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Trepang2 review: It’s an indie F.E.A.R.Slidekicks, shotguns, and slo-mo
Slidekicks, shotguns, and slo-mo
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Team17
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Team17
Trepang2 | Launch TrailerWatch on YouTube
Trepang2 | Launch Trailer
It’s the near future and you are a supersoldier fighting for a secret organisation. Corps and cults are engaged in questionable science, creating fleshy bioweapons and poking at incomprehensible otherworldly entities, so here you come in your black helicopter to invade their offices and secret bases. Many parts feel familiar—SCP,Resident Evil, creepypasta horror stories, maybe a little Hitman, and a lot of F.E.A.R.—but Trepang2 assembles them in a mostly fun way. More importantly, hey, it basically plays like F.E.A.R. with a dash ofCrysis, and that’s great.
Aside from a lack of caution around open flames and the poor decision not to quit their jobs the instant I arrived holding a drum-loaded grenade launcher in each hand, the human enemies feel smart. They react to my actions to lay down suppressive fire, drop flares in dark places, hunt for me, position themselves in anticipation of where I might attack from, and work as squads to flank and cover. LikeF.E.A.R.’s much-praised AI, part of its success is the clever trick of enemies vocalising their behaviour. They have a huge range of voiced lines covering just about everything they or I might do, and readily shout them. A respectable flanking manoeuvre feels more intelligent when I hear one fella request cover then his pal shouts back confirmation. And I do appreciate a mook’s sweary realisation that I’ve absolutely monstered through his squad and he’s next. The allied troops who sometimes fight alongside you actually seem helpful too.
Trepang2 - Quick AI DiscussionOne of the devs explained Trepang2’s AI in a video last yearWatch on YouTube
Trepang2 - Quick AI Discussion
Stealth is an option, mind. Enemies don’t magically know where you are, and can lose track of you. You can use silenced weapons. You can shoot out lights. You can silently crouch-walk. You can snatch people and snap their necks. You can lurk in shadows, and the crosshair indicates darkness. Your cloak recharges quickly. You can even snipe, though most spaces are too close for it. If you wanted, I suppose you could carefully pick a squad to pieces like a curious child dissembling a spider. That seems like it might be fun. That might be important on the highest difficulty levels. I wouldn’t know much about stealth because I can dual-wield SPAS-12 shotguns with incendiary ammo and I don’t want to put them down.
Thank you for the gift of jam, I promise I will try it when I get home |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Team17
Every gunfight trashes the place. Windows, wooden walls, desks, statues, benches, columns, giant hams, lights, and so much more can be destroyed or broken. If not, it will at least shower debris and sparks. People burst into blood and limbs and viscera when violenced with an appropriate method. Their blood also temporarily coats your guns and clothes, growing to a thick layer of chunky plum jam if a fight is intense enough. Flames linger too, burning breakables and roasting corpses.
Watch out for that git on the left, he’ll throw those firebombs at his feet if he reaches you, then chase you ablaze and screaming |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Team17
Missions start out at your secret base, picking assignments from a big world map table which looks like it was intended to fill up with a lot more dots than it ever does. As you complete story missions in sequence, a scattering of optional side missions unlock. These littluns boil down to surviving waves of enemies in a smallish area. Some side missions have fun with this, adding a good ghost story or wrapping themselves in spectacle with helicopters battling overhead or AA guns blasting at a colossal skeletal UFO. Others are boring killboxes whose hollow presence only makes a small game feel smaller.
How’s that weird science working out for you there pal? |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / Team17
Back home you can also lark about in a VR combat simulator with loads of little levels, change your uniform colours (important: yes, you can see your legs), and set your starting loadout. While you can grab weapons in the field, completing missions and finding hidden attachments lets you deploy with your favourite gear customised the way you like. Click on a laser sight, fold that stock, screw on a silencer, and hey, maybe give your minigun a spinning bouquet of bayonets. The base as a 3D space could functionally be replaced with four menus but I quite like the procedure, globetrotting, and self-indulgence of it all.
I can gripe about Trepang2’s tone and I can shrug at its plot and I can pout about its length but that’s all fine, really. Criticisms fade when I launch it to double-check a detail then get lost bursting heads for 20 minutes before remembering I have a review to finish. I already fancy returning to check out higher difficulty levels or the many cheats and modifiers unlocked after finishing the game (ranging from ‘Only Headshots Kill’ to ‘Squeaky Voices’), or just to shoot faces all over again. Oh, I do enjoy shooting these faces! I’m hoping new missions might follow if it does well, or even that 2005 FPS staple, an expansion pack.
A demo is upon Steam, though I think that might be a bit old now.
