Trepang2 Review

ign.com:

Some of the most memorable action games I’ve played are 2012’s Max Payne 3 and 2005’s F.E.A.R., and Trepang2 cashes in hard on those memories of slow-motion action and strong enemy AI and variety. Yes, it’s really called Trepang2. No, it has nothing to do with the sea cucumbers of the same name. Instead, this is a first-person, stealth-action shooter that’s tilted decidedly toward action. It’s got plenty of excellent running and gunning, and while its story isn’t all that frightening there are occasional successful jumpscares that mix up the near-constant mayhem of battling its surprisingly smart commandos and corporate cultists. Granted, it’s also a bit short if you’re focused on its main objectives, but that just means it never outstays its welcome.

Trepang2’s brisk six to 12-hour campaign puts you into the boots of Subject 106, a generic super soldier type working for the equally unimaginative secret Task Force 27. After escaping a chilly underground Alaskan prison, you spend the next 10 or so hours in pursuit of the evil overlords of the Horizon Corporation – a Dr. Evil-like entity that is notorious for its failed attempts at creating its own super soldiers, among other evil schemes. What ensued was a series of video game and action movie cliches executed with such over-the-top violence that I had no problem suspending my disbelief – often in unimpeded bliss.

That is, except for when Trepang2’s gimmicky and cheap monsters popped on-screen in classic jumpscare fashion, before the story just sort of… forgot about their existence entirely, thrusting me right back into its gory military shooter-inspired action without more than a shrug and an occasional intel entry with a grotesque drawing on it. Let’s be clear: these