I was able to sit down and view an early showing of The Surge 2, the sequel to 2017’s Action/RPG souls-like game, at this year’s E3. Building on what The Surge established, Deck13 seeks to improve the experience players have while providing a new take in the Souls-like genre of games.

The Surge 2 is planned as a direct sequel to the original game and will take place about 2 months after the end of the first game. Players will not need to have completed The Surge to understand the story in Surge 2.

However, those that have will have a deeper understanding of the story and notice small inserts and lore points that other players may miss during their playthrough.

Combat will be enhanced in The Surge 2, with a planned improved AI and increased combat options, one of which is being able to directly equip ranged weapons to your drone and call them out at a moments notice.

Beyond that, an improved inventory system is also planned. During the demonstration, the developer showed off the ability to pick up items that directly correlated to the part of the enemy the player destroyed.

In their example, the player character destroyed a camouflaging ranger enemy. By destroying the chest of the enemy, after combat, they were able to get an item that revealed hidden enemies in the immediate vicinity. Also, a larger game world is planned for The Surge 2.

Contrary to the first game, The Surge 2 will feature larger, more open world-ish type maps. I spoke with the developer and their lead level designer after the demonstration and he described their planned level layout as a cross between Dark Souls 1 and Dark Souls 2.

Larger, more open maps that all interconnect with one another the further the player progresses, opening up new paths and shortcuts further in to the game. Beyond that, there is a central type area planned that serves as a type of moderate hub within the game world.

Finally, the character in The Surge 2 will be completely customizable. There is a character creation option planned for The Surge 2 and the developer showed off a few pre-created character sets during our sit down.

From what was shown off, it seems as if Focus Home and Deck13 listened to fans of the first game and are seeking to correct the issues that players had with The Surge while improving on what fans found enjoyable.

The Surge 2 is set for a 2019 release for Windows PC and “consoles.”