Some people have probably forgotten that before making the Shadow of Mordor games Monolith productions used to make ultra gory, horror shooters that were slow motion kill-fests. Vancouver-based Trepang Studios remembers and have made a homage to F.E.A.R. in the form of Trepang2.
Trepang2 centres around an operator called 106, who wakes up in a facility and then must fight their way out. It is revealed that they are victim to a shady corporation and must align themselves with a mysterious paramilitary group. What unravels is a globe trotting murder fest.
Trepang2 stumbled a little for me at first. Intending to set the mood of desperation the player is expected to go through a section of first-person stealth, avoiding heavily armed soldiers trying to track them down. The stealth feels heavily underdeveloped and made me worry that there would be an emphasis on it with the pace being dragged down. Fortunately, the player is soon handed a gun and momentum almost immediately shifts into high gear. It is still possible to stealth kill, grab human shields and methodically take out enemies, but thanks to the slow-motion feature the player can just start blasting while sweet, sweet butt-rock chugs in the background.
Trepang2 is incredibly violent, bodies will slump after a head is vaporised by a shotgun blast, soldiers scream in anguish as they are riddled full of slow-motion bullets. Taking a human shield allows the player to execute their target with a crunching neck break. Instead of the execution, the human shield can be punted, grenade attached to them, into teammates and detonated. When sprinting the player can go into a slide that will knock an opponent into the air (screaming obviously) and allow for them to be grotesquely dispatched.
Every shoot out ends with copious amounts of viscera spilled on the ground. This nastiness can be amped up by tweaking some of the cheats on in the pause menu – a welcome throwback to the PS2 and early X360 days.
When Trepang2 is in this mode, fighting human opponents, it is bliss to play. Later weapons, taken from Monolith’s finest, like the bolt gun will impale enemies against walls and there is a gruesome, meaty satisfaction to gunning your way through the hordes.
The difficulty settings are pitched perfectly too, Normal feels happy-go-lucky, while hard and higher expects the player to be more careful and use all the weapons in their arsenal.
Unfortunately, for me there were several moments that dragged. Namely any time the game decided to introduce supernatural elements. The human AI is not super smart, but at least they attempt to run away or take cover, the monsters that appear just run at the player and don’t feel dynamic or interesting.
Some great side missions open up after the first two missions – many akin to a single player horde mode – where speed and quick thinking allows for a lot of ultra-violence. However, this is shown to be stark contrast with some of the later missions where the dev team felt compelled to pay homage to the horror element of F.E.A.R.. The pace slowed down, requiring me to sneak past unkillable enemies, and I just didn’t find enjoyment with this area at all.
Another couple of places Trepang2 stumbles is the level design and the boss battles. There are far too many corridors that didn’t make me feel like I had any real arenas to work in. There is a standout level where 106 has to taken on a cult leader, where there are open areas to traverse, take cover, and lead enemies into traps but that ends up putting other stages shame instead of uplifting them.
The boss battles are downright awful. Big hulking bullet-sponges that do way too much damage. The final boss I had to resort to climbing on a piece of terrain and cheesing it to do enough damage and it soured the final minutes of the game.
Trepang2 is beholden, maybe a little too much, to its influences. Its gunplay is lean and fun. It is just a shame that the horror elements drag its pace to a crawl, and those boss battles need to go in the bin.
Conclusion
When Trepang2 is at its most gory it is a claret-drenched delight. Its attempts to delve into horror are less good.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
AJ Small
Apologies – I didn’t realise this had already gone live – and had to add a little extra about the level design and Boss Battles