Deck 13 released The Surge expansion today titled The Good, The Bad, and The Augmented. The new gives the game a wild west theme, and a less serious tone. The Surge: The Good, The Bad, and The Augmented is $9.99 and is available now.
According to Deck13 and publisher Focus Home Interactive, The Good, The Bad, and The Augmented follows player character Warren as he hunts through an abandoned CREO lab that is western themed. The Surge expansion has a lot of new content including new weapons, enemies, armor, augmentations, and areas for the player to experience.
The immediate lighthearted tone of the launch trailer is a vast departure from the rest of The Surge. The tone is being attributed to the “mad doctor” that player character Warren must face in the expansion.
The Surge released in May 2017. It is Deck13’s second foray into the action-RPG subgenre that has been referred to as “Souls-likes.” The combat system in The Surge is heavily inspired by Dark Souls with the biggest twist being the ability to target and cripple specific parts of an enemy’s body. Deck 13’s Lords of the Fallen came out several years earlier and was an early attempt at making a “Souls-like.” The Surge received a warmer reception upon release, although its world lacked character.
Deck 13 is currently developing a sequel to The Surge. That game was announced in February 2018 with a release date set for some time in 2019. The Surge 2 is looking like it is taking the sci-fi Souls-like to lush forests. Both this The Surge expansion and The Surge 2 look like they are attempting to address complaints about the first game. It will expand upon the limb-targeting mechanics of the first game, take place in a new area, and run on an upgraded engine.