- Tested on PC using a code provided by the editor
- Test configuration: RTX 4090 + i9-9900K
- Campaign completed in 5 hours
- Configuration 7.1 full volume + FPS bourrin do not do good cleaning with pets
- Trépang (or sea biche): name given to various species of large edible holothurias of the Red Sea, Indian and Pacific Oceans
Fruit of the hard work of four developers, the nervous and ultraviolent FPS Trepang2 Finally arrives after long years of waiting. The demo, available on Steam for a while, was already giving water to the mouth. It must be said that its atmosphere « to the F.E.A.R. » and its slow-moving dismemberments had been able to titillate the sensitive rope of the author of these lines, to the point of spending about twenty hours in Horde mode. What about the final version?
I make holes, small holes, even small holes.
Let's go straight to the point: as MaG wrote in 2021, Trepang2 is a nameless butcher shop. If, you too, in video games, you are the kind to shoot at inert bodies « to see what it feels like » and that the tendency to make the carcasses disappear or make transparent displease you, then the title of Trepang Studios should outline a smile.
It is a great pleasure to see these poor Zouaves at the time. ragdoll hilarious decay into lasagna under our bastos. When they do not burn it, the bullets penetrate the flesh and leave their reddish signature, all subjugated by the almost stroboscopic flashes caused by the light of departure of your weapon when pressing the trigger: epileptics, abstain.
Warm-ups are numerous, and time is scarce. Barely the game just started that already Trepang2 gives us all the tools to carry out our murderous escape: a camouflage allowing us to make ourselves temporarily invisible, a Bullet time and a slide. If the power of invisibility is used more rarely, the other two abilities are at the heart of the gameplay.
Thus, slowing down the time, if the corresponding gauge is sufficiently filled, allows not only to breathe for a few seconds to catch up with the frenzied course of action, but also to veer in all directions with style and to enjoy better the fragmentation of the bodies of our opponents. The slow motion distorts their screams with pain, which resonate to leave sometimes in the serious, sometimes in the acute, like a haunted gramophone.
Sea biche 2
You will understand, the shootings are absolutely fun, especially since your character as your opponents do not seem to be subject to the laws of gravity, at least not the one we know. So you'll soon have to forget all fall damage and never hesitate to throw yourself out of a floor by shoveling the heads that pass through your viewfinder to any berzingu.
One of those piles of cannon flesh protects itself behind a shield? Slide on it to send valdinguer to the ceiling, activate the idle at the same time, then pull out your double revolver to reduce it to a heap and slide below it while its tripes cover the walls. How good! Very quickly, the jousts are transformed into frenzied choreographies, transcended by Brandon McKagan's metal and wild soundtrack, available on Bandcamp.
In addition to fluid and nervous controls, how can we not mention the fantastic feeling of firearms? We probably have one of the best here. sound design never designed in a video game as much the raw power of each detonation travels from your index to your thriller in a fraction of a second, before you realize that you haven't blinked for a minute. Emptying the charger is absolutely fun (it changes the ball guns of a Gears of War) and it's good, because the casings will rain. The AI is also for once quite gifted to encircle you, even if you should not expect the overarmed zigotos that face you to recite the Pleiade.
« Ummagumma, Trepang2, is it better than F.E.A.R? ». It's more complicated than that, son. Can I call you Robby? One, RobbyMonolith had a development team composed of dozens of people against four souls for Trepang2, so let's compare what's comparable, little ungrateful. If the game resumes killing in slow motion of the F.E.A.R. and to a lesser extent its horrific characterUnfortunately, he lacks two things to truly shine as a renowned spiritual successor: a binder and a good level of design.
A low-end level of design
Let's start with the « binder », this famous guiding thread KillerS7ven always refused to see in the excellent Battlefield 1, under the pretext of his lack of skills helicopters that logically made the school bush. It's very simple, there isn't. Or almost not.
To sum up, the scenario, if I understood correctly, asks you to eliminate the look of Jeff Bezos, a little as was already the case in the case of Jeff Bezos. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, except in the Platinum Games title, it was double François Hollande. This simili-Jeff anteva-nu-feet as bald as bad indeed conducted ethically questionable experiments, unless he had telepathic powers, no matter! Everybody don't care. the story is atrociously mistold.
So we run everywhere by massacring everything that moves on our way, without really understanding why, what harms the cathartic effect that would make our bloodbath more motivating, because more personal and « justified » (note the use of quotes, I will only speak in the presence of my lawyer).
The concern of all these offices and other dull places that flow together is that, as in the real life where spent the first day of work in a open space We want to hang ourselves, it quickly becomes rebarbatory. The fault to environments is certainly a little varied, but without any folly or inventiveness in their structure. The whole decor flies away, it's true, but the corridors and their austere tracks remain. Too bad.
We also regret the presence of failed, exhausting, absolutely useless and fortunately few bosses fighting. It should also be noted that if the main campaign is rather short (about five hours to see the end), it is possible to repeat each mission at a higher level of difficulty.
As for the military base, which serves as the main hub, it will allow you, even after taking the credits, to perform secondary missions and combat simulations, all of which are very successful Horde modes. The opportunity to return to the essentials in narrowed arenas and focus on what Trepang2 can do the best, either simulate a carnage, with the lack of finesse that such an act involves.
Verdict
As a spiritual successor to F.E.A.R.'s indie version, Trepang2 has serious assets to make its point, starting with its visceral feeling of every moment during the shootings and its propensity to release a brute force that sometimes reminds us of the ardour of Max Payne 3's most austere heats. Fluid, nervous, ultraviolent and almost free from technical clings at the exit, the work of Trepang Studios developers impresses with its shape. Unfortunately, all this is not enough to make the experience as memorable as it would have been, the fault of an indigent level of design, outdated boss fights and a lack of widespread staging and binding that gives the feeling a little too tenacious that the campaign has been DIY wirelessly directed around Horde mode. If Trepang2 shoots slightly next to its target, however, it remains a highly recommendable FPS, even difficult to dispensable for all F.E.A.R nostalgics and afficionados of virtual dismemberment.For
- Nervous and visceral action
- The feeling of weapons, absolutely enjoyable, and perhaps the best to date in an FPS
- The high-flying sound design of the shots and their consequences on the wounded bodies
- Visual rendering of dismemberments
- The hilarious ragdoll of opponents
- Partially destructible decors and blood projections on all major surfaces
- The greying metal soundtrack and in line with the action
- Horde mode and its cheats to unlock as a reward to prolong the fun once the credits run
- Technically at exit point
- The double gun
Against
- Level design often rickets
- Insipid narration
- Lack of variety in enemy combinations
- The boss fights, exhausting and useless
- Why didn't you give the opportunity to handle two weapons in the middle of the adventure?
I suspected that the level design and coating would be his weak point. We can't necessarily do miracles with such a small team.
I've already asked you the question off but we're going to make it look like you didn't give me the answer ^^ Is there a mark assigned to each end of the level as for a BTA or an Evil Resident for example? Otherwise very good criticism, but attacking GeOW by failing to talk about the Lanzor and its magic chainsaw is HONTEUX!!
SHAME SHAME SHAME!
Unfortunately no, it would have been nice indeed. The game goes straight to the goal, it's not very subtle 🙂