The Surge – New Info On The Story And The World of Surge

The developers have posted a new blog which gives us a more detailed look at the world and story of the surge…

Hello everyone!

Our hardcore Action-RPG The Surge, featuring brutal exo-skeleton combat on a dying Earth, comes to PS4, Xbox One and PC 16 on May 2017!

As we draw close to our game’s release, we’re publishing a series of devblogs that we hope will give you an insight into the exciting features, environments and lore of our game.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen a lot of questions online regarding the story and world of The Surge. Today, we’ve given a go at answering some of these questions!

How far into the future is The Surge set?

The Surge is set in a not-too-distant future. We found it important for players to feel that everything they see could actually happen. We took a close look at the things going on in today’s world and tried to imagine what would happen if they were to evolve in a more unfavorable way.

What will happen if companies continue to put profits over ethics, if workers are seen as tools instead of people, if robotics and artificial intelligence claim more and more space in our lives? How does that evolve if it’s met by selfish managers and politicians that care more for their own well-being instead of future generations?

We don’t answer all of these questions in The Surge but we’ve tried to show one example of such a future. We found that some decades away from today will suffice to show these things in the world of The Surge.

What happened to create this dystopian future?

The world of The Surge doesn’t reflect the “traditional” dystopian near-future world like those portrayed in many popular Cyberpunk novels from the 90s. Instead, we focused on the “feel-good exploitation” of today – big companies selling their goods to the world while employees are exploited for labor.

In the future of The Surge, only a handful of companies dominate the global market. When the politicians were finally forced to react to the environmental issues like climate change, draughts and overpopulation, they gave a huge amount of funding to one of the most renowned electronics companies to fix it: CREO Industries.

Gigantic compounds are created that are able to shoot rockets into the atmosphere in an interval of just a couple of minutes. This is Project RESOLVE. The plan is to deploy chemical agents into the atmosphere that heal and stabilize it over time, in order to recreate a climate balance our planet needs to survive. Trillions of dollars are pumped into CREO, and for years rockets launching into the sky becomes a common sight. The program is ambitious but there seems to be no alternative. That said, not everyone is relieved to see it carried out…

How did Warren end up in CREO?

Who would want to see the global companies failing when they need a job? This is how our “hero” Warren ends up at CREO.

When Warren gets the chance to apply for a job at CREO, he’s more than willing to give it a try, as life hasn’t worked out too well for him so far. All he wants is some work to do and some money in his pocket – even if that means getting an exo rig drilled into his bones to be fitted for heavy duty work, while living most of his life behind the walls of the CREO complex.

What triggers the events of The Surge?

After arriving at CREO, Warren realizes too late that something’s wrong. When he gets his exoskeleton fitted, he finds that the machines don’t quite follow protocol as they should.

Following a painful, non-sedated operation he awakens from unconsciousness to find himself in a junkyard outside the factory walls. He’s still alive, but that’s not relevant to the disassembly drones trying to remove that valuable tech scrap from his body… using very sharp tools. Without knowing exactly what has happened, Warren must fight for his life and find a way back into the factory to find answers.

Thanks for reading! Watch this space as we release devblogs in the coming weeks – see you soon for our next article!