The Surge on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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Welcome to CREO, the megacorporation saving the world! A catastrophic event has knocked you out during the first day on the job… you wake up equipped with a heavy-grade exoskeleton, in a destroyed section of the complex.
The Surge is a souls-like, action and rpg game
developed by Deck13
and published by Focus Entertainment.
Released on May 15th 2017 is available only on Windows
in 11 languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Polish, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Japanese.
It has received 10,951 reviews of which 8,236 were positive and 2,715 were negative resulting in a rating of 7.4 out of 10. 😊
The game is currently priced at 1.94€ on Steam with a 87% discount, but you can find it for less on Gamivo.
The Steam community has classified The Surge into these genres:
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS *: Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit)
- Processor: AMD FX-8320 (3,5 GHz) / Intel i5-4690K (3,5 GHz)
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: 1 GB, AMD Radeon R7 360 / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti
- DirectX: Version 11
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 15 GB available space
- Additional Notes: INTERNET CONNECTION REQUIRED FOR GAME ACTIVATION
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
I tend to write really long rambling reviews, so I am giving the short version up front. The Surge is a sci-fi game clearly inspired by the Dark Souls series, but it does enough twists to the formula that I think it deserves to be seen as its own thing, not just a copy. Some of those twists work well and others fall flat. It took me ~35 hours to beat the main story and one of the two DLCs. There is some jank and the game crashed a couple times. Overall I had fun playing The Surge, but I was ready to stop playing after that point and didn’t feel the need to do the second DLC. If you like Souls games and want to try something weird and experimental then this is highly recommended. That’s the short version, here’s the long version: Controls: Your character is a guy who volunteered to get bolted into an exo-skeleton because an accident left him partially paralyzed. The procedure did not go well and now everything is going crazy. The game does a very good job of making you feel like you’re riding around in a metal frame. Jump distances are long, fall damage is super generous (you can die to fall damage, but it takes a LONG drop), and there is no such thing as carry capacity/fat rolling. The downside is that your movement feels a little stiff and you don’t always have a ton of fine control of where you’re moving. That normally doesn’t matter, but there’s a couple platforming parts where it is noticeable. Combat: The combat is very original. The controls don’t feel like a normal Souls game. It reminds me a lot more of a weapon based fighting game like For Honor with lots of elaborate combos. It is an interesting way to play, but I am not sure the depth of the combat system is really necessary. I found myself ignoring most of it. The reason for all this complexity is that the game tries to make every enemy feel threatening and challenging. You will usually only be fighting 1-2 enemies at once and those enemies can very easily ruin your day if you get unlucky or make a mistake. You use the right stick to lock onto various body parts of your target. Attacks will do more damage to an unarmored part, and if you do enough damage to a certain body part you can do a finisher where you cut it off and get whatever armor or weapons were on that part (or melt them into upgrade materials if you already have them). This system works pretty well, but unless you are grinding for specific things you will most likely just target whatever part of the enemy is unarmored. The system really shines in the small roster of bosses. They’re all unique and you actively knock parts off them as you fight based on where you hit them. That can change their moves and behavior. Kind of like Monster Hunter, but even moreso. The standard enemy roster is really cool. I just wish the weird enemies showed up more since 75% of what you fight is “generic human in exo-skeleton”. The developers really tried to be creative here. There are enemies that stand back up after you cut a piece off them, enemies that have medkits on their back you can sneak up to and heal, enemies that change where their armor is based on where you’re hitting them, and several other gimmicks. Most of these work really well and there are also some non-humanoid drones or larger security robots that show up and provide variety. Gear: The weapon roster makes me feel like a kid in a candy store. Picture every power tool you can think of: drills, circular saws, impact hammers, plasma cutters, arc welders, etc. Now imagine one of those bolted to your arm! You can even smack people with the business end of a forklift. I get the feeling the game pushes you towards smaller faster weapons, but I completed it just fine with a bigger one. There are no ranged weapons or magic equivalent, but you do have a drone that you can activate to shoot a little laser or do other utility type stuff. I found it pretty pointless, but YMMV. Armor has a really cool system where each part will give your character not just protection and poise, but also stat modifiers (attack speed/impact, damage modifiers to armored/unarmored parts, stamina consumption modifiers, etc). Armor also has set bonuses which can be very powerful, so you most likely will not be mixing and matching. There are damage types in the game, but they aren’t explained very well and rarely matter very much. Leveling up: So far everything has ranged from “really cool” to “interesting idea that worked ok”. I think leveling up is where this game goes off the rails. They tried for versatility and simplicity, but they missed the mark in my opinion. There are no stats to put points in. When you accumulate enough scrap (souls) to level up you just raise one number called “core power”. Each armor piece costs a certain amount of power to equip. Heavier armor usually costs more power, but also comes with downsides like slower attack speed or more stamina consumption, so you kind of get double penalized for being a tank. You also have implant slots and implants cost power to equip. Think of these like rings in a Souls game, except you get a lot of slots and most of them can only get swapped at a bonfire. Implants basically do everything in this game. Want more health? Implant. Want an estus? Implant (multiple implants if you want more charges). Heck, want to see the enemy health bars? Implant. The slots fill up fast, especially early game when you don’t have as many, and you often go back and forth between “not enough slots to hold everything you want” and “not enough power to fill all your slots”. It also can be rough early game because you can never have more health/stamina unless you find more implants that boost those stats. In general it makes leveling up feel unrewarding. You do get more powerful and at some point around 2/3 through the game the switch clicks and you become an unstoppable engine of destruction, but you don’t necessarily feel like you’re getting stronger until you reach that point. World/theme: I love when a game that is traditionally fantasy gets a sci-fi treatment. This is a harder near future take on sci-fi. Imagine running through a SpaceX launch facility using repurposed industrial tools to smack people who turned into zombies when an EMP shorted out all their neural link implants. If that sentence does it for you then you’ll love this game. The story is generally pretty good. I tend not to like “big corporation bad” stories, but this one has enough depth that I’m ok with it. There’s multiple factions working inside this company to try and accomplish different things, sometimes not even aware of each other, so it feels a lot more like a collection of people and not some faceless monolith that only exists because they need a bad guy. The level design is pretty cool. There’s one bonfire per area and a ton of circular paths that go out from it. The standard loop is “pick a path, do some exploring, fight some enemies, get a reward/unlock another path, unlock a shortcut back to the bonfire”. The shortcuts and areas all fit together really well and don’t feel too much like a maze, although if you set the game down for a while then come back to it you will get hopelessly lost until you remember where things are. Different areas have different themes and the game does a great job of not always looking the same. There are minimal death pits, but there are a couple areas where you question why the developers put enemies there, because you really don’t want to be fighting. Since every enemy is a threat it tends to make for lots of twisty corridors or cluttered areas to break up line of sight (which also comes with the “turn around a blind corner and immediately get ambushed” problem). Enemies have long patrol paths and are surprisingly alert. They will totally come in like a freight train to ruin your day from across the map if they get line of sight to you. You almost have to play it like a stealth game in a couple areas.
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I tried playing this game and didn't like it at first. The problem I had with it....it's souls-like. It's hard. It's unforgiving. But my love for sci-fi kept me coming back. After installing it for the 3rd time...i realised one thing. This game takes the "from zero to hero" formula and cranks it up to maximum. The level design is one of the best I've ever seen. Sooooo many hidden secrets and shortcuts...just pure genius. The story pulled me in from start to finish, which is a rarity these days. And my favorite part were the armor sets and weapons...and the upgrades of the two. It is one of those games that make you feel lost...but the more you play the better you get...the more you find yourself. The game requires you to be focused at all times and you have to remember things...like surroundings or the story. Which only adds to the immersion. I'm going to be thinking about this masterpiece for a long time I can tell.
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I can't believe how quickly I fell in love with this game. It has good story premice, amazing setting and very brutal combat system. Weapon impact is beyond fantastic, you can slice off body parts from enemies and also feel the weight of your tools of justice. Level design is pretty solid, you always making progression to unlock new parts of maps (which are HUGE) or shortcuts. Exploration is always rewarded. Overall in my opinion The Surge is a very underrated game, it deserves much better.
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I was super close not to recommend The Surge and give a review based on pure frustration and rage. If you always despised runbacks in the Dark Souls series, you will find a new level of hate here, and it's not even about the bosses. In The Surge, you have one hub (acting like a bonfire) per every bigger area plus a lot of shortcuts that need to be found and unlocked first. As a result, you will find yourself roaming through the same corridors with a sh!tload of dead ends. There's a high chance you will die randomly after a 5-minute run to the door that unlocks a shortcut, completely forgetting the path you took to get there in the first place. The runbacks and backtracking wouldn't be that bad if the scenography was a little more diverse. Instead, the only 'biome' in the game is an abandoned factory with thousands of the same-looking rooms, hallways, and passageways. Most of the time, it's hard to tell where you are until you finally become familiar with this maddening maze. THAT SAID, I'm still having a blast with this game. The combat system is directly linked to crafting - you have to target particular limbs and cut them in order to unlock new schematics (for the armor part/weapon the enemy has) or gather upgrade materials. You can also choose to target the most vulnerable spots to kill an enemy faster or just fight without targeting at all. There is also an implant system that lets you change your build on the fly (in one of the hubs) - while pretty interesting, I feel most of the players will stuff the majority of available implant slots with health buffs, at least at the beginning of the journey. However, it lets you play a lot with the combat strategy later on when you unlock all the available implant slots and find the most interesting implants in the game world. All in all, it's a bit different take on Souls games but super enjoyable nevertheless. You can also get it very cheap on sale with all the DLCs included and it's totally worth it - both 'The Good, the Bad and the Augmented' and 'A Walk in the Park' make a good break from the abandoned factory theme and let you enjoy the combat in different sceneries.
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Seven years after I first played the demo for The Surge, I've finally completed it. My thanks to WheatStoneHolmes for giving me a copy of the full game way back in 2019. I feel like gamers didn't appreciate this game enough. Recently I've seen so many AAA games with much larger budgets, development teams, and gameplay features still only amount to “zog-slop” gamer gruel; totally soulless gaming experiences that struggle to make the player feel anything at any point in their bloated 60+ hr. runtimes. The Surge was a mid-2010s AA game that has a strong current of inspiration running through it. It keeps things simple and focused. The theme is the inevitable self-destruction that will result from mankind's relentless pursuit of technological development. Even the new technological "solutions" to the earlier problems, themselves caused caused by earlier technological "solutions," cause new problems, in an infinite progression of futility. A character encountered in The Surge is perceptive enough to see this futile cycle and he uses technology to develop a process to end it, once and for all. 99.8% fatalities are predicted. The developers were able to carry this technological theme over to the gameplay. Rather than the player character having inherent stats that increase as he levels up like 99% of RPGs, in The Surge ALL stats are tied to external equipment and implants. In keeping with modern approaches to applying technology, everything is modular and replacable at the player's will. No character development decisions are ever permanent. The Surge is a very thoughtfully-made game. There's no point in me reviewing game mechanics so long after its release. It was fun and challenging, but what's really gonna stick with me is how it showed humanity pushed to the brink by a mindless commitment to technological development, efficiency and problem-solving. It's getting at a real, deeper aspect of the modern era that often goes unnoticed and uncriticized. I bought The Surge 2 and when I play it (someday!), I hope for more exploration of these themes. They're perfect for an ultra-dark setting and morbid storytelling.
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Frequently Asked Questions
The Surge is currently priced at 1.94€ on Steam.
The Surge is currently available at a 87% discount. You can purchase it for 1.94€ on Steam.
The Surge received 8,236 positive votes out of a total of 10,951 achieving a rating of 7.37.
😊
The Surge was developed by Deck13 and published by Focus Entertainment.
The Surge is playable and fully supported on Windows.
The Surge is not playable on MacOS.
The Surge is not playable on Linux.
The Surge is a single-player game.
There are 5 DLCs available for The Surge. Explore additional content available for The Surge on Steam.
The Surge does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
The Surge supports Remote Play on TV. Discover more about Steam Remote Play.
The Surge is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for The Surge.
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Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 07 September 2025 06:13 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 10 September 2025 13:55 |
| Steam price | 14 September 2025 12:47 |
| Steam reviews | 12 September 2025 20:08 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about The Surge, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about The Surge
- SteamCharts - Analysis of The Surge concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck The Surge compatibility
Game modes
Features
Online players
93
Developer
Deck13
Publisher
Focus Entertainment
Release
15 May 2017
Platforms
Remote Play
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