The folded map of Surge 2 prevents it from being a bland suite

In The surge 2, my navigational skills prevent me from wasting hours browsing the open and crooked map. Playing MapQuest in this third-person role-playing game prevents the methodical fight from feeling too bland too fast. It sounds strange to say about a modern game, but Surge 2The multilayered and evolving world interests me even when the rest of the game begins to become boring.

What is Surge 2?

As in 2017 The surge, Surge 2 is a third person, violent parade in a sci-fi setting, a new idea for a not so fresh genre. I activate control points, unlocks shortcuts, fights enemies and earns money for my victories. Death happens quickly and often, and if I can not return to my corpse without dying (or before Surge 2The timer of my previous life, lost for good.

But Surge 2 keeps things unique with its dismemberment system, as The surge before that. When fighting, I target different parts of the body. Taking control of an unarmed member of the enemy causes the most damage, but ruins my ability to steal enemy armor for my own needs.

Instead, I go for the helmets, the veneer leg, the bulletproof vest, the metal gauntlets. After reducing the defenses of an enemy gauntlet, I execute a knockout. My traditional character thrusts his spear under the arm of my enemy and kicks him. The arm comes with it and the enemy falls to the ground.

The arm – as well as the weapon it's holding and the armor around it – is mine now. I can wear this armor in any bay bay to create a piece that suits my character. What was theirs is now mine. Each enemy comes with this same type of interaction, and I always choose to cut rather than choose the easy way with unshielded equipment.

While I am looking to improve the loot I already have, I am forced to focus on different parts of the body. I have to improve my chest, so I'd better start dismembering the breasts of my enemies – often using my spear as a post to help me hit an enemy torso so hard that it separates from the rest of the members. Choosing a body part to focus on is a fun mini-game to play. This means that you can usually get something useful from each enemy that you eliminate. Need a better headphone? Better to start beheading everyone you meet.

This dismemberment, acquisition and upgrade loop is a solid identity for Surge 2 maintain the original. But maintenance is not the most attractive idea when it comes to a full suite.

Surge 2The only major improvement in combat is the directional parry system, where the well-timed boost destroys an enemy attack and opens it as a counter. Other than my parades and flashy animations, Surge 2The gameplay did not hold me back, despite the pleasure The surge two years ago.

But Surge 2The design of the card saves him from the syndrome of continuation.

The game seems immediately familiar to me when I start playing, and I get the basics almost instantly. My movements and attacks spend endurance, just as the blows I suffer undermine my health. I can improve both, but I have to survive and reach a checkpoint nearby to use the currency I receive from my enemies.

After another death, I breed again in my Bay Med, a futuristic bonfire that serves as an upgrade station to spend my currency and my checkpoint in case of failure. I fought in the same place for hours; meet new enemies, defeat some and die for others. Progress is never guaranteed, but each new step forward opens a new shortcut for me, a shortcut that allows me to return more easily to my original position.

It's as if the world is always ready to fall back on itself. Advancing is always like a bitter battle, but the return of my country of origin is always a smart shortcut, available suddenly.

I'm on my way, getting rid of my opponents without much thought, before returning to the arena, I was perplexed in the last 20 minutes. There is no boss here to bother me, just a few new enemies causing me trouble. Each villain can kill me alone if I'm not careful, and trying to take two at a time is a death sentence. As I scan the battlefield, full of memories of deaths that I should have avoided, I begin to contemplate my path.

An entry through the main door allows me to attack the toughest enemies first, but makes it difficult for them to take care of one enemy at a time – not to mention the alarm that will alert all enemies close to my presence if I do not pay attention. My usual entrance from the top of a bus, after the door, is the most stealthy choice, but sandwiches me between two tough guards and a hostile robot.

I go on the bus to take the robot first. After some good shots, I lift one of his arms before carrying my last shots at his chassis. Now, I just have to decide how I want to approach the enemies in front of the door.

I spend most of my time in Surge 2 the analysis of this type of fighting puzzle, made possible by the claustrophobic world of the game. Within 15 hours, it was necessary to beat Surge 2, the gameplay has rarely changed and so reminds the first game that it looks more like an extension than a sequel. But the map around me completely changed over time, and it was finally the addition to the formula that allowed me to continue playing, even if the rest of the game design was starting to hurt.

It's this changing map that really makes Surge 2 shine.

The game of chess in 3D

I spend most of my time in Surge 2 Fight across the world of hubs – a future city in disrepair. I use elevators to climb on new floors and zip lines to quickly go from one landing to another.

I find that each new piece has several outputs, and ticking the boxes of each new path reward me with a treasure or a new shortcut to a Med bay. The card in play is non-existent, replaced by map panels, which display my position, scattered over the world. Sometimes I happen to look for a map key on my controller that is not there, but the darkened map eventually adds to the charm of the maneuvers. I do not have to look in a menu to navigate, I have to constantly look around the world to know where I am and where I am going.

Some quests lead me into unique areas, like a forest biome or the local port, each with their own spiral shortcuts, but I spend acting to fight new enemies and draw my own mind map of the world. The map is small, allowing you to cross it quickly and easily. And after five hours, I know all the streets.

My familiarity with the world is what makes change in the middle of the party so fun to live. After some major quests, I arrive at a point of no return in history. Before entering the next zone, I receive a message telling me that things will not be the same when I return. Naturally, I continue. A kind of cataclysm occurs in history and a new force settles in the city in which I play for hours. I fight against a fast leader and re-enter to see how this faction has already begun to change the world.

What I find is a completely remixed map, but not a map that I do not recognize. The situation has destroyed buildings and walls, tunnels with new paths have emerged and new enemies fill the old landscape. What was old is new again, but in a way that remains recognizable.

Some of my old ways have disappeared, but new options are open to explore. I travel around the world, which I have known so well in the past without really understanding where I am going. Sometimes I get lost and consider turning around. But pressing always reveals a landmark that I did not know to be nearby or a place that I recognize.

Suddenly, a remixed version of the map begins to form in my mind, with places that I know so well integrating perfectly with the new premises. Each new discovery of an old neighborhood still makes me feel like a child stuck in the back during a long drive, before shouting, "Hey, I know where we are," when I recognize a landmark. This awareness always comes right when the fight begins to feel too familiar and begins to get bored.

Familiarity is not always bad, and in the case of Surge 2, familiar is just fine. Adding cinnamon to oatmeal does not create an explosion of flavor, but makes the experience even more enjoyable. With Surge 2, the folded world map is that of cinnamon, adding just enough flavor to keep me interested all the way through.

Surge 2 will be released on September 24 on PlayStation 4, Windows PC via Steam and Xbox One. The game was analyzed using a "commercial" final download code provided by Evolve for Focus Home Interactive. You can find additional information on Polygon's ethics policy here.