Hello everyone,

The Surge 2 releases next week! Prepare yourself to dismantle and take apart your foes on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC when we release on September 24.

The Surge 2 utilizes its signature limb-targeting system, allowing you to rip and tear equipment from your foes using brutal executions. Witness the weapons, enemies, and executions backed by Sharon Van Etten’s cover of ‘The End of the World’ in our Symphony of Violence Trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Iw7IfleMEg
The Surge 2 brings back The Surge’s acclaimed combat system, allowing you to target and weaken enemy armor points so you can take the equipment for yourself, or aim for a weak spot and finish the fights quickly. Each fight becomes a desperate risk-versus-reward decision, and you must utilize all the tools in your arsenal to survive, including a customizable combat drone, game-changing implants, a new directional parrying system and many more…



Discover the mysteries of Jericho City and the sources of the nanomachine plague alongside Athena, a young girl linked to your past, and escape the gripping chaos of Jericho City.

Pre-orders are now available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, and come with the URBN Gear Pack, which includes a new armor set, two new weapons, and other cosmetics and equipment. The Surge 2 releases September 24. http://thesurge-game.com/shop

Greetings,

On September 24 life on earth as we know it is coming to an end. The Surge 2 begins after the DeFrag nanovirus strikes following the launch of a Utopia rocket.

In Jericho City, one lone warrior - you - must fight through hell, high water, and amnesia to discover the truth about the virus, the city, and much more. Experience the start of this story in the new trailer, released today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEOGibCjGQ4
Here, we meet our hero, and many of the inhabitants of Jericho City. Nano-cultists run rampant through the streets, harvesting everything they can from the environment for their mysterious ends. The government forces of A.I.D attempt to maintain a stranglehold on the city with violent means. All the while, Athena, a girl with whom you have a special connection, leads you through the streets to a destination unknown.



This mystery accompanies gameplay that refines and enhances the Surge formula, bringing new weapons, new gadgets, enhanced ranged combat, additional implants, and much more. Dismemberment and limb-targeting still form the backbone of how you fight, loot, and choose your loadout, but with more options than ever before.

Pre-orders are now available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, and come with the URBN Gear Pack, which includes a new armor set, two new weapons, and other cosmetics and equipment. The Surge 2 releases September 24.
http://thesurge-game.com/shop

https://store.steampowered.com/app/644830/The_Surge_2/

The Surge 2, our hardcore Action-RPG featuring brutal exo-skeleton combat on a dying earth, comes to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on September 24th!

As we draw close to the release, we’re sharing a series of devblogs that we hope will give you some insight into the creative process of The Surge 2.

Check out other DevBlogs here:

1. Level Design
2. Sound Design
3. Combat System (Pt. 1)
4. Combat System (Pt. 2)
5. In-House Engine - You are here.
6. Animation

Today, we’re happy to talk to Thorsten, head of the Tech Department on The Surge 2, talking about the in-house engine of the game!

Hello! Could you please introduce yourself and your role on The Surge 2?

Hi, I am Thorsten. I have been with Deck13 for more than 15 years and I am heading the tech department. This entails planning and overseeing the general development of our in-house technology, while still trying to contribute as much as possible myself along the way. In addition to that, I am also very much into core gameplay and the associated systems.



Engines often have interesting names, and yours is no exception. What’s the story behind the FLEDGE engine name? Did you (excuse the pun) land on FLEDGE immediately or were there other iterations?


Strangely enough, FLEDGE is actually not an acronym, probably because we didn’t come up with anything clever. We started creating FLEDGE back in 2009 after finishing Venetica, our first multiplatform title. I thought, with all the experience gathered over the years, we should finally be able to build up a multiplatform engine from scratch ourselves. A toolset that can come of age, can stand on its own out there and can be developed into a fully fledged toolset for creating our games.

As game engines are never "done", the name also seemed fitting since the whole thing just never stops to... you know... fledge. Something along these lines. Thinking about it, I guess BLOOM would have been a nice name as well - will keep that in mind... Our previous set of tools was called PINA - this one actually was an acronym:

rogrammable nterface for [N] [A]dventure games. It relied more heavily on 3rd party libraries with the biggest one being OGRE3D used for rendering (the part that is actually responsible for producing the image on the screen), so I would not have called PINA "our own in-house engine". It felt more like creating some high level systems and tools on top of a lot of low level 3rd party libraries.

What made Deck 13 decide to build its own proprietary game engine?

Venetica back in 2009 was our last game based on the PINA toolset and the first one to release on consoles with PS3 and Xbox360 at the time. The console versions were outsourced to an external partner, but the result showed that most of the components were not lending themselves well to achieving good performance and efficiency on consoles.

As a result, we decided to start over, a) to be in full control of all platforms we want to support, and b) to apply all the things we learned from the development of Venetica and the games prior to that. I always wanted us to create our own tech, and my fellow techies on the team shared this desire.

What were your main goals when upgrading the FLEDGE engine from The Surge to The Surge 2?

Supporting the bigger, more varied game world and addressing issues we faced during the production of The Surge 1. Rewriting the renderer was key to that. Prior to the rewrite, we had a DX11 renderer on PC that was conceptually still largely based on the DX9 renderer that we started with in 2009.

It served us very well over the years, but with low level graphics APIs now available everywhere (with Vulkan being our interface of choice on PC), and many of the underlying concepts not 100% fitting to modern hardware, we decided to ditch that component and go for a full rewrite.

We did not want to piggyback a Vulkan implementation on top of the existing rendering solution since this would have prevented us from taking full advantage of the API and the low level access to the hardware that comes with it. Additionally, starting over allowed us to bring all supported platforms much closer together and to get rid of quite a lot of platform specific rendering code that we have written for The Surge 1.

What are the benefits to using your own engine and how can we see this come through in The Surge 2?

Being in full control and being flexible. Since we support a 60fps mode on PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, you can imagine that there is quite some optimization that we have to apply, especially on the CPU side of things. These can sometimes be very title and content specific.
And I am pretty sure that we would not be able to dig that deep and make changes on such a low level if we used a 3rd party engine given the resources we have. I also tend to live under the illusion that The Surge 2 feels unique compared to a lot of other games out there, just because it's using different technology. Unique in a good way, I hope.



What’s your favorite thing about using the FLEDGE engine?

I still remember very well the first lines of code I wrote back in 2008, just playing around with ideas regarding some low level systems, trying out different approaches to some common problems. The fact that we were able to grow these humble beginnings to what we have today, grow the tech team alongside it with awesome people that I enjoy working with, shipping quite a few games along the way: These are the things I am proud of and probably my favorite things about the engine on a more abstract level. When it comes to actual technical features, I really like how the new rendering subsystem turned out and how it made this part of the engine ready for the next generation of hardware that is on the horizon, even if it was a heavy lift for The Surge 2.

Have you ever gotten any crazy requests from your game designers or otherwise about what to add or do with the engine?

Yes. I remember that once we were asked to have a "proper" tornado simulation in one of our games - for some environmental atmospheric visual effect. But in general, it just happens from time to time that requests are made that sound strange and have to be discussed further to find out what the actual problem is people trying to solve, and what the best solution to that problem would be.

Stay tuned for more insight into the development of The Surge 2 in our next articles! You can also check out the Behind The Scenes series "Deck13 Inside" on Youtube. The Surge 2 slices its way onto PS4, Xbox One, and PC on September 24th. Pre-Order now and get bonuses: http://thesurge-game.com/shop

The Surge 2, our hardcore Action-RPG featuring brutal exo-skeleton combat on a dying earth, comes to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on September 24th!

As we draw close to the release, we’re sharing a series of devblogs that we hope will give you some insight into the creative process of The Surge 2.

Check out our previous DevBlogs here:
1. Level Design
2. Sound Design
3. Combat System (Pt. 1)
4. Combat System (Pt. 2) - You are here.
5. In-House Engine
6. Animation

Today, we’re happy to welcome back Sven Hammer, Lead Game Designer on The Surge 2, talking about the Combat System of the game!

Welcome back Sven! Let’s continue with a very important question - What’s your go-to weapon type?

That’s hard to answer to be honest because I was working on all of them and I kind of like them all. But deep in my heart I have always been a player that prefers heavy and slow hitting weapons. There is something about feeling the weight of a weapon like this and seeing the impact when it lands. And even though you might think that the Punching Gloves (one of our new weapon types) are not like this at all, because obviously they are faster than something like a Heavy Duty weapon, they still have that certain weight to them that make their punches feel impactful.

Upgrading your gear through the Exo-suit is a very important aspect of The Surge 2. How is this linked to the combat?

On the one hand you can use your gathered Tech Scrap that you get by killing enemies to increase the Core Power of your Exo-Rig, which allows you to wear better and heavier gear and equip more implants. This will also let you upgrade your base stats like health, stamina, and battery efficiency with the Module Points that you receive with each increase of your Core Power.

On the other hand combat and especially the limb targeting system is what will allow you to not only gain new weapons but also schematics of the gear that your enemies are wearing when cutting off their limbs. Cutting those limbs over and over again will also give you the needed crafting and upgrade materials that you can use to craft new or upgrade existing equipment. Gear will not only increase your defenses and make you able to withstand more hits but also influence other combat stats like your attack speed or your impact.



How do Implants work and how do they affect combat?

Implants are modifications to your Exo-Rig and can be divided into two categories: Boosters and Injectables. Boosters give you a variety of passive abilities that range from UI enhancements like displaying enemy health bars to something like restoring health when performing a finishing sequence. Injectables on the other hand give you new active abilities that are mostly centered around healing and buffing your stats for a short duration. Similar to your gear and weapons, injectables can now also be upgraded using a special material.
All implants cost a certain amount of core power and need a free implant slot in your Exo-Rig. Implant slots are limited and Core Power is a shared resource also used by your other gear, so you need to choose which Boosters and Injectables you want to equip alongside your gear.

Games like this can be intimidating for newcomers. What does The Surge 2 do to ease people into the swing of things?

First of all we laid out a broad spectrum of tutorials that should help players learn all the different mechanics that they need to know to survive in the world of The Surge 2. The whole starting area and a big part of the second area is designed to ease players into the fun that the combat system and the game itself has to offer once the basics are learned. We tried to give the players enough time and room to get used to the mechanics before facing the really tough opponents.

What would you say sets combat in The Surge 2 apart from other games in the genre?

The most iconic thing that sets combat in The Surge 2 apart from other games is the limb targeting system and all combat and gameplay features that are tied to it. There is no more luck involved when you try to get a certain weapon or a gear part. You only have to target the part or weapon you want and then damage the specific body part of your opponent enough to cut it off and this will always reward you with the wanted item. Furthermore the whole crafting and upgrading system is centered around the limb targeting and cutting.



Are you the best Surge 2 player in the office? You can tell us the truth.

So I could now tell you: Of course I am, the only way to earn and keep your position as a Lead Game Designer is to beat everyone in a unique tournament playing The Surge 2. That would be very interesting. But to be honest if it would be that way I would have never earned that spot. I’m definitely not the best Surge 2 player in the office. I think I’m actually too slow for that. I definitely overcome the challenges that the game throws at me but it takes me a while to succeed. But I will always be ready for the next challenge.

Stay tuned for more insight into the development of The Surge 2 in our next articles! You can also check out the Behind The Scenes series "Deck13 Inside" on Youtube. The Surge 2 slices its way onto PS4, Xbox One, and PC on September 24th. Pre-Order now and get bonuses: http://thesurge-game.com/shop

Hello,

The Surge 2 brings the nanomachine nightmare of Jericho City to players everywhere on September 24 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. To survive this brutal world you will need new equipment - and The Surge franchise’s iconic limb-cutting mechanics provide just such an opportunity.

In our new You Are What You Kill Trailer see how every weapon, every piece of enemy armor and equipment can be targeted, torn off, and equipped to your exo-rig. This produces new builds, letting you destroy your enemies in ever-more-satisfying ways.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1lwHeW8Kio
Combat in The Surge 2 is quick, brutal, and packed with decision making. With new and deadly techniques like directional parries, drones, and brand new weapon types, The Surge 2 upgrades everything. Your style is your own, from picking implants and armor set bonuses to how you use energy, stamina, health or ammunition. Combined with an intricate world to explore and incredible, unique bosses, The Surge 2 is an action-RPG experience like no-other.



Pre-orders are now available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, and come with the URBN Gear Pack, which includes a new armor set, two new weapons, and other cosmetics and equipment. The Surge 2 releases September 24.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/644830/The_Surge_2/

The Surge 2, our hardcore Action-RPG featuring brutal exo-skeleton combat on a dying earth, comes to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on September 24th!

As we draw close to the release, we’re sharing a series of devblogs that we hope will give you some insight into the creative process of The Surge 2.

Check out our previous DevBlogs here:

1. Level Design
2. Sound Design

Today, we’re happy to have Sven, Lead Game Designer on The Surge 2, talking about the Combat System of the game!

Hi! Could you please introduce yourself and what you do on The Surge 2?

Hi there! My name is Sven and I’ve been with Deck13 for about 12 years now, working as Lead Game Designer on The Surge and The Surge 2. Together with a team of Game Designers I’m working on a variety of gameplay topics including the combat system of The Surge 2 in general and on all of its details.



There are many new features coming to the combat in The Surge 2. Could you give us a brief rundown of what’s new?

It will be hard to list all of the features that are new to the combat of The Surge 2 because there really are quite many, but let’s try to name at least some.

Parry System
There is now a parry system called Directional Blocking. This will allow players to parry incoming attacks in the direction they are coming from. If done successfully, it leaves the attacker in a vulnerable state for a devastating counter attack.

Drones and weapon types
The new combat drone will give players a variety of different ranged and utility options to survive the challenging fights, while the nine weapon types will let players choose their own preferred close combat style.



Charged Attacks
All weapon types will feature charged attacks that are especially handy when fighting against shielded enemies or enemies that use attachments to buff up their combat abilities. Sometimes also just to quickly gather more combat energy.

Combo System
The combo system of all weapons has been reworked quite a bit and combo attacks in general are now much more powerful. Some are particularly effective against armored body parts and others against unarmored body parts.

Partial Set Bonuses
All gear sets will now not only have a special set bonus when fully equipped but will also feature a partial set bonus that is active once 3 parts of the set are worn.

Leveling up Character Stats
And last but not least leveling up your Core Power will now not only let you equip heavier gear and use more implants but will also grant you 2 Module Points that you can spend to level up one of your base character stats: health, stamina and battery efficiency.

What would you say is the main difference between The Surge and The Surge 2 in how combat feels?

If you really compare them side by side I would say the combat in The Surge 2 feels more fluent, faster and in some ways also more aggressive. And to me the original The Surge never felt slow or anything like that. I mean I know that we did a lot of things to actually create the feeling I’m trying to describe right now but I’m still proud that it worked out so well.

Changes like the player being able to cancel out of attacks before the attack actually lands or being able to evade or block out of enemy combo attacks makes a big difference in how responsive the combat feels. And these are just two small examples of things that we tweaked and tried to improve on.

There are many weapon types in The Surge 2. Could you talk a little about how you approached making them all feel fresh and unique?

In total we have nine weapon types in The Surge 2. Five of them should already be familiar to those who played the original The Surge and four are brand new additions to offer the player a wide variety of different combat styles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3zu52jIPRU
When you look at the four new weapon types you will see that they are all quite unique and have something special that the other weapon types don’t have. The Double Duty for example. At first it looks and feels more like a Heavy Duty weapon, but as soon as you start double-tapping your attack buttons it shows its full potential and splits into two seperate weapon pieces that attack much faster. Or the Spear might sound like just another Staff weapon but it’s actually more than that. The Spear is in fact the only weapon type in The Surge 2 that uses light and heavy attacks instead of horizontal and vertical attacks because it’s centered around thrust attacks.

The five already known weapon types still received a complete overhaul to make them feel fresh. Like I already mentioned when talking about the new features of The Surge 2, all of the combo trees that we used in The Surge got renewed and we tried to highlight specials like our cross combo attacks a lot more to create a cool new combat feeling.

Stay tuned for more insight into the development of The Surge 2 in our next articles! You can also check out the Behind The Scenes series "Deck13 Inside" on Youtube. The Surge 2 slices its way onto PS4, Xbox One, and PC on September 24th. Pre-Order now and get bonuses: http://thesurge-game.com/shop

Hi everyone,

The Surge 2 brings hardcore action-RPG combat to PS4, Xbox One, and PC on September 24 - less than a month to go! Depth, challenge, and choice of playstyle define the combat in The Surge 2, highlighted in today’s Combat Trailer.

Start your path to mastering The Surge 2 by honing your skills in the original The Surge, available for free on Steam until August 29. The game and its DLCs can be purchased at up to 75% off until August 30.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-7uJipAWk4
In The Surge 2, you are thrust into Jericho City, a dystopian sci-fi megacity under quarantine, where several factions vie for dominance over the various districts. In this urban jungle, you will be hunted by everything from religious cultists to nano monstrosities, so you must embrace the oldest law known to humankind - evolve to survive. When faced with an enemy, target specific parts of their body and slice off tech you need to upgrade your exo-rig.



The combat is intense. With 80 weapons to choose from, a directional parry system, dodge mechanics, drones, and a huge range of brutal execution moves, you can approach combat in the way that suits your playstyle. Charge in and pound your enemies into submission with punching gloves or sting like a bee using the spear.

Pre-Orders are now available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and come with the URBN Gear Pack, which includes a new armor set, two new weapons, and other cosmetics and equipment.

The Surge 2 releases September 24. The original The Surge is free to try until August 29 on Steam and can be purchased at up to 75% off.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/378540/The_Surge/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/644830/The_Surge_2/

Hello everyone!

The Surge 2 storms onto PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in just one month on September 24. To celebrate Gamescom and the game entering the final stages of production, we are proud to present the Gameplay Overview Trailer. This trailer details returning and new mechanics in the game, giving you a run-down of everything from lore to how best to extract the parts you need from your enemies.

https://youtu.be/tv7fRnwCsxI

With years of development coming to an end, the team are proud to say that The Surge 2 offers an experience that all can enjoy. Fast-paced, tactical combat returns, with satisfying executions and meaningful choices for each encounter based on which equipment you wish to gather, equip, and upgrade.

Many systems are designed from the ground up to accommodate gamers who want to play their way, be that carefully and at range or balls-to-the-wall all-out attacks. Whether you want indicators for directional parrying to assist or to rely purely on your skill and optimised build to defeat your enemies., you’ll find The Surge 2 a blast to play.



Pre-orders are now available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. All pre-orders come with the URBN Gear Pack free, which includes a new armor set, two new weapons, and other cosmetics and equipment.

The Surge 2 releases September 24. Watch the new Gamescom Overview Trailer today. Pre-orders are available now!

Hi everyone!

The Surge 2 brings hardcore combat back to a nano-infested dystopian future on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, September 24.

Over the past month, press and influencers have delved into the depths of Jericho City, slicing and dicing their enemies and their preference is clear - players have every reason to be excited. Today’s gorgeous Preview Accolades Trailer teases some story and shows off just how exciting it has been to go hands-on early.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUxbP4vZ4lk
We are also proud to announce that The Surge 2 has now officially gone gold! We're very excited about this milestone and can't wait for you all to dive into Jericho City to chop up your competition for survival.



The Surge 2 will deliver brutal combat in the winding streets of Jericho City on September 24. Waking with no memory of the plane crash that left you stranded here, you’ll have to survive rampaging machines, fanatical cultists, and much worse as you explore and discover the truth.

Utilising the renowned limb-targeting system combined with upgraded combat design, a new, bigger world and many more surprises, The Surge 2 will impress new players and fans of the series alike.



Pre-orders are now available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. All pre-orders come with the URBN Gear Pack free, which includes a new armor set, two new weapons, and other cosmetics and equipment. The Surge 2 is also available for play by the public at Gamescom, as part of the Koch Media/Deep Silver booth in Hall 9.

The Surge 2 launches September 24 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. Pre-orders are available now!

The Surge 2, our hardcore Action-RPG featuring brutal exo-skeleton combat on a dying earth, comes to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on September 24th!

As we draw close to the release, we’ll be sharing a series of devblogs that we hope will give you some insight into the creative process of The Surge 2.

Today, we’re happy to have Daniel, Sound Designer on The Surge 2, talking about the Sound Design of the game!

Could you please introduce yourself and your job on The Surge 2?

Hello! I'm Daniel and I've been a Sound Designer at DECK13 for quite a while now. My first internship was about 9 years ago. After that, I worked part time at DECK13 during my studies until I started working full time, around 5 years ago. I’ve done the sound for several DECK13 projects and I’m currently working on The Surge 2. In my job I take care of the production of the game's sound effects, reaching everything from what the characters do to UI sounds to level related noises like ambients.

I also take care of the audio outsourcing, which mainly consists of music production.
Besides that, I’m responsible for the implementation of all the stuff you can hear, always working in close collaboration with the tech-department and the game and level-designers.



What were your main inspirations for the sounds and music of The Surge 2?

The music for The Surge 2 is inspired by a mixture of different musical styles. The main inspirations are soundtracks from old and modern sci-fi movies and games. On the other side we tried to incorporate elements of urban music styles like electronic music and trip-hop to fit the vibe of a sci-fi-megacity.

The sound effects are of course inspired by Surge 1, because we aimed to create a similar tone for the second part. But we did not only rely on Surge 1, the sound effects are also inspired by pop culture and by an approach of experimentation and combination of sounds and audio effects during the production process.

The Surge 2 has a lot of varied locations. Did this affect the sound design?

Yes, definitely. Even while the game plays in this giant city, we tried to give each level a unique environment and a different openness to feel special. Soundwise this resulted in unique ambients for each level that reach from evacuated, empty cities over nano infected forests, to destroyed, rusty, rotten harbor areas. And through the different architecture and layouts of each level the reverbs were also affected by this, creating different acoustic spaces and environments.



The Surge 2 has more voice acting than the first game. What were the main challenges of this aspect?

The voice implementation is mainly done by the narrative team but of course the amount of dialogue had an impact on the sound implementation. The biggest challenge was to make speech and especially the most important dialogue audible at all times.

This means putting speakers in a 3D room with exact ranges, toning down sounds that are not important during a dialogue or simply adding effects to voices that sound good but are still understandable, so the players don't miss any important information.

Was there any sound you had to improvise to record, or to physically go and record out in the open?

To be honest, every sound is improvised in some kind of way, especially if we're talking about all the nano stuff. I mean, what does nano sound like? The base of all the nano sounds was in the end a weird combination of glass and ice shards, glibbery vegetable sounds, insect recordings and a lot of bit-distortion and grain synthesis. Most of the time you start with an idea and end up with something completely different - everything that counts is the result.

If you had to pick a single favorite sound in The Surge 2, what would it be, and why?

Oof, this is a hard one, but I think I’ll pick the facebeam attack of the statue enemy - a large robot that shoots a giant energy beam straight out of its head. What I like about it is that it has a lot of details of the mechanical parts of the enemy and the energy build-up that then results in this giant beam of energy roaring and screaming through the level, damaging everything in its way. It just sounds like you really shouldn’t touch it.



Stay tuned for more insight into the development of The Surge 2 in our next articles! You can also check out the Behind The Scenes series "Deck13 Inside" on Youtube.The Surge 2 slices its way onto PS4, Xbox One, and PC on September 24th. Pre-Order now and get bonuses!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7bh2FQ1mZU&list=PLZ4kher7FeReKmhWBx2y13DKgHWN31F49