The greatest achievement of Trepang2, even more than its sleek visuals and best-in-class weapon effects (I dare you to fire that SPAS 12 while wearing headphones) is how it produces atmosphere. An FPS with barely any dialogue, any considerable narrative, it's nevertheless oppressive, seedy, and frightening. Playing Trepang2 feels dangerous. It's a nasty, almost subversive shooter, but it also has a sense of humor and moments of schlock-horror levity. The best new FPS game of the last five years, or maybe longer, it also feels like the spiritual return of Monolith's superlative FEAR, and now Trepang2 has just gotten better.
If you've not played it yet, the setup in FPS game in the purest sense. Think theatrical body physics, high-decibel gun sounds, and gratuitous bloodshed.
But Trepang2 is also very scary. I don't think I've ever played a game with more convincing enemy barks and screams – your opponents, or rather, victims, genuinely sound like they're panicked, overwhelmed, dying. The debut shooter from the eponymously named Trepang Studios, the game becomes an exercise in your own ruthlessness. At the end of every mission, during the eerie, somber return helicopter journey, you always feel like you've done something horrendously evil.
Of the more than 7,000 reviews for Trepang2 on Steam, 93% are positive, earning the shooter an esteemed 'very positive' rating. Now, the best FPS of the last five years (at least) is getting even better, as the new Trepang2 DLC, Bladekisser, arrives today, Thursday July 25. You get three new weapons, including a revolver, a machine gun, and a katana, two new missions, nine new maps for the wave-defense combat simulator mode, and three fresh high-value targets to find and eliminate across the campaign.
Available now, the Trepang2 Bladekisser DLC costs $7.99 / £7.99. You can get both it and the base game right here.
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