Trepang2 Review | Chaos Incarnate

Inspired by the violent and slow-motion fueled shooters of the mid-2000s, Trepang2 is a supernatural first-person shooter that has nothing to do with the marine invertebrate of the same name. Developed by a small indie team, Trepang2 wears its inspirations on its chest and in doing so, proudly fills in a niche that I forgot I enjoyed. The DNA of numerous games from the hyper-violence and presentation of boomer shooters like DOOM to the dark and intense atmosphere of FEAR are present and they combine to make a game that is narratively conflicted yet incredibly engaging.

Trepang2‘s campaign can last anywhere from 6 to 10 hours based on your selection of missions. The story itself centers around bringing down Horizon HQ while building toward a revelation about your character, Subject 106. Along the way, there’s plenty of intel to help sort of fill in the blanks. I will admit that despite reading a decent amount of scattered documents, it’s also the least compelling part of the game. While there were interesting tidbits to be picked up, I found that few provided any meaningful depth to the narrative.

It’s a great thing then that Trepang2 is really fun to play. I streamed my first playthrough of the game on Twitch and I can’t count how many times I’d catch myself smiling or just saying “whoa” as I pulled off an action encounter cool enough to make John Wick grunt in approval. It can take a bit to get used to the controls, mainly the game’s lack of ADS (aim down sight) but it doesn’t take long to figure out that much like FEAR, Trepang2 expects you to use the Focus ability (LB), which slows down time, as a way to take aim. You can also use RB to cloak yourself and LT, which is usually reserved for aiming down sights, is used here for throwables. Trepang2 does have a dark aesthetic, and hearing about how it’s influenced by FEAR might make you think it’s a horror game. However, although the game does dip its toes in the horror genre briefly, most of its runtime will be focused on blasting enemies in bursts of bloody chaos.

Speaking of chaos, things can really get hectic in Trepang2. I find this to be a byproduct of good enemy AI and destructible environments. As you progress through each of the game’s levels, you will be fighting group after group of either crazy cultists or armored guards. These enemies play to their character with cultists rushing at you willing to commit altruistic suicide for the greater good while security teams approach you more tactically. Often as you maneuver around these enemies, your bullets will miss their targets, blowing holes in drywall or sending chunks of plaster from support beams flying into the air. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the action in Trepang2, especially in low-health encounters, and it’s during these moments that the Cloak ability is useful. Going invisible confuses enemies and gives you time to reorient yourself or heal up.

I do want to touch briefly on difficulty. With all that I said, it should be clear that Trepang2 is no walk in the park. Even on Normal difficulty, it can be a bit challenging and I’m not even talking about the boss fights. For players worrying about the game being too hard, you can knock the difficulty down to Easy at any time. Inversely, for players wanting more of a challenge, along with a Rage mode difficulty that is unlocked after beating the game once, there are also Cheats. Unlike typical cheats, which give the player unlimited ammo or make them fat, Trepang2 comes with a plethora of player debuffs. There are a few silly or helpful ones like the cheat that gives all the enemies squeaky voices or unlimited stamina, but most of them make the game even more challenging.

From Fashion Police Squad to Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, I’ve played a fair few boomer shooters this year, and though Trepang2 shares a lot of gameplay similarities with those games, visually it aims for realism over stylized pixel art. On one hand, this does give the game a similar look to mid-2000s shooters but that also comes with its own drawbacks. I’m not saying that Trepang2 looks bad, by the way, and at times it even manages to briefly capture a wonderful sense of spectacle. However, it doesn’t really have its own unique style either. It either looks dated in its attempt at realism or too often inspired by other games (like the recent horror hit The Backrooms) to carve its own identity. Thankfully the lack of impact in the visual department is made up for by the bombastic heavy metal soundtrack by Brandon McKagan, which fuels the action and destruction in equal parts.

Now, this is a review of the console edition of Trepang2 seeing as the PC version has been out for a few months already. I played the game on the Xbox Series X at over 90 FOV. First off, I love the inclusion of the FOV slider. I am a firm advocate of all first-person shooters having FOV options on modern consoles and I am glad Trepang2 delivers. Secondly, for a game that has so much action and movement, performance is important, and I am happy to report that Trepang2 delivers once more. The game runs effortlessly on the high-end Xbox system. I can’t say if it consistently reaches the 60fps it aims for (I am no Digital Foundry), but I only experienced a few dropped frames in my roughly 10 hours with the game.

In the end, Trepang2 is a really fun spiritual successor to mid-2000s shooters. Its campaign might not hit the highs of the genre it aspires to mimic and it’s a bit light on the content side, but in gameplay is where it shines. Cool abilities paired with good enemy AI and destructible levels make for a game that will frequently make you feel like a badass. And I’m happy to report that the game runs smoothly even after making the leap to consoles. If Trepang Studios decides to follow the game up with Trepang3, I will be there with dual-wielding shotguns in hand. Trepang2 is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. A review code was provided by the publisher.