Trepang2 review – a classic in a new coat

Trepang2 (or Trepang squared?) does have a two in its name, but you will look in vain for its direct predecessor. In fact, this is the first serious work of the Canadian indie studio of the same name, which at the time of the release of this game consisted of only four participants. By the way, the word trephine refers to the sea cucumber, considered a delicacy in some countries. And no, in this case it is not a vegetable.

• Platform: PC (review) XSX|S, PS5 (in preparation)
• Publication date: 06/21/2023
• Manufacturer: Trepang Studios (Canada)
• Genre: FPS
• Czech localization: No
• Multiplayer: No
• Download data: 35 GB
• Game time: 4-5 hours
• Price: CZK 732 (pairs)

However, Trepang2 follows one spiritual ancestor. This is FEAR from 2005, making it a sequel four years younger. Given the similarities between these games and the more or less acknowledged inspiration, one wonders whether Trepang2 could be an equally successful sequel to the original FEAR series, like 2017’s fantastic Prey for the System Shock series, or perhaps the modern Dishonored series for Old But Still Great Thief. Any parallel is inconclusive, and genetic kinship or spiritual inspiration cannot guarantee similarity of qualities.

Story

You start the story of Shooter Trepang 2 as a prisoner. Like the mysterious subject 106, who has lost his memory, but not a number of combat abilities. The game very quickly introduces you to a few basic mechanics and skills that will help you get through the rest of the game, and gets you into the action as quickly as possible, divided into six main missions and an equal number of additional side missions. The campaign itself is relatively short and can be completed on medium difficulty in around four to five hours. In the beginning you don’t know who you are, where you are, why you are here, who is your friend and who is your enemy. However, the game offers a relatively complete story that offers satisfying answers to these questions and which you can further unravel by collecting various information in individual levels or through dialogue with other NPCs, be it your companions on missions or simply chatting over the walkie-talkie. . How much attention the player pays to the story and how much he decides to delve into its details and corners, including through the built-in database and searching for various fragments in individual levels, is entirely up to him. As is customary, the game in no way forces you to watch it, and you can enjoy it even if you decide not to watch it completely. However, I definitely recommend trying to get at least some basic context, because then your efforts will make a lot more sense and you’ll enjoy some of the interesting parts of the story more.

In this case, the campaign will offer the player six relatively large autonomous missions, each of which takes place in a different setting. True to the legacy of its predecessor, Trepang2 of course can’t help but have the obligatory secret military labs, but you can also look into an old castle or underground complex in Russian Siberia. The composition of your enemies is also reminiscent of the old FEAR, which mainly consists of a few variants of human opponents in the form of elite soldiers, and of course, a few supernatural elements are thrown in from time to time. At the end of each mission you’ll usually find a boss, which, with perhaps one exception, is a classic bullet sponge bob that doesn’t require any special tactics or thinking. After all, this is inherent in the game as such – nothing holds the player back, it is almost impossible to get bored and you always know, or at least imagine, what they want from you and where you should go. . Individual levels in this regard are strictly linear, an open door (or marker) quite reliably indicates the path forward, and the only opportunity for exploration usually consists of several side rooms or corners where you can find additional information, armor, lives. or even rare weapon modifications. As in FEAR, many places and events are pre-scripted, and the game does not spare you even classic scares, even if you can count them on the fingers of one hand. Unfortunately, I couldn’t resist the impression that they already seemed a little tired and overdone, although they couldn’t be missing from this title, at least to a small symbolic degree. Overall, the level design is unobtrusive and subservient to the dynamic experience, probably as much as the capabilities of a small studio and its budget.

shootout

Ultimately, however, the alpha and omega of every shooter is the action and the gunplay that comes with it. However, in this regard, I must state that Trepang2, unfortunately, did not realize its potential. The developers decided not to offer a standard more accurate shooting mode, which in most FPS can be found with the right mouse button, but rather relied on a simple one-button shooting without aiming. The right button has its uses as a melee attack, but I didn’t use it much. Instead, the game has, for example, the ability to sneak up on enemies, which is especially effective against heavyweights with a shield, but even this mechanic is not very significant and the game could easily do without it. However, the lack of more accurate shooting fundamentally affects the action itself – the player does not have such perfect control over the shooting, and hand in hand with this is also the confidence and pleasant feeling of satisfaction from accuracy that other shooters offer in this regard. missing. By the way, the weapon arsenal is completely classic and includes a sniper rifle (there is also an additional mode via an optical sight on the mouse wheel), a submachine gun, a shotgun, an assault rifle, a grenade launcher, and several types of grenades. , and as far as I know, all weapons are inspired by real models. However, as a result, you simply shoot with what you have at hand (in the game you can carry two weapons with you at the same time, and even dual weapons) and what you have ammunition for.

These are all reasons why, in my opinion, the combat in Trepang 2 is not as fun as it could be. Additionally, the game doesn’t have a complex cover system and you won’t get much help with good movement like in modern Dooms, and once enemies have line of sight you’ll be in trouble. So the game forces you to use aggressive tactics to take out enemies before they do, and gives you two basic skills in addition to that – bullet time, which you will never have enough of, and Crysis-like invisibility, which is the opposite … you won’t use much.

Almost there

This duality is actually quite essential to the game itself. While it is interesting in many ways and gives an idea of ​​the talent, passion and potential of the creators, it is otherwise somewhat incomplete and contains a lot of unnecessary stuff. Or, to its detriment, it doesn’t contain anything that would have been offered to make it a little better. Some elements clearly seem to be implemented in the game as part of some larger plan, but there was no time or money left to implement them. So they seem unhappy and senseless, like a blow to the eye. For example, your bunker, which you visit between missions only to select a mission in some room and return the same way back to the helipad from where you went to them. The bunker is empty, you’ll find a locked door that you can’t enter, there’s virtually nothing you can do in it (with the possible exception of a combat simulator), and it simply doesn’t offer anything that can’t be solved through the menu. an object, or without which the game could not do at all. A similar case is the boxes that you find in individual missions that allow you to modify weapons. The problem is that you usually don’t have any mods anyway, and unless I’m missing something, you can’t even switch weapons while this interface is open, but you have to close the drawer first, change weapons, and then open it again. It feels like a placeholder for something that should have been done but wasn’t.

Trepang2 is a spiritual successor who somehow managed to copy the original’s body, but not his soul. As a result, it feels more like a very good technology demo, but it completely fails to find, or perhaps just sell, its true identity. And so, if some consider real trepang a delicacy, then Trepang2 remains rather a slightly above average dish on a shiny plate, which does not offend, but, unfortunately, does not inspire.

The game runs on Unreal Engine 4, and in addition to the current PC, players will soon be able to try it out on the PlayStation 5 or X-Box Series X/S. If you like this type of shooter, I would personally recommend investing time and money into the original FEARs in the spirit of the Czech proverb “why go to the blacksmith when you can go straight to the blacksmith”. Trepang2 did not provide a convincing answer to this rhetorical question.