Hello, I'm Adam Hetenyi, I'm the Head of Game Design at Deck 13 Interactive
and I would like to welcome you to our demo of the Surge.
With me today is Sebastian Seubelt, who'll be doing the driving today.
But before we begin I'd like to give you a quick summary of our game.
The Surge is a hardcore Action-RPG with a focus on tactical melee combat.
We're in a dystopian near-future version of Earth you can see here from the surrounding things are a little broken up.
In our game global warming and ecological problems have advanced to crisis levels in the world
likewise the global economy is in shambles so regular men and women are in a lot of trouble.
It's really difficult for people to find work so our hero, Warren, is lucky to have found a job at all
particularly at a company like CREO which is dedicated to solving the world's ecological problems.
So his first day on the job he's getting his exo-rig applied, you can see here attached to his body, and then some of our other materials.
But something goes very wrong with this process. He loses consciousness and wakes up here. So let's get going.
So this is an Operation Center, functions a bit like a HUB for us.
You can do some crafting here, you can use your tech scrap to level up your exo rig
but we're not gonna do that yet, we're gonna head right into the action.
This is one of our new coworkers, he's not in a very good shape, as we can see he's a little aggressive
I think we're gonna need to defend ourselves.
Now melee combat in the Surge is stamina based
that means that while you're in combat you're gonna need to manage your stamina resource
or you might find yourself unable to complete a combo that you want to finish
or unable to dodge your way from a counter-attack
it's just something you need to pay attention to while you fight.
And in the Surge attacks are not light or heavy attacks but rather horizontal and vertical attacks.
That's because the swing directions of your attacks actually matters.
In the Surge, you can see here you can target specific body parts.
So directing attacks towards unarmored or vulnerable areas deals increased damage
it's more likely to stagger your opponent.
So it really pays to observe your enemies, pick out their weak points when you are going for kill, there.
Another thing that we'd really like to emphasize is that it's really good and beneficial for you to scan your environment
to look around for enemies, and loot, exploration is really important to us.
So looking around and we see this guy in the dark banging his head.
Now he's different from the other enemies we fought so far, in that he has a helmet
which is something that maybe we want to take home with us and make it ours.
So that brings me to the other aspect of body part targeting
which is that if you target a body part and deal enough damage
you will then be allowed to use combat energy like this
to execute a finishing sequence.
It's mean.
So you chop off that body part, and you loot it, and then you can take that back to the operation center
where we can use our new blueprint to craft that helmet for our very own selves.
That's not very nice.
So moving further into the area here, you can see that we don't have just humanoid enemies.
We also have a variety of robotic enemies.
Many of these will also have limbs that can be chopped off, you know this could give you various rewards
new implants, new weapons, things like that.
But these disassembly drones are more simple.
They don't have different body parts they're just trying to chop you up.
But we're not gonna let them do that.
But what's this? We see something in the rocket shell over here.
This is also a new blueprint.
So when we return to Operations we'll be able to craft the Security Staff as well.
Looks like we're not able to go through that door yet. But there is an overcharge station nearby.
So overcharging allows you to channel the core power of your exo-rig to overload some circuits
sometimes that'll open doors, sometimes that will add power to places that had no power.
And sometimes it will allow you to be jumped by a giant robot dog.
So we can see here the robot dog is a little bit of a miniboss for the purposes of this demo.
It's much more aggressive than the other enemies we fought, deals a lot more damage.
But you can see it also has a weakness.
If we punch it right in its robot eye
when it's leaping at us we can actually interrupt it and score a follow up attack of our own.
Be careful.
So now that we have him taken care of we can explore the warehouse a little bit more.
Maybe he'll be friends. Oh I guess not. Guess he doesn't want to be friends.
Something that's really important to us is that all of our enemies have purpose in the world.
You can see that these guys have a heavier rig, they have these forklift weapons.
They really fit in the area that they're found. They're kind of like these mover-loader employees
but the way they yell and attack you shows that there's something still a bit wrong with them.
Up here's an exo lift let me try that out. Or we will not.
We will deal with our friend here, and then we'll use the exo-lift. Our two friends.
Alright, well done. Two for one.
So an exo-lift, it's the way that Warren can reach different vertical areas: can go higher or lower.
It functions very much like a ladder, but we think its cooler.
Now here's another overcharge station, the difference is that this one is a higher level.
Now, like I mentioned before, exploration is a major element of the game for us.
And you'll have a lot of reasons to explore the world of The Surge.
We see our levels as being pretty Metroidvanian in nature.
They're really interconnected and you'll find a lot of areas that you're not able to access until later in the game
until you have more power or different capabilities.
So when you find something that you're not able to open yet
it's a really good reason to backtrack later to fully explore.
A lot of times you'll find other encounters or rare loot.
Now that we've turned on the power to the warehouse here. We're able to go through this door that we've just opened.
Which seems to open up a shortcut back to the operations.
So that's a pretty good opportunity for us to craft some new gear with all these blueprints that we've gathered.
I think it is a scheduled break time, thank you.
So up ahead here is a med-bay.
This allows you to use your tech-scrap to power up your exo-rig. It heals you, of course.
And then here we have a crafting station, so let's use that.
Okay so we see the blueprints that we've acquired so far, we see the helmet, we see the staff
let's go ahead and make these things.
I made the staff, I made the loader weapon, and this is really the core gear loop for the game.
You cut off pieces from your enemies, you learn the blueprints, and you use these to craft new gear for yourself.
So let's go ahead and try on some of these things that we've crafted.
Security staff… loader weapons… that sweet new helmet that we got before.
And they also have this armour piece. Now this particular chest piece will illuminate in the darkness.
It casts these bright lights, it helps you to see, helps you to find enemies and find loot.
Other armours will do things like protect you from environmental hazards
so it's really important for you to experiment with different pieces of equipment
see what special effects they give
so that you know how to approach all the challenges of the world in the most effective way.
So like I said we can use tech scrap in the med-bay to level up our core power.
Looks like right now, yeah, we don't have enough to get a full level up yet
but that's okay because we've banked that tech scrap so we don't lose it when we die.
We also have the implants which I mentioned before.
So implants can have passive benefits and can also be active injectable's
which he's been using to recover his health when it's low.
But all implants use different amounts of core power.
So as you play the game you really have to balance the core power requirements in your total core power against
your personal gameplay style and the effects that you think are most important.
So we're going to head out and try some of these new toys that we’ve made.
Okay so this is the way we like to do cut-scenes in The Surge.
We don't like to take control away from your camera, you know, we make the cutscenes all part of the world.
What that means is you can either watch them or not, they're always going to occur around you
and whether you pay attention or not.
Sometimes we'll offer a context camera, so you can have a more cinematic view, but it's never required
it's always your choice.
And all of our different weapons, they have different move sets
different feels altogether, different finishing sequences.
Pretty brutal.
So as you get new weapons in The Surge you'll really want to test them out
see which ones feel best to you, which one is most effective in your own hands… it's really your choice.
You can see the loader weapon's a bit faster and more agile.
A little more combo-y. But also pretty brutal.
Okay so now that we're more comfortable with these new weapons
why don't we go back through the shortcut and see what's on the other side of things.
This looks pretty dangerous.
So I was talking before about the context camera.
This is what lets you have a more cinematic view as this angry boss robot gets up out of the rubble.
You can watch it if you want, you can also prepare for the boss-fight that's totally fine.
You can see he wanted to shoot you with the railgun.
Unfortunately for him it is malfunctioned so he's going to have to use a little bit more of a personal touch.
Sebastian is seeing that, we're not actually dealing damage to the boss' real health
but we are increasing the threat analysis meter.
So I guess we should figure out what happens when the threat analysis is full?
Maximum punitive measures.
Well of course, rockets, it's not very nice, that's what I do when I feel most threatened.
But we still haven't dealt any damage to its real health bar
so maybe, if we're careful, we can use those rockets against it somehow.
It's pretty close.
Alright, quick recovery here.
Ok, there we go. So now we force it to be hit by his own rockets
we're able to target its armor piece, knock it off and then, give it a good solid punch right in his robot brain
which has dealt some real damage. Now let's see if we can repeat this process for victory.
One thing to note, is that this is one way to defeat the boss, but it's certainly not the only way to defeat the boss.
And this easier method does not allow you to receive the most powerful loot.
So if you want the best things off the bosses, then you will have to fight them fair.
Show honor. Not really. This is not really a game about honor.
Threat analysis is almost full again, let's see what happens.
Knocked down, so let's see if we can get at this other armour piece.
Ok very nice. Boss defeated. Well done.
So that's The Surge, scheduled for release in 2017 on new gen consoles and PC
Once again I'm Adam Hetenyi, for Deck13 Interactive. Thanks for watching.