The movement and combat system will instantly feel familiar to Souls players and The Surge is more than a little inspired by those. The biggest difference is probably that The Surge is completely focused on melee combat. There are some changes and additions here like the ability to dismember humanoid enemies, which you need to do to get new equipment and crafting components. Need new headgear? Chop of some heads. New weapons? Okay, arms it is. And instead of spells you have a drone that can perform some attacks (which need to be charged up with melee, though) but those don't matter that much. The first main difference is obviously the setting. Instead of dungeons and dragons you have a futuristic complex here inhabited by "zombiefied" augmented people, some robots and surviving humans. You upgrade an exoskeleton, add implants and so on. The latter boost stats or unlock some basic active abilities (especially healing). At first I was in love with the world but sadly it soon becomes indistinguishable from the likes of Dead Space or Prey. Still, it was nice to see this kind of RPG in a sci-fi setting. Secondly, progression works very differently than in most RPGs. Gear is almost all that matters and it doesn't differ much in quality, even early game gear remains powerful towards the end if you choose to upgrade that one, and you can always fully respec. The biggest "problem" is that you can't really farm. You're always only as strong as the stuff you find. That makes the game in some ways harder than Souls but it's more forgiving in other areas, e.g. thanks to the ability to "bank" currency. That said: the boss fights are frustrating and navigating some of the maps is a nightmare. I got close to rage quitting at times but in the end I just tried it over and over and did not regret it. The exploration is rewarding, the combat is fun and the story decent. Combat and levels are far from Souls quality but make the game still a decent alternative.
Fire Warrior is a console shooter from an era when that did generally mean that a game is going to suck (the first Halo being the one exception). I've really tried to love Fire Warrior back then, having been a huge WH40k fan at the time, alas, it's just not good. And it's not a good PC port either. First off: it's just your typical mediocre corridor shooter that feels cheap all around. The graphics, the animations, the sound, the voices... everything just feels off. Top if off with a lack of in-game music (a decision I can't comprehend). It also suffers from bad guns that usually just lack a punch and aren't fun to use due to mostly firing slow projectiles that have no perceivable impact. Enemies barely react to hits and generally don't die in a satisfying manner. And most enemies are generic humans who just frantically run around the screen an annoying lot. The level design is also pretty bad as it manages to be super linear and making it still hard to guess where to go. It's a corridor shooter of the worst kind. Then there's of course your typical early console port issues. There's no quicksaving and no checkpoints - die and you have to start over. But most importantly: you MUST play the game with AUTO AIM ON (off by default in the current GOG version). The mouse behaviour is god-awful in this game and makes it ridiculously hard hit anything, especially the randomly strafing enemies. Auto aim is a game changer here. It's quite aggressive, making the crosshair lock onto enemies, and may feel weird in a PC shooter but it's the only way to make the game bearable in my opinion. As for redeeming values: there's some decent locations (a space hulk NOT overrun by tyranids!) and the cutscenes are great. And GOG also did a great job (besides not making auto aim on by default). Widescreen resolutions work just fine and there's no issues with launching the game on Windows 10 (making the original version work on Win 10 was a nightmare).
I haven't played the game since release but I enjoyed it a lot, also as a Hitman fanboy who had spent hundreds of hours mastering every level in the first four games. So, the game differs a lot from earlier (and later) Hitman games in a variety of ways - some design decisions are indeed a tad weird or even bad while others are just different from other Hitman games. Some are good, though, and actually returned in Hitman 2016 in new guise. The game was clearly an attempt to break more into the mainstream and the gameplay is a tad simplified and there's some cartoony content like the infamous nun attack or an assassination via QTE in a wrestling ring. Most levels are infamously linear compared to the earlier games and often separated into smaller sections with checkpoints between them but we also get some good stuff in return. Absolution's sneaking and gunplay are probably the best in the series and due to the level structure there's optimised sections for this that remind me of those stealth arenas in the Arkham series. Yes, Hitman was always primarily about disguise-based stealth and basically solving puzzles but for me sections where Agent 47 stealthily takes on a police squad with really polished geometry and movement was a welcome addition. And never has giving up on stealth and just going in guns blazing been this satisfying in a Hitman game. It's a nice bonus. And there are actually a few highly sandboxy levels that remind me a lot of old-school Hitman gameplay with many unique ways to dispose of the targets. That said: there are some weird changes like a "negative" score system where you lose points for each offensive action but regain them by hiding bodies. The score system feels wrong but is probably how most Hitman games work under the hood. The worst change is probably that now you get recognised by exactly those guys you disguise yourself as - it's not game-breaking, though, by any means. All in all it's quite different but still good.
