History VideoGame / TheSurge2

* DropTheHammer: Hammers are now their own weapon class. They tend to have more impact than edged weapons, but swing slower.

* BladeOnAStick: Spears are a new weapon class; while ''The Surge 1'' had a few spear-like staff weapons, these consist of jabbing attacks rather than the wide sweeps staffs used.

** As an example, Gideon's Rock is a CREO sponsored artificial nature reserve in the center of Jericho City. The plants are largely artificial with only a few organic plants existing, there are holopoints marking the habitats of the last known living organisms of a species (Such as the grizzly bear), and the advertisements glorify the various artificial replacements as "better than the real thing used to be." Inside there is where you can find the SERU Biomaster, a flame staff used for controlling vegetation. Its description states that it has fallen into disfavor since it's so efficient at destroying the last few natural plants left on Earth.

* PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo: Warren shows up in a handful of audio logs, and his [[WeaponOfChoice Signature Weapon]] was a PreOrderBonus. [[spoiler: He is also the mysterious masked man who encounters your player character a few times.]]

* CommonplaceRare: The Equalizer Heavy Duty weapon from the first game returns, as one of the most common heavy weapons used by starter enemies. In ''The Surge 1'' that weapon was only created through a specific sidequest that required giving a load of scrap metal to a mysterious woman in the vents three times, with which she forged a tool of personalized vengeance. Here there's dozens of them used by convicts and scavengers!

* BadBoss: Little Johnny is this by default for pushing a dangerous and addictive drug on his followers, but he takes it UpToEleven when he starts killing his own underlings just because [[PsychopathicManchild he's upset after receiving a stern call]] from his mother, Matriach Celeste.

* ScavengerWorld: Jericho City has become this; in contrast to the first ''Surge'', where your enemies were cyber-zombies, this place is overrun by fully cognizant but ruthless scavengers killing each other for scraps.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: While it was borne of desperation, hunting, then forcing [[spoiler: Athena, who clearly hates them, into linking with the Nanite cloud, in hopes she could control it for them.]] All they succeeded in doing is giving extreme power to someone who had no reason to help them.

* WalkThePlank: At one point, you can witness a Collective robot kicking a civilian off a plank on the ''VBS Krakow''. You'll earn a similarly-named achievement if you can manage to do this to the robot as well.

* ActionSurvivor: Everyone in Jericho City not associated with the A.I.D or J.C.P.D, including the player character. Though, depending on what background you chose at character creation, your character could very well have seen their own quite fair share of action, but having arrived in JC with no exo-rig, even that wasn't preparation enough. [[spoiler: Later on in the game, it is implied that you were killed in the plane crash at the start, and that the person you are now was rebuilt by Athena and the Rogue Process nanotech to serve as her "warrior" to protect her.]]

* AvengingTheVillain: After defeating Major General Shields, a special AID taskforce called the Ronin Squad starts pursuing the player in retaliation for what the remaining AID commanders regard as an assassination. They will ambush the player at various points around Jericho City, having been told that this task supersedes all other orders until it is complete.

* ClimaxBoss: The fight against Major General Ezra Shields at A.I.D Command Center. Not only you're fighting the head of A.I.D to rescue Athena, his defeat triggers major plot events that permanently change the overworld.

* {{Determinator}}: The player character faces off against numerous scavengers, A.I.D grunts, cutthroat mercs, robots and godforsaken nanite abominations in their quest. Bonus points if the player chooses a non-combat oriented background during character creation as their backstory.

** The side-quest for the Stranger (who is actually [[spoiler:Warren, the player character from the previous game]]), spans most of the game and is ''incredibly'' easy to fail, and it's also very easy to lose out on the best rewards for it. If you say the wrong thing to him at your first meeting he will never speak to you again. You can miss out on his first objective if you go to AID Command too early, locking yourself out of the best reward right then and there. The second objective for him is also missable but more easily signposted, as you'll have to pass him on your way through AID Command[[note]] if you didn't get him the armor, he'll be locked in a cell. If he does have it, he'll be near the Force Hook [[/note]]. When turning in the Repeller Coil for the third objective, you MUST give it to him before asking for a reward. [[spoiler: And in what can only be described as a questline version of a KaizoTrap, if you're on track for the best reward he'll suggest that you take the subway train out of the city instead of him, as a reward for all your efforts. Accepting that offer gives you a NonstandardGameOver of your character successfully escaping the city... and after the credits roll, the player is respawned back in the train station, but Warren and the train are now ''gone'' and you get '''none''' of the final rewards]]. Failing any of the three objectives locks you out from the best reward, and sometimes any reward at all.

* PoliceState: Now that you are outside of CREO HQ and away from its corporate security forces, the ''government's'' corporate security forces, A.I.D. (whose name stands for 'Attack, Insurrection, Disease') will be your main military foe. An unholy fusion of FEMA and Blackwater/Academi, the A.I.D take over in times of social unrest to brutally stamp down on those who disturb the social order, [[AllCrimesAreEqual as well as those who don't]]. From their propaganda to [[JudgeJuryAndExecutioner their authorization to carry out capital punishment at will]], these guys make Judge Dredd look like a mall cop. One throwaway line by an A.I.D. soldier mentions that people are listed not only by money but also "social ranking", and TV ads for A.I.D. mention how excellent they are at protecting their employers from the "underclass". In addition, an audio recording indicates that all citizens of Jericho City are required to have a listening chip implanted that records all of their conversations.

* SequenceBreaking: Though you can't ignore Little Johnny, you can put off his fight for a while by bypassing the AID security checkpoint early on by fighting your way through it (which is not easy at the start of the game) and then farming the enemies in the area outside of the Cloud 9 Bar. These enemies will drop higher-level components and good weapons, letting you load up with Mark 5 armor and weapons, as well as getting Liquidator gear to make you resistant to the toxic spills everywhere in the Docks.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: AID's endgoal is to control the nanite swarm by any means possible, in order to save the world. [[spoiler:They end up killing numerous children to find one able to control the swarm, and unleash her on the infection, but to disastrous results. They didn't consider that inserting a ''pissed-off'' child who could control nanites would result in a pissed-off ''storm'' of nanites.]]

NeedsWikiMagicLove.

* VideogameCrueltyPotential: While exploring the [[CargoCult Cathedral of the Spark]] you can find the severed head of [[spoiler: [[FatBastard Little Johnny]]]] in a [[DarkLordOnLifeSupport life support tank]]. You can shut off the life support at a nearby console so he dies screaming (again) even though doing so is entirely optional and you get no reward for it

* {{Determinator}}: The player character faces off against numerous scavengers, A.I.D grunts, cutthroat mercs,robots and godforsaken nanite abominations in their quest. Bonus points if the player chooses a non-combat oriented background during character creation as their backstory.

* EvilMatriarch: Matriarch Celeste fits the bill. The head of an extremist cult built from forceful conversion, whose two sons are a violent and fanatical cultist and a drug lord, respectively. Whether she believes in her own teachings or has some ulterior motive is unknown, but whatever she has planned can't be good for Jericho City, let alone the world at large. [[spoiler: She's even shown to resurrect her sons when they die, at the cost of them becoming increasingly mentally unstable. She resurrects Little Johnny only to stick his head in a jar as punishment for deviating from her teachings.]]

* SilentProtagonist: Since your character can be customized this time around, they never speak beyond grunts of effort during combat. (You do get unvoiced dialogue choices for some [=NPCs=], as per RPG tradition).

** [[spoiler: Made even more obvious in ''The Kraken'' DLC, where CAIN questions the player if they truly think they survived the plane crash in an attempt to break them.]]

* NonindicativeName: A.I.D. is not a crisis relief force. It stands for "Attack, Insurrection, Disease" and is a [[PrivateMilitaryContractors for-profit contract organization]] that operates pre-authorized to use lethal force. They are much more interested in murdering anyone who might have the plague than offering medical services (though some token effort to assist some evacuees exists at the camp by the wall).

* PoliceState: Now that you are outside of CREO HQ and away from its corporate security forces, the personnel of the government agency A.I.D. will be your main military foe. A turbocharged incarnation of FEMA, the A.I.D take over in times of social unrest to brutally stamp down on those who disturb the social order, [[AllCrimesAreEqual as well as those who don't]]. From their propaganda to [[JudgeJuryAndExecutioner their authorization to carry out capital punishment at will]], these guys make Judge Dredd look like a mall cop. One throwaway line by an AID soldier mentions that people are listed not only by money but also "social ranking." In addition, an audio recording indicates that all citizens of Jericho City are required to have a listening chip implanted that records all of their conversations.

* GuideDangIt: Hardcore Kills are back, once again the only clue they even exist is a loading screen hint, which once again an unlucky player may never see. While the human Rig bosses are obvious (cut off the right arm, like anyone else) the methods for bigger bosses are only hinted at in the non-Hardcore version of the weapon drop... after you've beaten them, meaning you won't be able to get the 2.0 version of the weapon until NewGamePlus.
** The side-quest for the Stranger (Who is actually [[spoiler:Warren, the player character from the previous game]]), spans most of the game and is ''incredibly'' easy to fail, and it's also very easy to lose out on the best rewards for it. If you say the wrong thing to him at your first meeting he will never speak to you again. You can miss out on his first objective if you go to AID Command too early, locking yourself out of the best reward right then and there. The second objective for him is also missable but more easily signposted, as you'll have to pass him on your way through AID Command[[note]] if you didn't get him the armor, he'll be locked in a cell. If he does have it, he'll be near the Force Hook [[/note]]. When turning in the Repeller Coil for the third objective, you MUST give it to him before asking for a reward. [[spoiler: And in what can only be described as a questline version of a KaizoTrap, if you're on track for the best reward he'll suggest that you take the subway train out of the city instead of him, as a reward for all your efforts. Accepting that offer gives you a NonstandardGameOver of your character successfully escaping the city... and after the credits roll, the player is respawned back in the train station, but Warren and the train are now ''gone'' and you get ''none'' of the final rewards]]. Failing any of the three objectives locks you out from the best reward, and sometimes any reward at all.

* HostileTerraforming: [[spoiler: the awakened Rogue Process nanotech is starts to do this to Jericho City after Athena is forced to merge with it. Huge chunks of the nanotech construction in the middle of the city begin raining down on the Downtown area and the whole place becomes infected with nanites that are converting people into zombies akin to the first game.]]