Trepang2: Review

This game was reviewed on PC.

Reviewed by:  Nikola Hristov

For fans of games such as F.E.A.R. and DOOM, Trepang2 is going to make you feel right at home. This short, yet action-packed experience is almost surely going to be a fun one for you. Unfortunately, there isn't much to the game outside of a few missions full of bloody destruction, but that's its charm anyways. So is Trepang2 worthy of your time and money?

The developers of the same name Trepang Studios set out to create a love letter to every player out there who has enjoyed gory massacres before. A game where you play as an ultimate badass with several different weapon types and many enemies for you to brutalize along the way. Though this concept is familiar to us all, the game also sprinkles in different abilities which improve combat and give you different options. But before I get to that, let's cover the basic stuff first.

The story is painfully simple and nothing special, but not in a necessarily bad way. You play as Subject 106, who is essentially a super-soldier experiment, and you get rescued from a prison at the start of the game by a task force called the Syndicate. The next few missions are essentially go to this point on the map and take down other Subjects that, unlike you, aren't "good guys". They're experiments gone wrong, made by a corporation called Horizon. It's up to you to set things right. There is a plot twist towards the end of the campaign, but it's one you can expect, definitely something we've all seen before. However, we all know that the story is rarely the focus of these types of games. There's also side-missions and funny cheats that are unlocked by completing all main missions, which I guess adds some replayability… but I doubt most players will come back for a second playthrough just for that.

Instead, it's all about the violence, baby! And man, is the gunplay in this game amazing! Like I already explained, there's several different weapon types to choose from such as shotguns, pistols and assault rifles, SMGs and even grenade launchers (which you can even dual wield)! Ammo is a small problem at the beginning, but towards the end you get plenty from just killing other armed soldiers. What I like about the game is, because of the different ammo and its scarcity in some parts of the levels, you'll essentially be forced to use all different weapons, instead of choosing a single one and sticking by it for the whole story. But guns aren't everything – on top of them you also get two special abilities – Focus, which essentially slows down time to make dodging enemies and landing headshots easier, and Cloak, which makes you invisible and plays into the stealth aspect of the game. Yes, you heard that right – you have stealth. It's especially useful early game because of the lack of ammunition, but it's quite unique to a gory action-based FPS. It's not well made, don't get me wrong, but it's nice to have the option to get behind enemies and take one or two out before starting the massacre. Though I will say, I found that Cloak runs out a bit too fast, and I often couldn't get into the proper position before enemies saw me. One more gameplay mechanic I loved is grabbing enemies, where you get the option to snap their neck, throw them at a wall or throw them with a sticky bomb on top! It's hilarious to just throw a soldier at his comrades and watch them all explode together. I also can't complain from the boss fights – there weren't many, but they were challenging even on Normal difficulty, yet not unbeatable.

An underrated aspect of the game is the level design, especially one level in particular – I don't want to spoil much, it's the fourth main level of the game, but man, was it scary. The horror aspects are done really well – not just jumpscares, but atmospherically too. That level alone is so well done – I'll just say it's inspired by SCP and a recent trend about some never-ending "rooms", I'm sure you can figure it out! Kudos to whoever came up with the idea for that part of the game.

I'm also happy with the performance – it was pretty much excellent from start to finish, no frame drops, great graphics and fast loading times – faster than I expected honestly. The game is really well optimised, so nothing to complain about here.

To summarize, Trepang2 won't leave you speechless, but I would be lying if I said the game isn't fun. This gory hardcore shooter is just as badass as its predecessors, namely F.E.A.R., and is time well spent. Though I believe the game could have used a few more levels and bosses, as well as more creative level design such as the one from the Fourth main mission, this is a solid experience that I would recommend to anyone who needs to blow off some steam and isn't scared of anything in their way.

Reviewed by: Nikola Hristov