Lords of the Fallen was a well regarded, if somewhat flawed action-RPG that left people wanting to see what the developers could do in the future. The Surge is their second game, and while it’s also an action-rpg it is completely different in theme from Lords of the Fallen. We had the chance to watch a hands off presentation of the game to show us exactly what it is.

To give some backstory, The Surge takes place in a world where people in Elysium-style exo-skeletons have replaced many pieces of machinary, like forklifts. The demo opens with your character regaining conciousness in the middle of an industrial junkyard, unaware of why he has lost conciousness or what is going on. As he wanders through the junkyard, he is accosted by a fellow employee who seems to have gone quite mad with rage.

This opening battle shows one of The Surge’s most interesting additions to its battle system; the ability to target enemy limbs in real time during battle. By targeting limbs, you can cripple an enemy’s weapon arm, causing it to be unable to attack and do damage to you, but the intricacies don’t stop there. There are no traders or shopkeepers in The Surge, so the only way for you to gain new materials or items to upgrade yourself is to dismember pieces from your enemies. See a helmet you want on an enemy? Punch them in the face enough times that their head comes off and pick it up to gain a schematic on how to make it for yourself. This looks like a really interesting way to manage the growth of your character and brings an extra level of strategy into battle.

As we make our way through the junkyard, which is appropriately rusty and disorganised, it becomes apparent that their isn’t a whole lot of dialogue or conversation. While this may change in later portions of the game, the emphasis seems to be on not harming the immersion of the game by throwing the story in your face. This is further confirmed by the confirmation that there will be no cut scenes during the game.

As we get to the end of the junkyard, we come across a large boss that decides we’re a threat and launches into attack. Initially, the character is unable to damage the boss at all, all you can do is increase how threatening you are by attacking it. Once the threat level hits a certain point, the boss launches a volley of auto-targeting rockets towards you. If you quickly run under the bosses legs it will hit itself with the rockets, knocking it to the ground and allowing you to damage it for the first time. It’s an interesting concept for boss battles.

The Surge is coming to PS4, Xbox One and PC in 2017.