The Surge games are underrated. The dodge system is a great alternative to simple parrying that requires more attention to use well. Different weapon types and armor sets play substantially different compared to Souls games in return for having much fewer options per category, more room to flesh out each category. Heavy armor actually feels like a spess marine instead of just a fat guy who flops on the floor. Different enemy types require more adjustment compared to Souls as well. Heavy armor or big robot limbs actually mean something beyond strike weapons do more and slash weapons do less. The limb system is staggershit but done right multiple smaller halthbars on enemies and breaking certain parts allows instant kills or dramatically changes their behavior and available moves. Bloodborne style dashing>rollslop. Some of the designs especially in the first game are fucking cool.

Yes they are low budget and it can show sometimes but they were swept under the rug as just a meh western souls clone when this trend first started but there's a lot of cool ideas in there that I wish future souls clones picked up on.