Trepang2 is a game that pays homage to the gritty, blood-soaked shooters of the mid-to-late 2000s, but without the melodrama that often slows down the pacing between battles. It’s a throwback shooter that targets a different era than other retrospective gun-fests, which typically ape the stylings of Quake or Duke Nukem. Rather than that, developer Trepang Studios aims to immerse players in the nostalgic and intense atmosphere of 2005’s F.E.A.R., drenched in warm, bloody memories.
The game’s protagonist, known as Subject 106, is an escaped soldier with no memories of their past life but is infused with supernatural abilities. The gameplay is thrilling, with the player having superhuman strength and speed to knock waves of heavily armed mercenaries into the next week. Furthermore, players can manipulate time, evade high-speed projectiles, employ invisibility to catch adversaries off guard, and silently dispatch them by breaking their necks.
Trepang2’s gunplay is highly physical, with weapons ranging from the deceptively powerful pistol to the almighty Spas-12 shotgun. Additionally, within the game, players have access to a restricted set of close-quarters combat moves, including a slide-tackle, ideal for toppling adversaries wielding riot-shields, and a double-footed dropkick, enabling them to bounce off opponents and propel themselves into mid-air maneuvers.
The game is structured around a series of campaign missions and side missions, which can be selected from a hidden base. The missions are teeming with adversaries emerging from nearly every door, deploying reinforcements via helicopters, employing grenades to obstruct your cover and execute flanking maneuvers.
They relentlessly maintain pressure on you throughout the game, leaving no respite. Your arsenal boasts an array of impressive weapons, such as the Mk23 pistol, the Kriss Vector SMG, the formidable SPAS-12 shotgun, the VHS2 assault rifle, the precision SL8 DMR sniper rifle, along with a minigun, bolt launcher, frag and flash grenades, molotovs, throwing knives, and tomahawks. As you progress in the game, you can discover a serum that enables dual-wielding for all firearms.
However, despite its strengths, Trepang2 is not without its flaws. The game appears uncertain about its horror components, never fully committing to a specific theme or concept. The boss fights are a bit of a mixed bag, with some being fun, but they mostly just boil down to being against bigger baddies with a lot more health. There’s also a section involving some zombie-like enemies who try to puke on you, which some players might find less enjoyable.
In conclusion, Trepang2 is a solid game that offers a thrilling and mechanically refined experience. It’s a worthy tribute to the shooters of the mid-2000s, with its intense action, impressive arsenal, and superhuman abilities. However, it falls short in its horror elements and some of its enemy encounters. It’s a game that will keep you on your toes and offer a good challenge, but it’s not without its rough edges. It’s a solid 7+/10 game, offering a good balance of action and challenge, but it’s not quite the masterpiece it could have been.
Trepang2 on Steam Deck – performance and other important things
Performance is very solid. On mix of medium and high settings with 80% of resolution scale we can play it at 60FPS. Trepang2 looks very good on small Steam Deck’s screen and It’s fully readable.
We have full controller support and cloud saves. Trepang2 is great game on the go.
