Square - 6 / 10

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It can't hold a candle to a From Software joint, but The Surge 2 will satisfy those chomping at the bit for the next take on the genre.


TechRaptor - 5 / 10

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The Surge 2 boasts a much better combat system than its predecessor. Unfortunately, everything else is mediocre to poor. The game shows improvement, but Deck13 still isn't there by a long way.


Game Revolution - 1.5 / 5 stars

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Like its protagonist, The Surge 2 is built from disparate parts from other things, but unlike its protagonist, the game ends up being a boorish abomination that can’t properly combine the various elements that it has directly lifted from other sources. It’s not only one of the worst Souls-likes; it’s also an awful game above all else that should be sent straight to the scrap heap.


ACG - Buy

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"Despite warts Surge 2 is a blast and funfactor is what matters to me. Well worth it.


Polygon - Unscored

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Familiar isn’t always bad, and in the case of The Surge 2, familiar is just aggressively fine.


Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Unscored

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If you missed the first Surge, but always meant to take a look, hop into this one instead. Think of it as a shortcut to a better game.


Skill Up - Unscored

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Video Review - Quote not available

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Seems like more Surge but with a better setting, I'm enjoying it so far! Haven't run into any major issues or design hiccups so far, although I'm still pretty early. The first Surge definitely had some problems (in my head the entire game was like, an industrial parking lot followed by a really long, dark elevator, even though there was a lot more) but I'm happy to see any additions to the genre, this and Code Vein should be interesting over the next week or so, even if I have my doubts of either of them being really great. I remember REALLY liking a lot of the concepts from the first Surge, like how you'd have a timer for getting your scrap back, and a multiplier (taken from Lords of the Fallen, if I recall correctly) for each enemy you killed without returning to a med station, how weapons would have entirely different combos based on what order you hit the attack buttons in, and the limb system was fun.

 

The reviews seem to be exactly what I expected, if not slightly better, since I was hearing some bad, vague shit before launch about the beta being a mess.


What's all this talk about problems with visuals, though? The game's not a looker or anything (city buildings look pretty bland and simplistic from a distance, basically anything in the distance looks a bit flat and not very detailed), but I'm not noticing anything out of the ordinary with the visuals. They talking about console problems?

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9 hours ago, RedSoxFan9 said:

Kind of unfortunate Code Vein and the Surge 2 came out on the same week

I think Code Vein is niche within niche with the whole anime thing. On top of that, Code Vein is reviewing much worse and looks like warmed-over dog shit. I'd wager it won't cut into The Surge 2's 15 minutes but yeah, who knows ultimately. 

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7 hours ago, Bloodporne said:

I think Code Vein is niche within niche with the whole anime thing. On top of that, Code Vein is reviewing much worse and looks like warmed-over dog shit. I'd wager it won't cut into The Surge 2's 15 minutes but yeah, who knows ultimately. 

I have yet to look at any reviews or anything, but I'm actually enjoying Code Vein a great deal right now. Might have to do with expectations. Every video I'd ever seen had been some real shitty Z-tier looking combat that reminded me of some of those 2-man teams trying to make a full-fledged 3D Souls game where the combat was always awful. But the fact that they were willing to delay a few times got me intrigued so I gave it the ol' 2-hour chance (refund window and all) and I'm way past 2 hours at this point.

 

The combat itself definitely isn't Souls-tier, but it's not too far below it, either. It's not as impactful, but it's not completely devoid of impact, but more than that, it has numerous QoL features that personally appeal to me in myriad ways, prepare for a bullet list that includes paragraphs!:

 

  • Bread crumb trail on minimap. You've got large dots for your current exploration, but also super tiny dots for previous exploration, so you can see exactly where you've explored. HUGE benefit for someone like me who just never seems to improve their sense of direction, especially after an intense fight. The minimap is also super clear, but you have to map areas by finding certain points in the world, so it's not like everything is just given to you. Example (the beige dots are current exploration, and the smaller the white dots get, that means it's further down, so verticality is easily ascertained):

 HZRGfrO.png

  • Multiple abilities! You can equip up to eight (!!) active abilities at once. These range from buffs to spells to special attacks. So far they all feel really good to use, and are limited by "ichor," which is basically a sort of MP. You get some back by attacking, blocking/dodging (I think) and parrying/devouring enemies. You get a free "devour" or whatever it's called when performing a backstab, which works almost identically to Dark Souls, as well as on parries, which auto-retaliate when you successfully land them and deal massive damage and make you immune to damage while they're playing out. But you can also God Eater-style engage one manually by holding down a button for a couple of seconds and striking an enemy.

    In this way, the combat rewards you for playing well by allowing you to unleash more hell the more aggressive you are, but also if you manage to maneuver well and get behind enemies (backstabs can be done in combat like Dark Souls, as well as sneaking up behind enemies) or if you're more defensive and go for parries. But if you're not too great at any of that, you still get it from basic attacks and defense as well as the manual devour, so you're never really being punished, only rewarded for good play. And of course there's items to regain this as well if you're really just not that great at it.
     
  • It seems designed with multiplayer in mind, as you appear to always (so far at least) have an NPC accompanying you while playing solo. They can revive you (uses their own health, has a cooldown, and they have limited self-healing, so it's not unlimited) and can dish out pretty damn good damage. The revive is an active ability, and can be used from a distance, so if one doofus falls down a hole and lands on something --bottomless pits don't count!-- then you can revive them from a distance. Seems good for more reckless exploration. This is good for me because I always play these types of games with one specific friend, and consider multiplayer a key aspect in the genre for the most part. I actually think the revive is a heal, too, but it seems crazy to not just wait until they go down, unless there's some downside I haven't noticed, besides it draining your own health of course.
     
  • Fluid class changing seems to be a thing. You equip a blood code which is basically a class archetype, and you unlock more from NPCs and finding certain items in the world (which, for me, makes exploring a THOUSAND times more rewarding as I consider new abilities to be the most exciting thing to get in any genre of game) and then unlocking that class archetype's abilities at the bonfire equivalent, which is a plant called a mistle. You can then play with that class, which will have certain requirements to enhance the proficiency of those abilities, once you've met those requirements, you can use those abilities even when not playing that class, provided you meet the stat requirements! This is where the game's customization seems to come from, along with gear, because you don't level up individual stats, you just spend your soul equivalent to gain levels, which provides you with a set of predetermined stat increases, so having this to replace that depth is critical to not making it feel generic.
     
  • It's not as anime as I thought! So far it's almost identical in style to God Eater, but with less melodrama. You've still got wide-eyed anime chicks with their titties hanging out, but when you're out in the world just playing the game, there's very little anime feel to it for the most part. There's a hot spring at your home base, though, which is weird. I went there and my male character was just chillin' with everyone else in the hot springs... and by everyone else, I mean literally the entire female cast and none of the other males. Which was so stupid I actually found it funny. Besides some shit like this, it's only vaguely anime-esque most of the time.
     
  • The environments are more varied than I was expecting. All footage I'd seen had been brown ass bombed out buildings, and while that's absolutely part of the game, I've also seen a fair bit of cooler shit, like where the entire city caved in to a giant underground cavern.
     
  • There's not nearly as many gear slots as Dark Souls (two weapons, one armor slot and class slot) but they appear to be doing a fair bit with what's there. Your armor, not your weapon, actually changes your parry. And it's not a minor thing, my default armor gives me a claw that I swipe with to parry, but another set gave me a long ass scorpion tail, which required completely different timing to land parries with, but seemed to do more damage as it was more difficult. Instead of lots of armor slots, you have lots of active ability slots, and four passive ability slots, and as I said, those are things you find in the world, so it's effectively the same thing in some ways. 
     

Anyway, those are just some of the things I wanted to talk about. Haven't got to any part that sucks outright yet, although the game has been relatively easy. If it turns out the entire game is set in the same couple of areas or something, I could see some bad reviews, but nothing I've played so far strikes me as bad at all. Which is a huge surprise, because I've been rolling my eyes at this game for what feels like 3 years.

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6 minutes ago, Xbob42 said:

If it turns out the entire game is set in the same couple of areas or something, I could see some bad reviews, but nothing I've played so far strikes me as bad at all. Which is a huge surprise, because I've been rolling my eyes at this game for what feels like 3 years.

I won't say I have any intention of picking this up as I've had my absolutely max Souls-fill I think at this stage but this is honestly surprising to read. I've been internally mocking and bashing this game since I first laid eyes on it honestly :dab2:

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I've nearly beat the game and I can say that I enjoy a touch more than 1. I thought 1 was solid, underrated DS clone. 2 is larger than 1 and has a better, more aggressive combat system,  but some of its areas are so twisting convoluted that it will test some people's memories to go from A to B at times. Overall though, its a solid and rewarding game!

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I don't think I'm even at the halfway point but I agree with Vic on every point so far, except I don't think I've seen enough of the areas to determine whether they're too twisty or not, but they have been more interesting, so that's a big plus! Combat's better, game seems more polished (still not perfect but not a mess like I was led to believe pre-launch) and seems to have a lot more heart than the first game. I've always liked the weird twists to the genre games from Deck13 brought, and this is no exception. I'd very much like to see Lords of the Fallen 2 now. I think they're really getting their footing and have carved out a worthy niche in the genre that doesn't just feel like a Dark Souls clone in a different setting anymore.

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I'm curious about this aspect of The Surge 2 actually:

 

I thought The Surge was actually a very atmospheric game, quite eerie and oppressive. The sound design especially was pretty nasty and added a lot at points. For you guys who played the first one, does this one still lean into an oppressive atmosphere like that? The pre-release trailers kind of almost sold it as some bro-tough-guy one-liner type shit which I highly doubt represents the actual game knowing they have to market it to that crowd.

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48 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

I'm curious about this aspect of The Surge 2 actually:

 

I thought The Surge was actually a very atmospheric game, quite eerie and oppressive. The sound design especially was pretty nasty and added a lot at points. For you guys who played the first one, does this one still lean into an oppressive atmosphere like that? The pre-release trailers kind of almost sold it as some bro-tough-guy one-liner type shit which I highly doubt represents the actual game knowing they have to market it to that crowd.

I think @Mr.Vic20 would be better able to answer that one. I find that early on, since it's broad daylight in a city, it's not quite as eerie, but I have noticed a few darker underground areas that require your light, and those felt similar to the first game to me.

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The Surge 2 is not a oppressive in its atmosphere as the original. The main change is that unlike the first game, where you predominantly spent your time alone, this game takes place in a city that has population hubs scattered throughout it. Think Eurojank fallout. The surge 1 is definitely more oppressive in its mood because of that difference, but I can assure you that the game is still, on the whole, bleak, and your main character is definitely not a dude bro, at least not the archetype I played as (martian solider returning to Earth). Good game, worth a play through! I'm currently on game+ and still enjoying my time with it!

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21 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

The Surge 2 is not a oppressive in its atmosphere as the original. The main change is that unlike the first game, where you predominantly spent your time alone, this game takes place in a city that has population hubs scattered throughout it. Think Eurojank fallout. The surge 1 is definitely more oppressive in its mood because of that difference, but I can assure you that the game is still, on the whole, bleak, and your main character is definitely not a dude bro, at least not the archetype I played as (martian solider returning to Earth). Good game, worth a play through! I'm currently on game+ and still enjoying my time with it!

Thanks for the rundown. Not really into that change on paper but we'll see when I inevitably play it. I actually really don't care for the city setting but as long as the level design is good, I don't really care that much either. 

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1 minute ago, Bloodporne said:

Thanks for the rundown. Not really into that change on paper but we'll see when I inevitably play it. I actually really don't care for the city setting but as long as the level design is good, I don't really care that much either. 

About that... MY number one complaint about this game is the level design. I swear the developer was using Salvador Dali and MC Escher as their inspiration!  I generally have pretty good navigational sense, but there were more than a few times where I had to just have faith that going farther down the rabbit hole would ultimately take me somewhere good! Don't get me wrong, you can, and I did, eventually map this whole damn maze out in my head, but there were plenty of times when I had to use trial and error to get from A to B. 

 

Everything else about the game is better than the first. The combat is especially more refined and rewarding than the first. 

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1 hour ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

About that... MY number one complaint about this game is the level design. I swear the developer was using Salvador Dali and MC Escher as their inspiration!  I generally have pretty good navigational sense, but there were more than a few times where I had to just have faith that going farther down the rabbit hole would ultimately take me somewhere good! Don't get me wrong, you can, and I did, eventually map this whole damn maze out in my head, but there were plenty of times when I had to use trial and error to get from A to B. 

 

Everything else about the game is better than the first. The combat is especially more refined and rewarding than the first. 

That...is actually a selling point to me :dab2:

 

I read level design, Dali and Escher and immediately felt vaguely aroused.

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