TREPANG^2: Review
Bewm
It’s Called What?
Steam Next Fest has been a godsend for indie devs. A front page showcase of demos of upcoming titles from the hungriest of indie developers on Steam. One such dev team is Trepang Studios, a Team 17 backed crew of talented individuals with one question: What if we brought back F.E.A.R?
Enter TREPANG^2(Look, I can’t do the “squared” deal, so bear with me) the long awaited project with hopes of capturing the essence of the F.E.A.R games with a modern uplift, and it does so with unmatched gusto. An Unreal Engine joint that runs much better than 99 percent of AAA releases*. Mid aughts action and feel, yet with modern quality of life. A game that has the audacity of having cheats and unlockables in 2023. I kinda dig it, see?
*Diablo IV being the 1 percent.
Stealth: Activated.
A Tale of Pain
You start off with nothing, no knowledge of who or what you are. Only to get the hell out. Then you slowly pick up some things, like the ability to briefly fully cloak to evade or get the jump on your foes. Handy for getting out of a tight spot or pursuing stealth in your engagements. Then you realize you have the ability to bend time, going full Max Payne, or The Matrix if that’s your flavor. Needing only kills to fill up the gauge. The mysteries surrounding your past and what’s going on slowly reveal the more intel you find, including some odd looking drones.(Don’t worry, no spoilers here.) The story is pretty cool, it’s B movie, but it’s a lot of fun. The banter between the allies you meet and the enemies you encounter is especially great, with stuff like enemies reacting differently depending on what actions you take or start off cocky, but quickly cower at your overwhelming power. Once you escape the first area, you’re taken to a hidden facility to learn what role you will take going forward, bring down Horizon, the evil corporation that does evil things. As well as OTHER mysterious entities…
Your missions, should you choose to accept them.
Cam-pain
Main story runs fairly short and sweet, can net you about 4-6 hours if ran through and much more if you do the side content and go for 100% completion. I focused on the main campaign and the side missions while also playing around in the wave based combat sim for a bit. The bounty board is a list of all the high value targets in the game, most of which you’ll dispatch through regular play while others only come out at higher difficulties. I finished on Hard, which is the middle of the road on the difficulty scale, which was pretty damn challenging, the final fights in particular tested every skill I learned up to that point. Can’t imagine the masochists attempting Rage mode.
Pffft, show off.
Max Pain
Gameplay is a dream, the slow-mo alone is so damn satisfying, a feature sorely missed these days, all this with a banger of a soundtrack that is VERY Mick Gordon and is a perfect companion to your mass murder of bad guys. Your main opponents are a mix of low level grunts, and armored soldiers. Later on you’ll run into elite stealth units where only their visor can be seen and are really tricky to take down. All the way up to entire squads of heavily armored troops with riot shields, miniguns and a TON of aggression. See, the AI in this game is sobering to say the least, Call Of Duty hit scan laser tag bots these are not. They will flank, they will ambush, they will test you constantly, sometimes scare the hell out of you… Which brings me to the, OTHER, opponents. The game also hosts faceless cultists that shift the game from a straight action piece, to a bit of a horror game. From worthless acolytes to the Father himself, they’ll keep you on your toes with their own set of strategies that differ from Horizons military. But, this game did bring in more than just the combat from F.E.A.R…
Wait, i thought this was just a shooter?
Scare-pain…ok i’m done.
It would be hard not to bring up the other stuff without spoiling just a little(it IS shown in the game’s trailer), but there are full blown horror levels in here. There are zombie like foes early on that weren’t bad at all, that’s kinda all I expected to be honest. But boy this game flipped a 180 on me once I progressed further, particularly the abandoned house side mission. Once these kinds of areas show up, you’re defenseless. You’re just along for the ride, and honestly these were a treat and i’m not a horror fan by any means. I only got through the first 2 F.E.A.R games and they weren’t that bad in comparison. I’m not saying they’ll give you nightmares or make you consider therapy, but man these did have me clench my nether regions more than once. But that’s all i’ll say about em, dig in for yourself to see what i mean.
My best friend.
Break The Cycle
What more can I say about this other than damn is it so refreshing to see a game like this these days. Pure labor of love to the mid 2000s era of shooters and action games. Just 30 bucks nets you a fantastic throwback title that satiates a thirst i’ve had, and i know many others have had, for a long time.