Dark Souls mega-fan here. Just want to say that your reviews on all the souls games have been completely fair from a pc gamer's perspective. Dark Souls 1 may be the worst console to pc port ever made, and Dark Souls 2 was almost just as bad from a control pov. Keep up the good work, Mack! But I am a Dark Souls fan, so I'm contractually obligated to say... *GIT GUD U FKKN CASUL SCRUBL0RD GO PLAY HELLO KITTY ISLAND ADVENTURE NOOO0B!!1!*
Yea but as PC gamers we should always be smart enough to understand the best way to experience a game, customizing controls, using 3rd party apps to get things working, buying peripherals. Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again: PC is not the kb/m platform, it is the use whatever you want platform and always has been.
Jae772012 What? As Pc gamers ... the best way to experience a game ... customizing controls ... using 3rd party apps to get things working. That is not the best way at all, that is unecessary work that devs should deal with saying that they advertised fluent kb&m controls.
I am a huge dark souls fan. But I think I speak for most of my fellow souls fans when I say the game genre is not for everyone. It is brutal, grindy, and frustrating. Dark Souls, Nioh, The Surge, Bloodborne, etc etc. They all require patience and attention to detail, and a lot of people have a problem getting immersed in that type or experience. Honestly it's that brutality that makes it fun, because the feeling of satisfaction or accomplishment when you really start making progress is just such a stellar feeling. I totally see where you are coming from, personally I use controllers a lot for third person games, but it is ignorant to say any pc game can't have good keyboard and mouse controls. This review was fair and I can respect where you are coming from. Keep doing you Mack.
I'm sure someone have informed about this in the comment--Yes when you die in "The Surge" you get "2:30" once leaving the Medbay to find your lost scrap-pool. However if you Kill enemies along the way the timer get refilled. Allowing to reach further off location in the event "2:30" is not enough to get to where you died.
Summary It's a fun game for a Souls like game but if you are not really up for grinding the same mobs over and over again with the fear that one lapse in concentration could get you killed (Trash mobs can 2 shot you) and when you die you have only 2 minutes to get back and reclaim your loot then stay away. As mentioned the controls on M+K are amazing, it literally blows DS3 out the water and the reason for this is that DS3 was totally designed for a controller so the M+K control was tripe. This game was designed for both controller and M+K so it's just so easy and way better on a mouse than it is on a controller imo. I think DS has a lot better mechanics that I wish were in this game such as the no loot timer and the save feature. DS also has more than 5 bosses and can be played in coop so it's kind of better in a few areas. If DS had this control system I would have thumbed it up for sure. I do think The Surge looks a lot better though. If you are a DS fan you should pick this up as it it is a brutal game, I would not say the combat is hard once you get yourself geared out to match your enemy but it is a frustrating grind getting your gear.
The areas look so samey and boring though. Who thought industrial complexes would be a good setting for a game was delirious (same with the new DOOM). Are there different looking areas or is everything just industry? I loved DS1 and Demon Souls, but the areas and mobs in this game don't seem different enough to hold my interest.
Bentley Roams I have just beaten the fourth boss and am nearly done with the game and only a few maybe 2, 3 or 4 areas were outside. The rest were all almost the same looking: inside, no sunlight, metal, grey, dark. Imo this is one of the worst settings of all games I have ever played. And the game definitely feels more like Lords of the Fallen than Dark Souls (devs who created LotF also created The Surge) but is multiple times harder than both of them.
thats my biggest halt in picking up this game...loved the Souls games and Bloodborne, so naturally The Surge came up on my radar, but one of the things i loved most about the Souls games was not knowing what could be around the next corner. Though i would rage quit many times, i would always come back just to see what crazy enemy it would throw at me next. The Surge seems to fail on that front BIG TIME! So while it does have that Souls difficulty I've grown to love, I cant imagine grinding through in hopes of making it to the next identical warehouse floor with another identical gang of goofs in exosuits waiting for me.
Mac, I love thjis review, I don't know how many times I ahve laughed at you desicribing how much you hate that dark souls doesnt have proper mouse and keyboard support. This and the subnautica review is bvy far the best ive seen from you. Keep it please!, would love to play with you sometime. I still laugh when i watch this review, but I still find it very well done. Keep up the good job mate.
I like this kind of mechanic. The risk of losing stuff adds tension, growing stronger is rewarding, the mechanic makes the explortion also have more tension. Objectively I agree, it is basically padding and grinding and doing the same stuff almost endlessly,.... but for some reason, it works for me. BTW I think you are extremely funny, and your reviews are on the mark. Keep up the good work.
"all missionary but no doggy" What an excellent quote to sum up this game, Mack. The asshurt dark souls barrel roll justice warriors will not be pleased with your comment. They're convinced that rolling is the best offensive/defensive mechanic "giggles" ever created in a video game
I hate it so fucking much that Dark Souls taught braindead devs that to create a hardcore game you need to be taken down ALWAYS IN 3 HITs (or less). What is the fucking point of wearing 10 tons worth of a titanium battlesuit then? And what is the point of progression if even the most basic mobs are always gonna be stronger than you? And yeah, these aren't bosses. These are ridiculously merciless platforming sequences, where every wrong move means death, and only one thousand correct moves in a row lead to victory. Fuck this shit.
The 2:30 time limit on getting your scrap isn't that bad at all considering you get an extra 30 seconds for every mob you kill. Also, I've completed the game now and excluding the last area which has a huge difficulty jump, I've never had to grind to get gear, you're always a good level for the mobs
it bring some humbleness to the "power fantasy addicts". I see the souls and Surge like marathon running. It's not difficult but it tests your stamina and determination, which I as a runner pretty much like.
rafaielw, i dont want to turn it into anything, its not my game. Im pointing out that the game mechanics and the game aesthetic dont match because they were borrowed from different sources. Also, just because something has shooting and is in 3rd person does not automatically mean it's generic; what you said is called a slippery-slope fallacy. Would you call for example DeadSpace generic?
Dresit34, Because there would be a security office, lasers, explosives, tools to create ranged weapons. But that was not really my point, my point is that this futuristic game has stone age combat mechanics because they were shoehorned into a setting chosen for looks rather than to fit the gameplay.
Ladderadder, :) yes the comparison to DeadSpace was not accidental. But anyways yea I think Dark Souls has a lot of depth in the combat because the weapons (and magics) are so different, and also the characters and the enemies have different speeds and resilience. Also Dark Souls structures the level in "rooms" where the challenge is often not to defeat one enemy, but the combination of enemies and element of surprise which is designed to challenge the players ability to come up with the right strategy, which is always different from the previous room and that makes the game addicting and fun. THe creators of this game know this about Dark Souls: it has melee combat with slow attacks, high damage, and it's supposed to be really hard. They copy the superficial elements of the work they imitate like people who copy anime and focus on the colorful hair. FROM software could make a game with all projectile weapons, or no weapons, it doesnt matter: their understanding of design and game dynamics is much more mature and thorough.
Hey Mac, you always talk about immersion. I think that through this you can understand why people like these games. If you have collected a lot of amazing loot, you don't want to die, right? That raises the tension and makes you do what you can to avoid loosing all the exp or loot. That is what I call immersion. Many games have gameplay ruined by the possibility to save anytime, even during the combat and trick the RNG for hit or for damage and so on. Thanks to this, you never fail in lock picking, pick pocketing and such. Low sense of achievement.You can always save-game-force your way through a boss in most games. Where is the sense of achievement by doing that? But I am a person who just can't resist when I have the option. So for me, system like this with no save (not the one that just respawns you like nothing happened) makes a lot of sense. Btw, talking about Dark Souls, I have played that one on PC, keyboard only. It was great. I looked at it as a part of the difficulty and gameplay. It was like learning to play a piano but soon became very natural.
i LITERALLY waited for this review of yours to come out so that i can know if this game was really worth a buy or not Mack. Thank you for being one of the few honest reviewers left on earth. I have NEVER played ANY of the dark souls games, and i have heard alot from people ive asked telling me that Surge was alot like Dark Souls, and Im a PC gamer who loves M/K over controller any day and the controls were one of the few things i was really worried about in this game becuz I bought for example witcher 3 for pc and i hated it not the storyline of the game but the controls of the game and i was terrified that this game would have bad controls and did not want to waste $50.00 dollars of my hard earned money and hope that steam would be nice enough to refund me. But thankfully I trust you
Cant tell if ur trolling, if u r i laughed, but if ur serious, im serious in everything i wrote. I did not like Witcher 3 for the poor controls, i did not like mass effect andromeda, i did not like metal gear solid, i didnt like the new assassin creeds, so YES i TRUST MACK becuz he and i seem to have similar taste. I dont watch Angry Joe so i can not comment on him, I have seen alot of the IGN reviews and I believe them to be a basis reviews as I do not agree with 78% of what they claim and Im sure they are getting payed to review them.
I don't think it's fair to put down the Dark Souls series so much in this video. I personally beat all three on PC just fine, it just took some getting used to. I agree that it should be fixed, but it isn't fair to continuously say a game is bad simply because the controls aren't perfect. If that was the case, then I can think of a dozen games that are excellent that I could deem a 'bad game' simply because the controls weren't perfect. As a side note, coming from a Souls fan, I'd like to point out a few little things you said. 1) The lack of a save system is so important in a game like this. If you could just save every 10 steps then reboot that save each time you die, well, there are two big problems. the first being that the difficulty of the game (it's main gimmick) would go right out the window. The second thing is that the player would lose the respect for the danger of the game, especially the bosses. If the player never took risk vs reward into account, then the game would suddenly become a lot less interesting, and in turn, a lot less immersive. So when you state you can't think of one good thing that brings to the table, I can, immersion and a sense of risk vs. reward, two very important things when it comes to a game. 2) You also state that Dark Souls doesn't look as good because it's depressing. In the end, I'd say both are very gorgeous games, but in very different ways. I agree that Dark Souls is grey and depressing, but that's the idea, it's part of the story. I mean, if it were colorful all the time it wouldn't feel like the end of the world; since it is a tale about the ending of worlds, it should look that way. Ton aside, Dark Souls, especially the third one, are gorgeous games with amazing art design and an excellent sense of detail. Like I said The Surge definitely has a certain beauty to it because of its color, but that doesn't mean Dark Souls isn't pretty because of its lack of color. Both games are beautiful in their own ways. 3) I don't understand the issue you have with the rolling. It's not a game's job to be realistic. The roll is a very important part of the mechanics of a Souls game, and without it, the combat would feel very clunky, awkward, and likely not function at all. I'd much rather sacrifice some realism for a nice flow to the combat as opposed to being stuck blocking and pacing in the name of what makes the most sense in a real combat situation. I will agree that the spam rolling is annoying, but its a small price to pay, especially considering it's only a problem during PvP which can easily be entire avoided, for a combat system that's nice and smooth. 4)This isn't about Dark Souls, but this type of game in general. I'm just saying that in many cases, you don't need to grind if you have the skills. Of course, that goes to say you need to practice first, but, like in my case, I played through all of Dark Souls 2 with little to no grinding because I just sort of figured it out. Please don't take that personally, I'm not calling you a noob or anything. 5) Finally, this point is sort of related to four, you could say the same for just about any game when it comes to the repetitiveness. In fact, that's a really common argument for those who don't like games. For example, I'll take my two very favorite games, Half-Life 2 and Bloodborne. One is a shooter, the other is a third-person hack-n-slash souls game, both are amazing games. However, I can say that both of them are 'too repetitive.' In HL2 you basically spend the whole game moving through linear maps shooting at the combine or zombies or antlions. That's pretty much the whole game, right? In Bloodborne you spend the whole game wandering around a maze of a map quick-stepping and hacking at various monsters and the occasional boss. If you look at it that way both seems extremely repetitive. But there is so much more to both of those games, subtleties and the like. Just thought I'd bring a well-though and intelligent discussion to you from the vast see of morons spewing nonsense in your comment section. I'm not saying you're wrong for not liking souls games, like this one, but I thought I'd just discuss some of what you said that I don't totally agree with. Anyway, love your content and reviews, keep it up, can't wait to see the next game that's worth a buy.
1) Remember save points in older games?that could really work here. 2) I can agree with this dark souls is supposed to look eroded and depressing. That's the story. But even then it simply doesn't look good enough. 3) Rolling is stupid, it looks stupid and if you've ever watched of been in fights you know you have to be a head case to think of rolling as a viable option. In witcher 3 you can just press space bar and geralt can roll out miles away from the fights,why not just leave it at the dodge he does by pressing alt which looks and works fine. rolling is bad because there are far better alternatives. It might not be a game's job to be completely realistic,but it should atleast try to look believeable. 4) Grinding gives you an advantage here and you feel like you have to do it to not get one/two shotted which is stupid in these types of games. You don't have to grind in dark souls 2 because you can just get the overpowered wooden club and once you've figured out every boss fight can be won using the same pattern its not any fun at all. 5) Every game can be said to be repetitive in some way,but if its fun it can be excused,but if it isnt people will notice that more. Its not an intention of the developers to make a repetitive,it's a limitation since in my opinion.
+Family Physician 1.: No, that couldn't really work here. Bonfires are amazing and a lot better than just a fucking save point. 2.: How fucking high is your standard for good looking games?! Dark Souls is beautiful. Do you really want to just say that everything is bad.. Why are you in denial? 3.: It's not completely realistic.. Like this would make a game worse. It doesn't impact gameplay in a bad way so get out with realism. No one cares as long as it makes the game better. 4.: Grinding gives you an advantage. What a surprise. Do you have to do it? No, I didn't do it either. If you feel like you have to, whose fault is that? Yours. Dark Souls 2 is the worst of the trilogy. Both from looks and gameplay but it's easily arguable that you don't kill all the bosses in the same way. That's like saying. "You kill the mobs in Borderlands 2 by shooting at them.. lol it's all the same and boring". 5.: This point of yours is as relative as anything you say. If it's repetitive for you then don't play it. Just stop pretending like you know better than people who actually played the games. What you list here is relative bullshit and doesn't make a game bad. It's just that you don't like the game. Once you get over yourself and accept that you can dislike a game without it being bad you can live a better life. Otherwise we can argue for weeks that for you it's repetitive and for me it's not.
Family Physician every single one of your points are wrong and sound really ridiculous. You sound like someone who doesn't like the series and whos trying to sound like you know something about it in order to make the game sound bad. Nobody who understands dark souls is going to buy your bullshit though.
I love your reviews, but I especially liked this one. The things you said particularly within the first 5-8-ish min. or so, man I've been waiting for someone to say something along those lines for a long time. You're so spot on, buddy. Lol. I just love it. :)
I think though there was a moment in time where I liked it, only because I was getting older, my body getting sick of sitting down, and the idea that you could pick up a controller and simply breeze through a game was definitely appealing. I managed to beat Fable 3 without dying on my first time playing it. How? Well, I noticed very quickly that Fireball didn't require any skill to use, you could spam the field with balls of fire just as the enemies spawn. And the skill gets stronger the more you use it. So, I basically did the entire fireball, roll shit to death. Nothing could stop me, and I never felt the game was difficult. Playing a slightly bad character made the game dead easy, and I claim the game is easily beatable in like an hour or so. But, that is the thing, it's a bad game, yet I enjoyed it at the time, that's the problem. Console gaming has essentially destroyed gaming for everyone, we're all lazy fucks these days.
When you die and you only have a few minutes to get to your stuff, killing enemies extends.. You can keep extending the time for as long as you are killing enemies.
Grinding mobs for 45 minutes and then dying by running blind into a new area? Yeah. Risk and reward I guess. Push on further and risk losing your loot or retreat to the nearest hub. I like my actions to be of consequence (in some games), I can F5/F9 in Prey as much as I want and remove all difficulty and the permanence of my choices.
Yeah I'm the same. Don't always have the time to complete a level in one sitting these days. With Dark Souls you get pretty familiar with certain areas between one bonfire and the next, you level up and learn enemy placements so you can progress further more quickly when you return to play. I think these souls-like games do involve a lot of grind and a lack of perceived progress from the player. I saw another review which said that you're better off running past certain enemies in The Surge to get to the next area because each enemy is much tougher than the shitty mobs you fight in between bosses in Dark Souls. The save system seems like an inherent problem with the souls-like formula, an ability to save and reload at any time would remove much of the difficulty.
I haven't tried DS with m/k. I know you can rebind the keys though and the default bindings don't work well. I think an analog stick makes movement much more precise in these games though. I don't think a game should be thumbed down because the method of input you want to use doesn't work the way you want it to, I could prefer to play with a flight stick and complain that the game is bad for not supporting it. What about the DS m/k controls are bad besides the bindings?
Francisco I did not complain about it over and over again, I mentioned it once, I also said that if you like this mechanic then buy the game because it's great. Care to comment?
so by your logic then it get old when he reviews a shooter and says he shot something or talking about shooting something right? if your a fair person otherwise your just biased and not self aware
I really enjoy your reviews mack. I would have liked to hear more in depth about why the controls were better in this game then in DS. As well it is clear that you didn't pass the 2nd level i really wish you would give more games a complete play through before doing a final review. I understand there is a deadline for making reviews and getting them out as a media creator but i really think it would add to the quality of your videos. Its kind of like watching a movie only half way thru and giving your side... can i be a troll for two seconds tho... you should change this title to The Surge - Is it worth 5 hours... :) just busting your chops tho keep up the great work.
This is not a review hence it does not say review in the title, this is a worth a buy video where I test the game and see if I think it's worth £40 and I think that my conclusion is correct which is if you like these mechanics then it's great fun, if you don't then it's not worth a buy. the game plays well and the controls are better than DS because they actually work smoothly and rebind easily.
Yes i did appreciate and took notice of that part of the video, suggesting the game for different players. I do really enjoy your videos and value your opinion although at times it is different from mine, as likes and dislikes vary for many players. I agree that many games are priced to high but companies know people will buy anything if it is marketed correctly. Anyway i'm surprised you commented back so quickly but thank you for doing so. Again i really enjoy your channel and thank you for sharing!
Hey Mack, if you think losing 45 mins of grinding because of a game design, is bad. There is a popular game called Steel Battalion (the original with the massive controller on the first Xbox). Have you played it? This game would delete your save file if you died once! I have a 30 hour campaign and have completed the game around 4-5 times, but there is always a new difficultly level to play, once completed! I haven't played it for years, so with my lose of skill, I don't want to risk playing again just in case I lose all of my progression!
Maybe actually learn a game before commenting on it:1 - You NEVER lose loot that you have picked up, only scraps. Any gear is yours forever2 - You get 2.5 minutes to get your scraps back and 30 seconds is added for EVERY enemy killed. The only way you'd lose scraps is if you really decided to3 - You can install up to 16 implants
I agree that DS1 and DS2 you have to get gamepad, but if you like surge on mouse and kayboard DS3 is also great in fact i was powerless to fight Medir (on game pad i got him to 60% max ?, and on M&K it took 10-15 tries) :)
The fact your loot disapears after a set time after you die is too far. I don't mind it in Souls, the reason it's good in Souls is the tension it builds, it makes you not want to die, it makes you plan, it makes you make calculated risks. That for me is good and instead of just hack and slashing though autosaving checkpoints with very little death penalty, I like the tension, I like that everything is a risk and that mistakes are punished.
Oh I do sincerely hope you review Impact Winter when it comes out Mack. It looks like a particular crowd will enjoy it, but the gameplay doesn't look bad.
I only played this long after it came out and I really enjoyed it, very surprised. Level design team are on point although the variety of levels designs is limited given the setting. The Surge 2 is even better.
I saw a video couple of days ago, in it there is a boxing or MMA kind of match where one participant is actually using rolling technique 2x as I remember but the point is that he used it in a completely justified manner due to the situation :D or at least he managed to gain distance since everybody was laughing lol
I think the point of losing everything is to make the player have to choose to fight or retreat.... but being unable to retreat from a boss fight really defeats the purpose of this thought process. So I totally agree with mac and love that the game respects the PC controls!
I really like this guy`s channel and his opinions on today's gaming industry, but saying that this game is better than dark souls is just outrageous and i`m not even a dark souls fan.
As a Dark Souls head I can say this one is a pretty nice game, interesant setting, plays quite differently from any souls game, pretty well tho... And btw. Dont listen to this guy in this video he sounds casul... For a dude that does reviews of games... Not mentioning the overall quality of this review itself
Why I love worth a buy: generic reviewer: cons: gets repetitive. Worth a buy: this game is for people who just like to do missionary position every time they have sex
I like your videos. the point is not difficulty but the feeling of achievement and fear of dying. Souls games provide with good experiences regarding those. they are not that difficult anyway.
I get where you're coming from with the Dark Souls mouse and keyboard thing. It's not that the Controller is on par with playing with M+K, but because it's on PC it should be a viable option. the same way you can play an FPS on PC with a controller, even though it might be better with the M+K, the controller is viable.
Hey that review is the best W3 was spot on, I was the only reviewer that pulled it up about the clunky controls which is why i thumbed it down. I got hammered for doing it yet 3 months later the devs released a huge patch to attempt to fix the clunky controls, so if the game was fine why release a big fix? People forget that I said TW3 has a great story, great characters, great world but horrible combat and control, but if you don't mind the control issues you should buy it. So like I said, my review was the most accurate I have ever seen and I have since read/watched most of them.
Don't get me wrong, I like a harsh critic. Yes I enjoyed the Witcher 3, but I also felt your criticism was valid. Fanboys are ruining the game industry, and having someone like you to shake things up in these days of bought and paid for reviewers is just the tonic we need. Keep doing what you are doing mate!
I did a soul level 1 run of Dark Souls 3 and I played the "campaign" on M/KB as well (about 10 times). So it's doable Mac. Although I have to say that kicking and doing jump attack is so hard on M/KB
Mack doesn't like quicksave games that disappear in soulslike games but also will get on your case if you load a game in a turn based RPG after you lose one of your beloved characters.
Totally agree. I despise this type of game. When I read about taking limbs from opponents and being able to use them yourself, I thought, "That's an interesting idea." My interest was piqued and I went in search of some footage to see if indeed this was a game I would enjoy. Within about 5 minutes of the combat, after the intro wheelchair bit, I knew I would hate this game. The grinding of parts in an maze like map with mostly linear progress and unimaginative upgrades. Really, after all these years in gaming is their seriously no innovation to be had... Some people consider playing games a waste of time and life but I say spending time doing something you enjoy is never a waste of time. Running around for 45 minutes gathering loot and then losing it is a waste of time. A genuine waste of time. As you simply have to go back and do it all over again. So for people who enjoy that. You are not wasting your time and are having fun. But for me, it is a waste of time and I will avoid this game like the... the word I would use is so cliche I'll leave it blank and let whatever word comes into peoples minds be the word to use. Innovation right there and I didn't even try that hard! :D On a different note: Check out, Renowned explorers international society, if you haven't already Mack. It is an innovative game and has some genius to it. It's an old one I missed and can't believe I did because it's a gem. Thanks for all the videos Mack.
This game honestly looks like someone who looked at Dark Souls and came away with only one word: "hard". So we have the Surge, where the devs seemed to deliberately made the game like Dark Souls but one upping it in difficulty in all the wrong ways. DS was never about being difficult, it was simply challenging because it had actual mechanics. Taking control away from the player to make it harder (move queuing) is pretty insane.
Christ, listening to this was a blast from the past - it's me from years and years ago moaning that dark souls is too hard, why does Crawl have to have permadeath etc etc. That was back then, though, when I had this bizarre mentality that all games had to be designed to my preferences. After I'd grown out of this mentality I found I was able to enjoy a much wider range of different kinds of games, including, thankfully, Crawl and Dark Souls. Another interesting side effect of losing this mentality was that I learned to accept how a game was designed and adapt myself to match it, rather than the other way around. With the exception of inverting the Y, I very rarely go into options to adjust controls anymore, preferring instead to adapt to whatever the designers of the game have judged to be the way to play their creation. I like the increased flexibility this has afforded me whenever I approach a new game now. Anyway, these were just some random musings, make of them what you will.
While I agree with most of what you say, I also agree with Mack on Dark Souls control scheme. Its very bad. I remember I had to buy a controller just to play the game, otherwise I could not even get out of the tutorial. Now we have Control (the game) thei key bindings are weird but acceptable, and you can bind them. Bind 1/2 to another slots for more comfortable use. BAM perfect. To sum up: The developer normally knows best when it comes to key bindings, however, the option of choice is always appealing and should not by any mean be removed
there is a video of a UFC fight i think where someone does roll away from an opponent twice but i think that is the only time it has ever happened, also love the review i love this game i am enjoying it a lot and while you didnt you were balanced to recommended it to some people
1> Get a Controller 2> Load Dark Souls 3> No stream , no distractions ..Just imerse yourself into the world 4> Play untill you beaten the Second boss 5> Congratulations now you understand the souls games Edit: i was a PC gamer,didn't know how to hold controller...i beat the game with one
Sadly in this age remaking the same movies, repeating the same 3sec melody or rhythm for making a whole music is the way Even wen I'm cool with a no save option for the fear of the death still the repeating content is not acceptable ! Ty for the review and the heads up, I was close to buy it bcs of the starter cut scene of this game
I'm shocked to here Mack say it's not a game for him instead of shitting on it saying it's awful. I came prepared to hit the dislike button. Now I'm lost and confused
Both would've meant the same thing anyways, it's whether you're silly enough to think one wasn't meant to be his opinion, or silly enough to get offended by him thinking it's awful. It really annoys me that people need to be disclosed with "in my opinion.." and that somehow makes his opinion more agreeable. Well I like the old Mack who told it like he saw it and didn't have to disclose every sentence with "In my opinion" and "not for me, but might for some" and other trivial obvious shit like that because it was always common sense that it was his opinion. It's just unnecessary, and it cuts into his comedic style, imo.
I guess i am some sort of anomaly because i only use K & M for all three souls games i own on steam. All i need to do is remember my parry, interact and use item keys. Personally i remember my keys anyways in all my games after being a long time wow player. I totally get why everyone is upset about the controller thing though, just sharing my experience!
if you Like Dark Souls , Bloodborne , then the Surge is a good version of those, if you don't like those type of games, then you probably won't like this. As a homage to those game's , this is actually quite decent,it works well, is different enough and the timed 'souls' drop add an extra tension. I recommend Mack plays Bloodborne, Nioh,Salt and Sanctuary and Sekiro for the hoot :). BTW Sekrio is the equivalent of a orgy at a over 50's nudist camp, if Dark Souls is the missionary position, you know you really shouldn't be doing it , but you can't stop doing it.
I know this is an older vid but i just found your channel and have been going through you vids, very impressed so far. But there is a way to quick load F8. Alot of PC games have this feature even thought the don't tell you Quick Save: F5, Quick Load: F8.
I agree with you,my thing with dark souls is that they have 3 games that are all the same and another title that is the same thing and people just eat it up.the only difference is the graphics look different. The core of all those games is the same run,swing your weapon, die and repeat until the game is over. It is great for the developer though no need to make new game mechanics just change graphics and people come running with money in one hand and their dick in the other.
Actually, I have played Dark Souls 3 with both mouse+keyboard and controller and I gotta say... Mouse and keyboard wins! Much tighter camera control, works great, honestly... I finished the game on PC 5 times and then I tried it on PS4... controller feels... well, it's not terrible, of course, but... there's no benefit over mouse and keyboard. Previous entries in the series are completely different story though... DS2 was playable on PC, but nowhere near as smooth as DS3 and DS1 completely shait. Gotta give The Surge a try :)
Mack, you're talking about the realism of rolling during combat in a game that has either dragons and magic or mech exosuits. Nothing about any of that is realistic. I also want to say (as a huge fan of Dark Souls) that your critisism of Dark Souls is fair. The game is listed on Steam with 'Keyboard and Mouse support', so the KBM controls should be just as polished and good as a controller. I think it's a trend with games that were ported to PC, the KBM support is an afterthought hastily tacked on. I played with a controller so I didn't deal with those issues, and that's why PC gaming is the best. You have options. Anyway that time mechanic on picking up your lost loot after you die is bullshit. The difficulty makes it tense when any mob is capable of killing you if you're careless, so you need to be careful and take your time. You can't be careful and take your time when you're on a time limit, which sounds fucking awful.
Being a Souls fan, it's easy to see why people would dislike the games - I'm certainly not one of those players who thinks Dark Souls is perfect because its far from it and it has always had many hiccups and brick walls that stops people from playing which is especially the case with Dark Souls 2 since that game is riddled with awful PVE design decisions which is what I mainly play Souls games for. But its also difficult to explain why I love it so much, I had a really tough time getting through Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1 on my first playthroughs and when I'm having a really rough time progressing in a game, I often just turn it off but yet there's something about them that keeps me engaged and enthralled despite getting my arse handed to me over and over - it's rock hard but its mostly fair and players can learn to deal with most situations without taking any damage and I love that in gaming, especially in a single player game amongst an environment filled with bullshit hitscan enemies. I mean if I've managed to replay the Souls games several times over and see myself doing many more then its definitely doing something very right in my eyes. The Surge to me is a joyous game to have because the more games we get in this emerging Souls-like genre, the better (especially since its actually on PC unlike other Souls-likes thank fuck). It's nice to have those new Souls experiences that play and feel differently enough to not feel like a total rehash of Dark Souls - Lords of the Fallen did that really well IMO and I enjoy the hell out of it for as many flaws as that game has and The Surge feels like a huge improvement on that formula (same devs). I do wish it had the persistent online interaction though, it didn't need to be PVP but it would have been nice to loot the exosuits of where players died like in Nier: Automata or have the option to activate a powerful rogue exo where a player died and fight it in a duel for phat loots like in Nioh but it's a shame stuff like that isn't there. But just to let you know Mack, Souls-like games are really only as grindy as you want them to be. Most Souls-like games I can think of allows you to beat everything in the game with the absolute bare minimum (Lords of the Fallen being one exception since that's very loot reliant and you need to upgrade levels to use powerful gear). Hell it's surprisingly easy to beat Dark Souls 1 without ever leveling up and its even possible to do it without upgrading gear which is important for most players (Levels = not that important, upgrading gear = pretty crucial). With patience, timing and the right strategy in mind while making sure your battles are isolated to 1v1s then you can totally blast through the levels without a single death but leveling up and gear upgrades certainly help if you go out of your way to grind.
@Christian Gamer - Indeed. @Lavendar 13 - I don't hate DS2 PVE, it has its moments with some enjoyable bosses but it's easily my least favourite thanks to the bland level design and boring humanoid enemy types. Plus there's areas like Black Gulch, Shrine of Amana and Undead Crypt which are just terrible imo. The Lost Crown trilogy was pretty dang good though even if they all have at least one dreadful section.
Agreed about losing your loot, it's frustrating as hell. Not a fan of the Dark Souls series, I like the challenge, but honestly having to go get all your loot again or re-fighting the same guys over again just isn't my kind of fun! i'm more of a RPG gamer like The Witcher, Elder Scrolls (can't wait to see the next one) and i hope Red Dead 2 comes to PC that game's going to be sweet!
you didn't fully explain 2 minutes mechanic. when you kill enemy the timer goes up about 20 seconds. so it's risk & reward thingummy again you can either run past to where you died within 2 minutes or risk killing enemies and you will have enough time. ( they also show the distance you are from the place you died) I have seen timer go upto 3:50 minutes in some of the lets plays.
It's Go-Go Not Cry-Cry :P This game is a gem. Combat is awesome. If you like Dark Souls you will like this too. Lorewise not much going on and sadly no Soulslike invasion MP which might hurt it on the long run. But well worth full price and a mustbuy/try when it goes on sale or the price drops.
Why has no one made a souls style MMO? Seriously! It seems like the game play would spice up the genre and adding the competitive element of an MMO would give souls style games purpose instead of just get good to get good.
I used to be a pc gamer, but fuck then came wife and kids Sigh. The end of pc gaming days for me... So today i game on xbox,/ps4 or Nintendo... I do like it though. Cause after a long day at work coming home, doing errands for the wife. Move furnitures forth and back. Making dinner. Kicking kids to bed. Listen to the wife blah bla bla. Drug her out. Then finally do i have 30 min to game... Then i wanna sit in my couch with a cold beer😄 and just plug in a game that "works" no bullshit with oh update this and that driver etc etc etc or upgrade hardware....I do miss the good old days on the pc, cause that format has the best games imo... Just don't have the time anymore....but it is always good to watch your videos Mack... I get a laugh when you dizz or slams the consoles...i don't get Butt hurt. Cause i used to play pc when i had time...now i just want the Damn thing to bloody work when i have a little time.. So consoles yay... Keep doing what you do Mack. It puts a smile on my face. Cheers.😉
You can sit on a couch with a cold beer and play on PC. There is nothing stopping you. And you dont have to update drivers RIGHT NOW. You can play your game and update everything after that. Consoles have updates too.
Doom Maker True true. But i aint got time to worry about hardware specs... The little time i have on hand i just want my game to work... And they always work on my console. Though the console do not have many games i like, cause it is always PEW PEW cutscene cutscene.... I have a few i do enjoy though. Subnautica. Elite dangerous. Skyrim and Fallout and Now Astroneer... I do miss old RTS games like red Alert etc etc like pc had... Maybe when the kids gets older and i kick the wife out, i can get some more me time, and start pc gaming again. Miss my old operation flashpoint games, think they are called Arma now😊 but yeah it comes down to choice and how much time u want to put in to it, or in my case can put in to it ofc😉
Andy Clifft indeed it is... Will perhaps go back to Pc when kids gets older... Miss my old red Alert games hehe😄 which is something the console really lacks... RTS games...😉
Andy Clifft indeed sir. Oh and Mack do put a smile on my face hehe...Anywho, right now consoles is the thing i have the best time for... Am looking forward to get back on pc one day, when i get some more me time... Cause i do miss it though😄 Thx for chat brother.
The "simon says" analogy applies to all games since they are all governed by mechanics - one effect necessitates a specific cause. If you would be criticizing this game for exhibiting such characteristic then you would be undermining the entire medium; a position that has to be realized when one isn't narrow-minded.
Dark Souls mega-fan here. Just want to say that your reviews on all the souls games have been completely fair from a pc gamer's perspective. Dark Souls 1 may be the worst console to pc port ever made, and Dark Souls 2 was almost just as bad from a control pov. Keep up the good work, Mack!
But I am a Dark Souls fan, so I'm contractually obligated to say...
*GIT GUD U FKKN CASUL SCRUBL0RD GO PLAY HELLO KITTY ISLAND ADVENTURE NOOO0B!!1!*
+Thumprsbro
Same here. Own all 3 games with all dlcs on the pc and the controls are wank on kb + mouse
ur a mega fan! i doubt it
Yea but as PC gamers we should always be smart enough to understand the best way to experience a game, customizing controls, using 3rd party apps to get things working, buying peripherals.
Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again: PC is not the kb/m platform, it is the use whatever you want platform and always has been.
dark souls 1 isn't even close to the worst console to pc port ever made, that's the sad part....
Jae772012 What? As Pc gamers ... the best way to experience a game ... customizing controls ... using 3rd party apps to get things working. That is not the best way at all, that is unecessary work that devs should deal with saying that they advertised fluent kb&m controls.
I am a huge dark souls fan. But I think I speak for most of my fellow souls fans when I say the game genre is not for everyone. It is brutal, grindy, and frustrating. Dark Souls, Nioh, The Surge, Bloodborne, etc etc. They all require patience and attention to detail, and a lot of people have a problem getting immersed in that type or experience. Honestly it's that brutality that makes it fun, because the feeling of satisfaction or accomplishment when you really start making progress is just such a stellar feeling. I totally see where you are coming from, personally I use controllers a lot for third person games, but it is ignorant to say any pc game can't have good keyboard and mouse controls. This review was fair and I can respect where you are coming from. Keep doing you Mack.
I'm sure someone have informed about this in the comment--Yes when you die in "The Surge" you get "2:30" once leaving the Medbay to find your lost scrap-pool. However if you Kill enemies along the way the timer get refilled. Allowing to reach further off location in the event "2:30" is not enough to get to where you died.
Kaegan Thornhill i
stack that timer up to 7:30 and you get double scrap
Summary
It's a fun game for a Souls like game but if you are not really up for grinding the same mobs over and over again with the fear that one lapse in concentration could get you killed (Trash mobs can 2 shot you) and when you die you have only 2 minutes to get back and reclaim your loot then stay away.
As mentioned the controls on M+K are amazing, it literally blows DS3 out the water and the reason for this is that DS3 was totally designed for a controller so the M+K control was tripe. This game was designed for both controller and M+K so it's just so easy and way better on a mouse than it is on a controller imo.
I think DS has a lot better mechanics that I wish were in this game such as the no loot timer and the save feature. DS also has more than 5 bosses and can be played in coop so it's kind of better in a few areas. If DS had this control system I would have thumbed it up for sure. I do think The Surge looks a lot better though.
If you are a DS fan you should pick this up as it it is a brutal game, I would not say the combat is hard once you get yourself geared out to match your enemy but it is a frustrating grind getting your gear.
The areas look so samey and boring though. Who thought industrial complexes would be a good setting for a game was delirious (same with the new DOOM). Are there different looking areas or is everything just industry? I loved DS1 and Demon Souls, but the areas and mobs in this game don't seem different enough to hold my interest.
Bentley Roams
I have just beaten the fourth boss and am nearly done with the game and only a few maybe 2, 3 or 4 areas were outside. The rest were all almost the same looking: inside, no sunlight, metal, grey, dark. Imo this is one of the worst settings of all games I have ever played.
And the game definitely feels more like Lords of the Fallen than Dark Souls (devs who created LotF also created The Surge) but is multiple times harder than both of them.
thats my biggest halt in picking up this game...loved the Souls games and Bloodborne, so naturally The Surge came up on my radar, but one of the things i loved most about the Souls games was not knowing what could be around the next corner. Though i would rage quit many times, i would always come back just to see what crazy enemy it would throw at me next. The Surge seems to fail on that front BIG TIME! So while it does have that Souls difficulty I've grown to love, I cant imagine grinding through in hopes of making it to the next identical warehouse floor with another identical gang of goofs in exosuits waiting for me.
Mac, I love thjis review, I don't know how many times I ahve laughed at you desicribing how much you hate that dark souls doesnt have proper mouse and keyboard support. This and the subnautica review is bvy far the best ive seen from you. Keep it please!, would love to play with you sometime. I still laugh when i watch this review, but I still find it very well done. Keep up the good job mate.
"Rolling along the floor like a prick."
I like this kind of mechanic. The risk of losing stuff adds tension, growing stronger is rewarding, the mechanic makes the explortion also have more tension. Objectively I agree, it is basically padding and grinding and doing the same stuff almost endlessly,.... but for some reason, it works for me.
BTW I think you are extremely funny, and your reviews are on the mark. Keep up the good work.
I cry every single time the outro music starts. Its so perfect, and I watched the stream where he made it. I would download it!
"all missionary but no doggy" What an excellent quote to sum up this game, Mack. The asshurt dark souls barrel roll justice warriors will not be pleased with your comment. They're convinced that rolling is the best offensive/defensive mechanic "giggles" ever created in a video game
I hate it so fucking much that Dark Souls taught braindead devs that to create a hardcore game you need to be taken down ALWAYS IN 3 HITs (or less). What is the fucking point of wearing 10 tons worth of a titanium battlesuit then? And what is the point of progression if even the most basic mobs are always gonna be stronger than you? And yeah, these aren't bosses. These are ridiculously merciless platforming sequences, where every wrong move means death, and only one thousand correct moves in a row lead to victory. Fuck this shit.
The 2:30 time limit on getting your scrap isn't that bad at all considering you get an extra 30 seconds for every mob you kill. Also, I've completed the game now and excluding the last area which has a huge difficulty jump, I've never had to grind to get gear, you're always a good level for the mobs
it bring some humbleness to the "power fantasy addicts". I see the souls and Surge like marathon running. It's not difficult but it tests your stamina and determination, which I as a runner pretty much like.
I have a question. IF it's supposed to be a technologically advanced setting, WHY HAVEN"T THEY INVENTED PROJECTILE WEAPONS
So you wanna turn this into a generic 3rd person shooter?...sounds like FUN!
rafaielw, i dont want to turn it into anything, its not my game. Im pointing out that the game mechanics and the game aesthetic dont match because they were borrowed from different sources. Also, just because something has shooting and is in 3rd person does not automatically mean it's generic; what you said is called a slippery-slope fallacy. Would you call for example DeadSpace generic?
Dresit34, Because there would be a security office, lasers, explosives, tools to create ranged weapons. But that was not really my point, my point is that this futuristic game has stone age combat mechanics because they were shoehorned into a setting chosen for looks rather than to fit the gameplay.
Ladderadder, :) yes the comparison to DeadSpace was not accidental. But anyways yea I think Dark Souls has a lot of depth in the combat because the weapons (and magics) are so different, and also the characters and the enemies have different speeds and resilience. Also Dark Souls structures the level in "rooms" where the challenge is often not to defeat one enemy, but the combination of enemies and element of surprise which is designed to challenge the players ability to come up with the right strategy, which is always different from the previous room and that makes the game addicting and fun. THe creators of this game know this about Dark Souls: it has melee combat with slow attacks, high damage, and it's supposed to be really hard. They copy the superficial elements of the work they imitate like people who copy anime and focus on the colorful hair. FROM software could make a game with all projectile weapons, or no weapons, it doesnt matter: their understanding of design and game dynamics is much more mature and thorough.
Hey Mac, you always talk about immersion. I think that through this you can understand why people like these games. If you have collected a lot of amazing loot, you don't want to die, right? That raises the tension and makes you do what you can to avoid loosing all the exp or loot. That is what I call immersion. Many games have gameplay ruined by the possibility to save anytime, even during the combat and trick the RNG for hit or for damage and so on. Thanks to this, you never fail in lock picking, pick pocketing and such. Low sense of achievement.You can always save-game-force your way through a boss in most games. Where is the sense of achievement by doing that? But I am a person who just can't resist when I have the option. So for me, system like this with no save (not the one that just respawns you like nothing happened) makes a lot of sense. Btw, talking about Dark Souls, I have played that one on PC, keyboard only. It was great. I looked at it as a part of the difficulty and gameplay. It was like learning to play a piano but soon became very natural.
i LITERALLY waited for this review of yours to come out so that i can know if this game was really worth a buy or not Mack. Thank you for being one of the few honest reviewers left on earth. I have NEVER played ANY of the dark souls games, and i have heard alot from people ive asked telling me that Surge was alot like Dark Souls, and Im a PC gamer who loves M/K over controller any day and the controls were one of the few things i was really worried about in this game becuz I bought for example witcher 3 for pc and i hated it not the storyline of the game but the controls of the game and i was terrified that this game would have bad controls and did not want to waste $50.00 dollars of my hard earned money and hope that steam would be nice enough to refund me. But thankfully I trust you
Cant tell if ur trolling, if u r i laughed, but if ur serious, im serious in everything i wrote. I did not like Witcher 3 for the poor controls, i did not like mass effect andromeda, i did not like metal gear solid, i didnt like the new assassin creeds, so YES i TRUST MACK becuz he and i seem to have similar taste. I dont watch Angry Joe so i can not comment on him, I have seen alot of the IGN reviews and I believe them to be a basis reviews as I do not agree with 78% of what they claim and Im sure they are getting payed to review them.
that missionary analogy lmao
I don't think it's fair to put down the Dark Souls series so much in this video. I personally beat all three on PC just fine, it just took some getting used to. I agree that it should be fixed, but it isn't fair to continuously say a game is bad simply because the controls aren't perfect. If that was the case, then I can think of a dozen games that are excellent that I could deem a 'bad game' simply because the controls weren't perfect. As a side note, coming from a Souls fan, I'd like to point out a few little things you said.
1) The lack of a save system is so important in a game like this. If you could just save every 10 steps then reboot that save each time you die, well, there are two big problems. the first being that the difficulty of the game (it's main gimmick) would go right out the window. The second thing is that the player would lose the respect for the danger of the game, especially the bosses. If the player never took risk vs reward into account, then the game would suddenly become a lot less interesting, and in turn, a lot less immersive. So when you state you can't think of one good thing that brings to the table, I can, immersion and a sense of risk vs. reward, two very important things when it comes to a game.
2) You also state that Dark Souls doesn't look as good because it's depressing. In the end, I'd say both are very gorgeous games, but in very different ways. I agree that Dark Souls is grey and depressing, but that's the idea, it's part of the story. I mean, if it were colorful all the time it wouldn't feel like the end of the world; since it is a tale about the ending of worlds, it should look that way. Ton aside, Dark Souls, especially the third one, are gorgeous games with amazing art design and an excellent sense of detail. Like I said The Surge definitely has a certain beauty to it because of its color, but that doesn't mean Dark Souls isn't pretty because of its lack of color. Both games are beautiful in their own ways.
3) I don't understand the issue you have with the rolling. It's not a game's job to be realistic. The roll is a very important part of the mechanics of a Souls game, and without it, the combat would feel very clunky, awkward, and likely not function at all. I'd much rather sacrifice some realism for a nice flow to the combat as opposed to being stuck blocking and pacing in the name of what makes the most sense in a real combat situation. I will agree that the spam rolling is annoying, but its a small price to pay, especially considering it's only a problem during PvP which can easily be entire avoided, for a combat system that's nice and smooth.
4)This isn't about Dark Souls, but this type of game in general. I'm just saying that in many cases, you don't need to grind if you have the skills. Of course, that goes to say you need to practice first, but, like in my case, I played through all of Dark Souls 2 with little to no grinding because I just sort of figured it out. Please don't take that personally, I'm not calling you a noob or anything.
5) Finally, this point is sort of related to four, you could say the same for just about any game when it comes to the repetitiveness. In fact, that's a really common argument for those who don't like games. For example, I'll take my two very favorite games, Half-Life 2 and Bloodborne. One is a shooter, the other is a third-person hack-n-slash souls game, both are amazing games. However, I can say that both of them are 'too repetitive.' In HL2 you basically spend the whole game moving through linear maps shooting at the combine or zombies or antlions. That's pretty much the whole game, right? In Bloodborne you spend the whole game wandering around a maze of a map quick-stepping and hacking at various monsters and the occasional boss. If you look at it that way both seems extremely repetitive. But there is so much more to both of those games, subtleties and the like.
Just thought I'd bring a well-though and intelligent discussion to you from the vast see of morons spewing nonsense in your comment section. I'm not saying you're wrong for not liking souls games, like this one, but I thought I'd just discuss some of what you said that I don't totally agree with. Anyway, love your content and reviews, keep it up, can't wait to see the next game that's worth a buy.
1) Remember save points in older games?that could really work here.
2) I can agree with this dark souls is supposed to look eroded and depressing. That's the story. But even then it simply doesn't look good enough.
3) Rolling is stupid, it looks stupid and if you've ever watched of been in fights you know you have to be a head case to think of rolling as a viable option. In witcher 3 you can just press space bar and geralt can roll out miles away from the fights,why not just leave it at the dodge he does by pressing alt which looks and works fine. rolling is bad because there are far better alternatives. It might not be a game's job to be completely realistic,but it should atleast try to look believeable.
4) Grinding gives you an advantage here and you feel like you have to do it to not get one/two shotted which is stupid in these types of games. You don't have to grind in dark souls 2 because you can just get the overpowered wooden club and once you've figured out every boss fight can be won using the same pattern its not any fun at all.
5) Every game can be said to be repetitive in some way,but if its fun it can be excused,but if it isnt people will notice that more. Its not an intention of the developers to make a repetitive,it's a limitation since in my opinion.
+Family Physician
1.: No, that couldn't really work here. Bonfires are amazing and a lot better than just a fucking save point.
2.: How fucking high is your standard for good looking games?! Dark Souls is beautiful. Do you really want to just say that everything is bad.. Why are you in denial?
3.: It's not completely realistic.. Like this would make a game worse. It doesn't impact gameplay in a bad way so get out with realism. No one cares as long as it makes the game better.
4.: Grinding gives you an advantage. What a surprise. Do you have to do it? No, I didn't do it either. If you feel like you have to, whose fault is that? Yours. Dark Souls 2 is the worst of the trilogy. Both from looks and gameplay but it's easily arguable that you don't kill all the bosses in the same way. That's like saying. "You kill the mobs in Borderlands 2 by shooting at them.. lol it's all the same and boring".
5.: This point of yours is as relative as anything you say. If it's repetitive for you then don't play it. Just stop pretending like you know better than people who actually played the games. What you list here is relative bullshit and doesn't make a game bad. It's just that you don't like the game. Once you get over yourself and accept that you can dislike a game without it being bad you can live a better life. Otherwise we can argue for weeks that for you it's repetitive and for me it's not.
I did not put DS down all the time, I also said it had better features than this game, the saves for example and the lack of a timer when you die.
Family Physician every single one of your points are wrong and sound really ridiculous. You sound like someone who doesn't like the series and whos trying to sound like you know something about it in order to make the game sound bad. Nobody who understands dark souls is going to buy your bullshit though.
+Family “2ScoopsForYouLightWeights” Physician you're a fucking idiot lol
I love your reviews, but I especially liked this one. The things you said particularly within the first 5-8-ish min. or so, man I've been waiting for someone to say something along those lines for a long time. You're so spot on, buddy. Lol. I just love it. :)
Rolling around on the floor in Fable 3 made you essentially invulnerable against pretty much everything.
I hate this trend of games where you roll, hack, roll, roll, hack, roll. You seem like freaking Sonic rolling around!
I think though there was a moment in time where I liked it, only because I was getting older, my body getting sick of sitting down, and the idea that you could pick up a controller and simply breeze through a game was definitely appealing. I managed to beat Fable 3 without dying on my first time playing it. How? Well, I noticed very quickly that Fireball didn't require any skill to use, you could spam the field with balls of fire just as the enemies spawn. And the skill gets stronger the more you use it. So, I basically did the entire fireball, roll shit to death. Nothing could stop me, and I never felt the game was difficult. Playing a slightly bad character made the game dead easy, and I claim the game is easily beatable in like an hour or so. But, that is the thing, it's a bad game, yet I enjoyed it at the time, that's the problem. Console gaming has essentially destroyed gaming for everyone, we're all lazy fucks these days.
When you die and you only have a few minutes to get to your stuff, killing enemies extends.. You can keep extending the time for as long as you are killing enemies.
Grinding mobs for 45 minutes and then dying by running blind into a new area? Yeah. Risk and reward I guess. Push on further and risk losing your loot or retreat to the nearest hub. I like my actions to be of consequence (in some games), I can F5/F9 in Prey as much as I want and remove all difficulty and the permanence of my choices.
I really don't like games that either auto save or have no safe game function.
Yeah I'm the same. Don't always have the time to complete a level in one sitting these days. With Dark Souls you get pretty familiar with certain areas between one bonfire and the next, you level up and learn enemy placements so you can progress further more quickly when you return to play. I think these souls-like games do involve a lot of grind and a lack of perceived progress from the player. I saw another review which said that you're better off running past certain enemies in The Surge to get to the next area because each enemy is much tougher than the shitty mobs you fight in between bosses in Dark Souls. The save system seems like an inherent problem with the souls-like formula, an ability to save and reload at any time would remove much of the difficulty.
I haven't tried DS with m/k. I know you can rebind the keys though and the default bindings don't work well. I think an analog stick makes movement much more precise in these games though. I don't think a game should be thumbed down because the method of input you want to use doesn't work the way you want it to, I could prefer to play with a flight stick and complain that the game is bad for not supporting it. What about the DS m/k controls are bad besides the bindings?
Francisco I did not complain about it over and over again, I mentioned it once, I also said that if you like this mechanic then buy the game because it's great. Care to comment?
so by your logic then it get old when he reviews a shooter and says he shot something or talking about shooting something right? if your a fair person otherwise your just biased and not self aware
HAHA! Your fanboy bit with Hector's bell got me to subscribe. Cheer bud!
Feels this review is a lot better somehow? Very specific on good and bad points, and quite objective overall. As a review should be! Thanks
I really enjoy your reviews mack. I would have liked to hear more in depth about why the controls were better in this game then in DS. As well it is clear that you didn't pass the 2nd level i really wish you would give more games a complete play through before doing a final review. I understand there is a deadline for making reviews and getting them out as a media creator but i really think it would add to the quality of your videos. Its kind of like watching a movie only half way thru and giving your side... can i be a troll for two seconds tho... you should change this title to The Surge - Is it worth 5 hours... :) just busting your chops tho keep up the great work.
This is not a review hence it does not say review in the title, this is a worth a buy video where I test the game and see if I think it's worth £40 and I think that my conclusion is correct which is if you like these mechanics then it's great fun, if you don't then it's not worth a buy. the game plays well and the controls are better than DS because they actually work smoothly and rebind easily.
Yes i did appreciate and took notice of that part of the video, suggesting the game for different players. I do really enjoy your videos and value your opinion although at times it is different from mine, as likes and dislikes vary for many players. I agree that many games are priced to high but companies know people will buy anything if it is marketed correctly. Anyway i'm surprised you commented back so quickly but thank you for doing so. Again i really enjoy your channel and thank you for sharing!
Problem is a lot of games nowadays are made for consoles first ,esp a lot of games made in Japan, then ported to PC as a afterthought.
Consoles suck!
Hey Mack, if you think losing 45 mins of grinding because of a game design, is bad. There is a popular game called Steel Battalion (the original with the massive controller on the first Xbox). Have you played it? This game would delete your save file if you died once!
I have a 30 hour campaign and have completed the game around 4-5 times, but there is always a new difficultly level to play, once completed! I haven't played it for years, so with my lose of skill, I don't want to risk playing again just in case I lose all of my progression!
Maybe actually learn a game before commenting on it:1 - You NEVER lose loot that you have picked up, only scraps. Any gear is yours forever2 - You get 2.5 minutes to get your scraps back and 30 seconds is added for EVERY enemy killed. The only way you'd lose scraps is if you really decided to3 - You can install up to 16 implants
Also, after level 5 All mobs change. Worth a Buy shouldn't even be considered a gamer. he plays 1 level and reviews a game. Pathetic.
I agree that DS1 and DS2 you have to get gamepad, but if you like surge on mouse and kayboard DS3 is also great in fact i was powerless to fight Medir (on game pad i got him to 60% max ?, and on M&K it took 10-15 tries) :)
The fact your loot disapears after a set time after you die is too far. I don't mind it in Souls, the reason it's good in Souls is the tension it builds, it makes you not want to die, it makes you plan, it makes you make calculated risks. That for me is good and instead of just hack and slashing though autosaving checkpoints with very little death penalty, I like the tension, I like that everything is a risk and that mistakes are punished.
Oh I do sincerely hope you review Impact Winter when it comes out Mack.
It looks like a particular crowd will enjoy it, but the gameplay doesn't look bad.
I love dark souls and yea i wish i could play it with a mouse and keyboard
I only played this long after it came out and I really enjoyed it, very surprised. Level design team are on point although the variety of levels designs is limited given the setting. The Surge 2 is even better.
I love the dinging. Worth a ding. :) I kinda wish Rabbit showed up a little more often though. ;)
reason why all gamers need to play souls like games is cause they force you to be disciplined as well as adaptable while rewarding great map memory
THE SUUUURGGGGE
fucking love the pronunciations
I saw a video couple of days ago, in it there is a boxing or MMA kind of match where one participant is actually using rolling technique 2x as I remember but the point is that he used it in a completely justified manner due to the situation :D or at least he managed to gain distance since everybody was laughing lol
No mention of level design or variety Mac. That's really important for a game like this.
I think the point of losing everything is to make the player have to choose to fight or retreat.... but being unable to retreat from a boss fight really defeats the purpose of this thought process. So I totally agree with mac and love that the game respects the PC controls!
I really like this guy`s channel and his opinions on today's gaming industry, but saying that this game is better than dark souls is just outrageous and i`m not even a dark souls fan.
It was only the controls for the pc port that made him say that
It is better. Dark Souls is a shite series.
@@genetenz He also didn't like the ridiculous rolling around or the depressing art style, either. I agree with him.
@@brothergrok What a badass!
I'm a console gamer and I can empathize. Please stop feeding into the stereotype other console gamers. Mack, keep it up man :)
Mack always cracks me up in the end XD
Have you been playing the quake beta? Are you going to put up a video with your impressions of it?
this game is like a Edge of Tomorrow 24hr marathon... "I wonder what will happen next?'
As a Dark Souls head I can say this one is a pretty nice game, interesant setting, plays quite differently from any souls game, pretty well tho... And btw. Dont listen to this guy in this video he sounds casul... For a dude that does reviews of games... Not mentioning the overall quality of this review itself
Why I love worth a buy: generic reviewer: cons: gets repetitive. Worth a buy: this game is for people who just like to do missionary position every time they have sex
I like your videos. the point is not difficulty but the feeling of achievement and fear of dying. Souls games provide with good experiences regarding those. they are not that difficult anyway.
I get where you're coming from with the Dark Souls mouse and keyboard thing. It's not that the Controller is on par with playing with M+K, but because it's on PC it should be a viable option. the same way you can play an FPS on PC with a controller, even though it might be better with the M+K, the controller is viable.
Exo suits huh? So is Kevin Spacey in it?
SSJSam ahh. The good old days.
GENIUS !
My eyes actually glazed over watching Mack play this. haha.
Hey Worth A Buy, thanks for recommending Prey! Fine game... you are now my go to guy for all game reviews and I now declare you the Grand Oracle of Gamers ©.
Seriously though I tend to agree with almost all your reviews... so much so that by and large I am prepared to forget your Witcher 3 review.
:)))))
Hey that review is the best W3 was spot on, I was the only reviewer that pulled it up about the clunky controls which is why i thumbed it down. I got hammered for doing it yet 3 months later the devs released a huge patch to attempt to fix the clunky controls, so if the game was fine why release a big fix? People forget that I said TW3 has a great story, great characters, great world but horrible combat and control, but if you don't mind the control issues you should buy it. So like I said, my review was the most accurate I have ever seen and I have since read/watched most of them.
Don't get me wrong, I like a harsh critic. Yes I enjoyed the Witcher 3, but I also felt your criticism was valid. Fanboys are ruining the game industry, and having someone like you to shake things up in these days of bought and paid for reviewers is just the tonic we need. Keep doing what you are doing mate!
I did a soul level 1 run of Dark Souls 3 and I played the "campaign" on M/KB as well (about 10 times). So it's doable Mac. Although I have to say that kicking and doing jump attack is so hard on M/KB
I think it's worth the buy depending on your choice of game genres
Mack doesn't like quicksave games that disappear in soulslike games but also will get on your case if you load a game in a turn based RPG after you lose one of your beloved characters.
Totally agree.
I despise this type of game.
When I read about taking limbs from opponents and being able to use them yourself, I thought, "That's an interesting idea." My interest was piqued and I went in search of some footage to see if indeed this was a game I would enjoy. Within about 5 minutes of the combat, after the intro wheelchair bit, I knew I would hate this game. The grinding of parts in an maze like map with mostly linear progress and unimaginative upgrades. Really, after all these years in gaming is their seriously no innovation to be had...
Some people consider playing games a waste of time and life but I say spending time doing something you enjoy is never a waste of time. Running around for 45 minutes gathering loot and then losing it is a waste of time. A genuine waste of time. As you simply have to go back and do it all over again.
So for people who enjoy that. You are not wasting your time and are having fun. But for me, it is a waste of time and I will avoid this game like the... the word I would use is so cliche I'll leave it blank and let whatever word comes into peoples minds be the word to use. Innovation right there and I didn't even try that hard! :D
On a different note:
Check out, Renowned explorers international society, if you haven't already Mack. It is an innovative game and has some genius to it. It's an old one I missed and can't believe I did because it's a gem.
Thanks for all the videos Mack.
This game honestly looks like someone who looked at Dark Souls and came away with only one word: "hard". So we have the Surge, where the devs seemed to deliberately made the game like Dark Souls but one upping it in difficulty in all the wrong ways. DS was never about being difficult, it was simply challenging because it had actual mechanics. Taking control away from the player to make it harder (move queuing) is pretty insane.
Awesome...I was hoping you would review this one =)
Christ, listening to this was a blast from the past - it's me from years and years ago moaning that dark souls is too hard, why does Crawl have to have permadeath etc etc.
That was back then, though, when I had this bizarre mentality that all games had to be designed to my preferences. After I'd grown out of this mentality I found I was able to enjoy a much wider range of different kinds of games, including, thankfully, Crawl and Dark Souls. Another interesting side effect of losing this mentality was that I learned to accept how a game was designed and adapt myself to match it, rather than the other way around. With the exception of inverting the Y, I very rarely go into options to adjust controls anymore, preferring instead to adapt to whatever the designers of the game have judged to be the way to play their creation. I like the increased flexibility this has afforded me whenever I approach a new game now.
Anyway, these were just some random musings, make of them what you will.
While I agree with most of what you say, I also agree with Mack on Dark Souls control scheme. Its very bad. I remember I had to buy a controller just to play the game, otherwise I could not even get out of the tutorial.
Now we have Control (the game) thei key bindings are weird but acceptable, and you can bind them. Bind 1/2 to another slots for more comfortable use. BAM perfect.
To sum up: The developer normally knows best when it comes to key bindings, however, the option of choice is always appealing and should not by any mean be removed
there is a video of a UFC fight i think where someone does roll away from an opponent twice but i think that is the only time it has ever happened, also love the review i love this game i am enjoying it a lot and while you didnt you were balanced to recommended it to some people
A swift boot to the face and its lights out 😂😂😂
hey mate, how much longer till you do player unknown battlegrounds game of the year?
1> Get a Controller
2> Load Dark Souls
3> No stream , no distractions ..Just imerse yourself into the world
4> Play untill you beaten the Second boss
5> Congratulations now you understand the souls games
Edit: i was a PC gamer,didn't know how to hold controller...i beat the game with one
rafaielw But the devs said that I could use a keyboard and mouse with no problems... oh wait....
Only a true game review BOSS like Mack could give a game a thumbs down while also saying it's better than Dark Souls!
I think the rolling is from kung fu movies. I did a ton of rolling in martial arts training. But you roll when you get thrown, not to dodge.
It would be an honour to share a strawberry lace with you.
Sadly in this age remaking the same movies, repeating the same 3sec melody or rhythm for making a whole music is the way
Even wen I'm cool with a no save option for the fear of the death still the repeating content is not acceptable !
Ty for the review and the heads up, I was close to buy it bcs of the starter cut scene of this game
Wow I barely heard the bell in this video. Either its broken or its a fantastic game.
I'm shocked to here Mack say it's not a game for him instead of shitting on it saying it's awful. I came prepared to hit the dislike button. Now I'm lost and confused
Both would've meant the same thing anyways, it's whether you're silly enough to think one wasn't meant to be his opinion, or silly enough to get offended by him thinking it's awful. It really annoys me that people need to be disclosed with "in my opinion.." and that somehow makes his opinion more agreeable. Well I like the old Mack who told it like he saw it and didn't have to disclose every sentence with "In my opinion" and "not for me, but might for some" and other trivial obvious shit like that because it was always common sense that it was his opinion. It's just unnecessary, and it cuts into his comedic style, imo.
I'm with ya, Mac. If they make a game available for PC they should have the decency to make it compatible with m+kb.
Mack, did you investigate those two crashes you experienced?
I'm interested in this game, but serious crashes are a huge deterrent for me!
I guess i am some sort of anomaly because i only use K & M for all three souls games i own on steam. All i need to do is remember my parry, interact and use item keys. Personally i remember my keys anyways in all my games after being a long time wow player. I totally get why everyone is upset about the controller thing though, just sharing my experience!
Been waiting for this one.
if you Like Dark Souls , Bloodborne , then the Surge is a good version of those, if you don't like those type of games, then you probably won't like this. As a homage to those game's , this is actually quite decent,it works well, is different enough and the timed 'souls' drop add an extra tension.
I recommend Mack plays Bloodborne, Nioh,Salt and Sanctuary and Sekiro for the hoot :).
BTW Sekrio is the equivalent of a orgy at a over 50's nudist camp, if Dark Souls is the missionary position, you know you really shouldn't be doing it , but you can't stop doing it.
I noticed there's a single good way to attack mobs, you slide in press the button a few times and they're down. Fun?
I know this is an older vid but i just found your channel and have been going through you vids, very impressed so far. But there is a way to quick load F8. Alot of PC games have this feature even thought the don't tell you Quick Save: F5, Quick Load: F8.
Praise the Sun! \[T]/
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I agree with you,my thing with dark souls is that they have 3 games that are all the same and another title that is the same thing and people just eat it up.the only difference is the graphics look different. The core of all those games is the same run,swing your weapon, die and repeat until the game is over. It is great for the developer though no need to make new game mechanics just change graphics and people come running with money in one hand and their dick in the other.
Actually, I have played Dark Souls 3 with both mouse+keyboard and controller and I gotta say... Mouse and keyboard wins! Much tighter camera control, works great, honestly... I finished the game on PC 5 times and then I tried it on PS4... controller feels... well, it's not terrible, of course, but... there's no benefit over mouse and keyboard. Previous entries in the series are completely different story though... DS2 was playable on PC, but nowhere near as smooth as DS3 and DS1 completely shait.
Gotta give The Surge a try :)
Mack, you're talking about the realism of rolling during combat in a game that has either dragons and magic or mech exosuits. Nothing about any of that is realistic. I also want to say (as a huge fan of Dark Souls) that your critisism of Dark Souls is fair. The game is listed on Steam with 'Keyboard and Mouse support', so the KBM controls should be just as polished and good as a controller. I think it's a trend with games that were ported to PC, the KBM support is an afterthought hastily tacked on. I played with a controller so I didn't deal with those issues, and that's why PC gaming is the best. You have options.
Anyway that time mechanic on picking up your lost loot after you die is bullshit. The difficulty makes it tense when any mob is capable of killing you if you're careless, so you need to be careful and take your time. You can't be careful and take your time when you're on a time limit, which sounds fucking awful.
Surge2 was an improvement but i liked them both as well as unreal, dark souls, quake :)
best game reviewer in action here guys haha.
Well, Who would want to roll with an Exo Rig attached to them? That's why they use the Dash/Dodge mechanic.
Thought I wanted a sci-fi Dark Souls, then I saw this game, and found out I didn't.
Agree totally with your dark souls opinion. well said buddy.
Being a Souls fan, it's easy to see why people would dislike the games - I'm certainly not one of those players who thinks Dark Souls is perfect because its far from it and it has always had many hiccups and brick walls that stops people from playing which is especially the case with Dark Souls 2 since that game is riddled with awful PVE design decisions which is what I mainly play Souls games for.
But its also difficult to explain why I love it so much, I had a really tough time getting through Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1 on my first playthroughs and when I'm having a really rough time progressing in a game, I often just turn it off but yet there's something about them that keeps me engaged and enthralled despite getting my arse handed to me over and over - it's rock hard but its mostly fair and players can learn to deal with most situations without taking any damage and I love that in gaming, especially in a single player game amongst an environment filled with bullshit hitscan enemies. I mean if I've managed to replay the Souls games several times over and see myself doing many more then its definitely doing something very right in my eyes.
The Surge to me is a joyous game to have because the more games we get in this emerging Souls-like genre, the better (especially since its actually on PC unlike other Souls-likes thank fuck). It's nice to have those new Souls experiences that play and feel differently enough to not feel like a total rehash of Dark Souls - Lords of the Fallen did that really well IMO and I enjoy the hell out of it for as many flaws as that game has and The Surge feels like a huge improvement on that formula (same devs). I do wish it had the persistent online interaction though, it didn't need to be PVP but it would have been nice to loot the exosuits of where players died like in Nier: Automata or have the option to activate a powerful rogue exo where a player died and fight it in a duel for phat loots like in Nioh but it's a shame stuff like that isn't there.
But just to let you know Mack, Souls-like games are really only as grindy as you want them to be. Most Souls-like games I can think of allows you to beat everything in the game with the absolute bare minimum (Lords of the Fallen being one exception since that's very loot reliant and you need to upgrade levels to use powerful gear). Hell it's surprisingly easy to beat Dark Souls 1 without ever leveling up and its even possible to do it without upgrading gear which is important for most players (Levels = not that important, upgrading gear = pretty crucial). With patience, timing and the right strategy in mind while making sure your battles are isolated to 1v1s then you can totally blast through the levels without a single death but leveling up and gear upgrades certainly help if you go out of your way to grind.
+DarkStarAngelo
Ayy Ds2 pve wasn't bad. I like it more than Ds3's design
@Christian Gamer - Indeed.
@Lavendar 13 - I don't hate DS2 PVE, it has its moments with some enjoyable bosses but it's easily my least favourite thanks to the bland level design and boring humanoid enemy types. Plus there's areas like Black Gulch, Shrine of Amana and Undead Crypt which are just terrible imo. The Lost Crown trilogy was pretty dang good though even if they all have at least one dreadful section.
hey mack,
will you do a Outlast 2 WAB ?
I think everyone should give him a like for pointing out the stupidity of rolling to dodge....
Agreed about losing your loot, it's frustrating as hell. Not a fan of the Dark Souls series, I like the challenge, but honestly having to go get all your loot again or re-fighting the same guys over again just isn't my kind of fun! i'm more of a RPG gamer like The Witcher, Elder Scrolls (can't wait to see the next one) and i hope Red Dead 2 comes to PC that game's going to be sweet!
I'm a pure keyboard/mouse user Mack and I found Dark Souls 3 easily playable. Could remap keys perfectly.
I love you Mack!
you didn't fully explain 2 minutes mechanic. when you kill enemy the timer goes up about 20 seconds. so it's risk & reward thingummy again you can either run past to where you died within 2 minutes or risk killing enemies and you will have enough time. ( they also show the distance you are from the place you died) I have seen timer go upto 3:50 minutes in some of the lets plays.
good review Mack. I hate the keep dying and learn the scripted enemy moves mechanic but i did enjoy the surge much more than dark souls
It's Go-Go
Not Cry-Cry :P
This game is a gem.
Combat is awesome.
If you like Dark Souls you will like this too.
Lorewise not much going on and sadly no Soulslike invasion MP which might hurt it on the long run.
But well worth full price and a mustbuy/try when it goes on sale or the price drops.
Why has no one made a souls style MMO? Seriously! It seems like the game play would spice up the genre and adding the competitive element of an MMO would give souls style games purpose instead of just get good to get good.
I think I just learnt a lot more about Mack's sex life than I wanted too. o_0 (and his holiday plans!)
I used to be a pc gamer, but fuck then came wife and kids Sigh. The end of pc gaming days for me... So today i game on xbox,/ps4 or Nintendo... I do like it though. Cause after a long day at work coming home, doing errands for the wife. Move furnitures forth and back. Making dinner. Kicking kids to bed. Listen to the wife blah bla bla. Drug her out. Then finally do i have 30 min to game... Then i wanna sit in my couch with a cold beer😄 and just plug in a game that "works" no bullshit with oh update this and that driver etc etc etc or upgrade hardware....I do miss the good old days on the pc, cause that format has the best games imo... Just don't have the time anymore....but it is always good to watch your videos Mack... I get a laugh when you dizz or slams the consoles...i don't get Butt hurt. Cause i used to play pc when i had time...now i just want the Damn thing to bloody work when i have a little time.. So consoles yay... Keep doing what you do Mack. It puts a smile on my face. Cheers.😉
You can sit on a couch with a cold beer and play on PC. There is nothing stopping you. And you dont have to update drivers RIGHT NOW. You can play your game and update everything after that. Consoles have updates too.
Doom Maker True true. But i aint got time to worry about hardware specs... The little time i have on hand i just want my game to work... And they always work on my console. Though the console do not have many games i like, cause it is always PEW PEW cutscene cutscene.... I have a few i do enjoy though. Subnautica. Elite dangerous. Skyrim and Fallout and Now Astroneer... I do miss old RTS games like red Alert etc etc like pc had... Maybe when the kids gets older and i kick the wife out, i can get some more me time, and start pc gaming again. Miss my old operation flashpoint games, think they are called Arma now😊 but yeah it comes down to choice and how much time u want to put in to it, or in my case can put in to it ofc😉
Andy Clifft indeed it is... Will perhaps go back to Pc when kids gets older... Miss my old red Alert games hehe😄 which is something the console really lacks... RTS games...😉
***** But consoles get A LOT of valid criticisim. The worst part is that Nintendo is going to charge for online play as well D:
Andy Clifft indeed sir. Oh and Mack do put a smile on my face hehe...Anywho, right now consoles is the thing i have the best time for... Am looking forward to get back on pc one day, when i get some more me time... Cause i do miss it though😄 Thx for chat brother.
I fucking love this game. Just started my 8 play through.
GIT GUD :D
Autumn 2020..... But the controller.... LOL 🤭
The "simon says" analogy applies to all games since they are all governed by mechanics - one effect necessitates a specific cause. If you would be criticizing this game for exhibiting such characteristic then you would be undermining the entire medium; a position that has to be realized when one isn't narrow-minded.
Watch Out Mack......"Get Gud" comments incoming.
Git*
Git*
Did you play the rising storm beta?
Thanks for the video sir. I was wondering what this game is all about