Preview – Surfpunk [Demo] PC

The ‘extraction’ genre blossomed out of nowhere probably about a decade ago now, but even through the full launch of Escape from Tarkov, never really hit its stride as a mainland stay when compared with the still-surviving and absolute beast ‘battle royale’ boom. Arc Raiders seems to have put a good dent in the market as a newcomer, but we’ll see how long that lasts. Surfpunk is the first time I’ve seen the niche hook used outside of a first-person shooter, however. I suppose Risk of Rain 2 and even Megabonk can sort of feel similar, in that you’re trying to blow through maps collecting stuff as quickly as possible and getting out; but the end goals there are totally different and a run is very much self-contained. Here, armed with swords, guns, and guitars, the loop is all about rocket-surfing (oh, yes) around sets of islands, defeating enemies and completing little tasks in order to scavenge as much loot as possible to stuff into a lifeboat and escape the map before a giant tidal wave wipes you all out. It’s like supermarket sweep – the game! Damn, that reference made my back hurt… 

Then, using what you’ve found to complete missions at base and buy upgrades in the form of weapon improvements and skill tree progression, you’re able to take on more and more challenging locations. Of course, as you get more into it you’re less likely to be power-scaling yourself at the same rate as areas are unlocked, so you need to take on more and more missions around the same level in order to ‘move on’, a bit like Monster Hunter in that sense, where you’ll need to hunt the same creature a few times to compile a full set of armour, etc. It’s fun! The thing that really pulls it all together, though, is the co-op-focused gameplay. Choosing when to stick together to fight off hoards of monster crabs or when to split up for resources you’ll use in-map to break down barriers and build ladders to move around faster, or even just pillaging and running the goods back to the stash, is key. And the wrong split-second decision can spell a world of trouble.

With four classes to choose from, and sets of skills meant to make each team member feel vital, communication is of utmost importance as you dash between islands, trying to keep the stockpile centred between the the scattered team members by towing it beach to beach, whilst also sub-managing tasks like activating machines that pin specific items on the map, or when and where you call for healing and ‘mana?’ drops.

We played a little over two hours in a party of three, mostly sticking to a tank/dps/support dynamic and had a really good time learning the ins-and-outs of combat and exploration alike, though I have to say that although the increasing difficulty kept us going, the maps did already start to feel repetitive. That seems to be the norm for extraction shooters, where you’ll essentially be running in and out of the same couple of locations every match, but for a cartoony cel-shaded hack-and-slash it was a real shame we were only ever able to explore that same few procedurally-generated island designs, all with samey beaches and ruins strewn about them. The layout is always different, sure, but the theme showed no sign of shifting to anything other than ‘sunny day out’. Perhaps smashed-up derelict sea vessels, or claustrophobic cavern systems would have spiced things up? Remember, you’re expected to play and re-play these areas over and over so any variety is a huge win.

New and powerful enemies, on the other hand, did continue to rear their often-terrifying heads and push us to our limits throughout our time with the game, requiring us to really lean in to our characters’ strengths and use our costly super abilities at just the right time to make the most impact. Always a sign of interesting and layered combat, even though it may look like overly simple ‘hack-and-slashy’ button-mashing on the surface.

The wonderfully bright and stylised look is such a joy to behold and the pop-rock soundtrack is a swell pairing against the beach outfits and surfer-dude aesthetic. The whole design wraps up the bubbly, silly nature of the game’s narrative and feel perfectly. You know exactly what you’re getting at just a glance.

I think I’m well known as a co-op fiend, always on the prowl for a new title I can sink my teeth into with my other half, or a couple of friends, and Surfpunk is absolutely one I’ll be keeping my eye on through its release. I do wish it had been an Early Access build instead of a demo that had been released, which I think better foreshadows that there’s a lot more variety and updates to come, but hopefully the demo is just a tight taste of what’s to come and we can look forward to a lot more surprises that will keep us making runs (surfs?) for plenty of hours to come.