9 Best Hidden Gem Video Games Of 2019

8. The Surge 2

Remnant from the ashes
Focus Home Interactive

Having found the confidence to expand on novel ideas introduced in the first game, Deck13's sequel finally bursts free of its Souls-inspired cocoon to become its own beast entirely. Embers of FromSoftware's generation-defining RPG still burn in The Surge 2's underlying progressions systems, but the developer made all the right decisions for its unexpected 'double-A' release, namely - to focus on making its own mark.

Precision dismemberment returns as the core hook of the series and retains the same visceral appeal as before. Where the studio's follow-up justifies its existence, though, is in ditching the dreary industrial setting of the original game for a dystopian city on the brink of ripping itself apart from the inside out.

Bolstered by a raft of smart design decisions (combat is no longer confined to cramped corridors, thank God), The Surge 2 does exactly what sequels should - innovates.

Contributor
Contributor

Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.