Review
Played on: Xbox Series X & PC
Released: 2023
I extensively covered the whole F.E.A.R. series last year, check that out here. Having a craving for something similar, I randomly came across some Trepang2 screenshots and went to try a demo of it on Steam just after summer, last year. It was released not long after for my Xbox Series X and I couldn’t help picking it up.
First off, if you’re seeking a similar gameplay experience to F.E.A.R., rest assured this game will fulfil your need for tons of guns blazing combined with slow-motion. However, if you’re seeking the same narrative experience, then you’re going to be disappointed. While the gameplay and visual flair lives more than up to its inspiration, the story and presentation does not. That said, there’s more than a handful of jump scares for horror fans.
Strikingingly similar to F.E.A.R. visually, Trepang2 kicks off in a concrete underground facility, af training level if you will. Here you're accustomed to the slow-motion and cloaking abilities. Both use up an energy meter, which requires kills to refill, and can only used in bursts. Gunplay is fast and violent, just like F.E.A.R., featuring amazingly chaotic gunfights. Full of enemies and tons of debris crashing about as walls, shelves and objects are shot to pieces.
The shooting feels solid old-school, fire from the hip style, with a neat set of guns which can be customised with silencers, larger magazine and scopes. These attachments are scattered about mission levels and need to be found to be combined with their associated weapons. Bullet impact and violent death animations with lots of blood, give a satisfying, over the top, shooter experience you associate with older releases in the genre.
When intense firefights heat up and multiple enemies rush towards you, forcing you to hit your increased reflexes button, there's something beautiful about a ballad of slow-motion and chaos that brings back memories of both F.E.A.R. and Max Payne. Slowing everything down makes the speed and chaos bearable, allowing you to get the upper hand in battle. It also serves as a way of soaking in the visual craziness of debris, bullet trails and environment parts flying everywhere.
I extensively covered the whole F.E.A.R. series last year, check that out here. Having a craving for something similar, I randomly came across some Trepang2 screenshots and went to try a demo of it on Steam just after summer, last year. It was released not long after for my Xbox Series X and I couldn’t help picking it up.
First off, if you’re seeking a similar gameplay experience to F.E.A.R., rest assured this game will fulfil your need for tons of guns blazing combined with slow-motion. However, if you’re seeking the same narrative experience, then you’re going to be disappointed. While the gameplay and visual flair lives more than up to its inspiration, the story and presentation does not. That said, there’s more than a handful of jump scares for horror fans.
Strikingingly similar to F.E.A.R. visually, Trepang2 kicks off in a concrete underground facility, af training level if you will. Here you're accustomed to the slow-motion and cloaking abilities. Both use up an energy meter, which requires kills to refill, and can only used in bursts. Gunplay is fast and violent, just like F.E.A.R., featuring amazingly chaotic gunfights. Full of enemies and tons of debris crashing about as walls, shelves and objects are shot to pieces.
The shooting feels solid old-school, fire from the hip style, with a neat set of guns which can be customised with silencers, larger magazine and scopes. These attachments are scattered about mission levels and need to be found to be combined with their associated weapons. Bullet impact and violent death animations with lots of blood, give a satisfying, over the top, shooter experience you associate with older releases in the genre.
When intense firefights heat up and multiple enemies rush towards you, forcing you to hit your increased reflexes button, there's something beautiful about a ballad of slow-motion and chaos that brings back memories of both F.E.A.R. and Max Payne. Slowing everything down makes the speed and chaos bearable, allowing you to get the upper hand in battle. It also serves as a way of soaking in the visual craziness of debris, bullet trails and environment parts flying everywhere.
Trepang2 is how I imagine a F.E.A.R. would look like visually in modern times, it's not high-end on the graphics scale, but it does it's job nicely. Special effects is what it's all about, the surrounding environments are fairly repetitive and lack the finer detail. Then again, they serve as backdrops for the main focus of tons of shooting and are varied enough visually.
Despite the obvious F.E.A.R. influence, Trepang2 takes a few unique steps of its own when it comes to it's layout and locations. After the first stage, you're introduced to a secret mountain cave base where you can wander about, change your equipment, uniform and try guns at an armoury. There's also a map room, where you can select main missions for story progression but, more interestingly, also side-missions.
These side-mission take place at smaller locations. Be it a spooky, derelict house, in an orange clad sunset field, or a crashed airliner on a mountain top at night. These levels basically require you to stay alive as wave after wave of enemies are thrown at you. They’re tough to complete and repetitive in nature, but they’re addictive and a nice break for the main missions, fleshing out the lifespan of the whole experience.
Trepang2's story is fairly basic in it's presentation and will take a strange turn where you don't expect it. I won't ruin this part, but it goes quite dark and scary! Somehow it works fine if you're prepared to play it for mainly the gameplay and not a deep experience. While the main story won’t turn any heads, it’s ominous atmosphere will keep you at your toes.
Where it lacks the most is the anonymity to the main cast and story, it feels generically presented and lacking characters talking to you face to face. It's mostly radio chatter driven by standard army chatter as a backdrop. Better cinematics and key main characters would've gone a long way to make the story more personal and engaging.
These side-mission take place at smaller locations. Be it a spooky, derelict house, in an orange clad sunset field, or a crashed airliner on a mountain top at night. These levels basically require you to stay alive as wave after wave of enemies are thrown at you. They’re tough to complete and repetitive in nature, but they’re addictive and a nice break for the main missions, fleshing out the lifespan of the whole experience.
Trepang2's story is fairly basic in it's presentation and will take a strange turn where you don't expect it. I won't ruin this part, but it goes quite dark and scary! Somehow it works fine if you're prepared to play it for mainly the gameplay and not a deep experience. While the main story won’t turn any heads, it’s ominous atmosphere will keep you at your toes.
Where it lacks the most is the anonymity to the main cast and story, it feels generically presented and lacking characters talking to you face to face. It's mostly radio chatter driven by standard army chatter as a backdrop. Better cinematics and key main characters would've gone a long way to make the story more personal and engaging.
As a whole, it feels like a completion list of missions with a vague red line connecting them. That said, I must stress this, the gameplay is really entertaining, the core part of why you should consider it. While the "why's" and "who's" of what's going on are never answered or explained well.
It’s not up there with F.E.A.R. when it comes to the overall package, but for fans of the same gameplay in shooters, it’s a no-brainer purchase. The Xbox Series X version runs 60fps and feels great to control on a pad, as does the PC version. It's not as fine tuned as F.E.A.R. for the difficulty curve, so be aware. It's clearly aimed at more hardcore shooter fans, relentlessly throwing enemies at you!
