#trepang studios

Where FEAR drew on the J-Horror wave sparked by movies like RING and Ju-On, Trepang is rooted firmly in the halls of internet horror. Cryptids and creepypasta lurk in the world of Trepang, and find yourself unlucky enough and you may even take a trip to the Backrooms. By far the strongest influence here is the SCP Foundation’s wiki based meta fiction, which chronicles attempts by a shadowy foundation to contain and document various anomalies causing a wide range of bizarre effects. Different documents across the world reflect the typical format various authors use across the SCP wiki, going as far as using the term “anomaly” in a directly analogous way, with the Syndicate your character works for having similar stated goals and a formidable paramilitary force.

SCP entries and creepypasta are known for being deeply variable in their quality thanks to the open format, and this is something that Trepang unfortunately inherits. The wide well of influences it draws on ends with a scattershot atmosphere. It opens with you fighting cryptids and bioweapons, before focusing in on the wider corporate conspiracy, leaving only side missions to explore the horror side. Even then it’s sporadic, with some missions being little more than combat arenas, and some laying on everything from cheap jumpscares and bad stealth, to genuinely unnerving and atmospheric moments. 

It’s in the commitment to the alchemy of horror and action that Trepang 2 most disappoints. It simply can’t make up its mind on what it’s trying to achieve, and shoots in too many directions to make an impact. Given more breathing room, it might have had time to explore all of these, but its main campaign is comprised of only a few missions, over in a compact few hours, with many threads left underexplored. Side missions and combat simulator leave plenty of action to return to, but the story leaves a hurried impression, especially with its last hour revelations and sudden conclusion. It’s a world that’s sketched out more than suggested, and even with all the supplementary material you never get a real sense of the how or why. And not in the classic horror ambiguity way. 

Thankfully, a lot of Trepang 2’s narrative failings are easy to forget when engaged in its sharp combat. Trepang keeps surprisingly faithful to the original FEAR and its era specific quirks, meaning there’s no aiming down the sights to slow down the action, with only scoped weapons allowing you to zoom in. Combined with the gunfire, smoke and debris tearing up the battlefield, every engagement is chaotic and blisteringly fast. The stimulation is borderline excessive, made manageable by the ability to slip into slow motion to track enemy positions and line up precision shots. Quick melee attacks supplement the gunplay, with the most crucial move being the slide, which acts as both a method to escape and knock down enemies for a quick execution.

The stealth mechanics are underbaked, but mostly serve as a way to silently take down a few enemies for an advantage before a fight, or escape under fire. My favorite addition has to be the ability to take unaware or stunned enemies hostage, using them as a shield, instantly killing them, or tossing them into a crowd while pulling the pin on their explosives, turning them into a free grenade. 

Combined, the moveset allows an explosive hit and run play style, weaving in and out of gunfire, then sneaking out with your cloak to appear at your next victim’s flank. Damage is high enough that even at full health and armor it only takes a few seconds under fire to get yourself killed, so even with this massive advantage you’ll need to make smart tactical decisions to survive. 

With a massive suite of arena missions and a recently added survival mode that strings multiple arenas together, there’s a huge amount of challenges to keep digging into in the post-game. I’d definitely like to see more full sized, directed level designs, since that’s where the combat shines best, but what’s here provides plenty until the inevitable future DLC.