Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn
Released: July 18th, 2024
Developer: A44 Games
Publisher: Kepler Interactive
Systems: PC, PS5, Xbox X/S (reviewed)
While neither developed by Spiders nor published by Focus Home Entertainment, the self-styled “Soulslite” that is Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn feels every bit like the janky minds behind Greedfall attempted to emulate From Software’s signature flavor.
All things considered, it’s less messy than the average Eurojank title (and way more fun than Greedfall), but its edges are rough and its gameplay is, as one might say, “loose.” Nevertheless, it’s a surprisingly better game than its first hour would have you believe, and it unfurls a versatile and intuitive combat system at a steady pace once things get going.
The introductory sequence promises a unique setting, as the undead are pouring into trenches reminiscent of World War 1. The protagonist, Nor, is a sapper with an axe in one hand and a pistol in the other, sprinting her way through muddy chaos. It’s a promising few minutes.
For some reason, this premise is dropped almost immediately, ceding the floor to a more derivative fantasy hotpot world. The genre really wasn’t begging for more faux-medieval knights, but Flintlock has nonetheless poured more on the pile.
Quite why the opening scenario was dropped, I do not know, but it’s a shame. The quasi-open world you’re dropped into after the brief trench sequence isn’t bad, per se, but it’s not original in the least.
Its story isn’t particularly memorable. Our protagonist accidentally unleashed some evil gods because of reasons and teams with a nicer god who gives her magic abilities and the use of something called Black Powder to fix her mistake.
Its script is basic, voice acting is decent, and it doesn’t need to be much more. Also, enraged gamerboys are doing a cry because Nor isn’t white, so the game’s at least got one creative win from the off.
Flintlock, as its name may suggest, carries a scent of Bloodborne. Every enemy has attacks in its arsenal that cannot be blocked and are hard to evade, heavily encouraging the use of the pistol to counter them. As well as negating the move and dealing damage, it’ll briefly stop your aggressor in its tracks and you’ll get a free hit in if you’re close enough.
Pistol countering is a simple process - shoot when an enemy gets a red glowing circle on it. Straightforward as it is, things are made harder than they should be by the game’s consistently poor telegraphing.
Among the red attacks are less flashy ones that can be blocked and parried in melee but not with gunshots. Trouble is, those ones are often surprisingly fast with almost no warning, and once you've initiated a response, you’re committed. It feels riskier than it should, more gamble than strategy.
While you’d expect moves that don’t glow to be “regular” attacks, it appears the glowing ones occur way more frequently. While it subverts action game convention, I don’t like it. If nothing else, the constant parade of red circles just looks silly.
Fights are at their most annoying when you deal with shields, of which there are fucking loads.
In the early stages of the game, melee parries against shields are practically an obligation as they allow Nor to tear the things from enemies who can block every other move. They mostly spam their red attacks as well, rarely throwing out the parryable ones that you could blink and miss.
The result of all this is combat that relies on irritating misdirection if you play it the way you’re told to play it.
At first, I simply wasn’t having fun trying to play something built so heavily on counters yet so keen on trickery. After a while, however, not only did I get a little better at seeing through the bullshit, I realized that being much more aggressive was a better option over trying to play carefully.
Unlocking new skills helps. Once you can do charge attacks, shield users become more vulnerable, while Nor’s expanding options deal with the rest. There are still moments that feel cheap, and the frequency of exploding enemies later into the game is bollocks, but once I’d started taking advantage of all of Nor’s expanding abilities, I really quite enjoyed myself.
Bosses are really enjoyable to fight because they are better at communicating their more balanced movesets. Here, you have moments to chain parries against sequences of attacks - which have the kind of windup you’d actually expect from a game. The campaign’s few major boss encounters are engaging tactical affairs and they look quite pretty.
Two melee weapons can be equipped and switched between, and it pays to find a hammer to go along with your axe since they deal more damage to armored enemies. It’s a shame, though, that hammers are very rarely awarded and don’t show up for ages. Switching weapons to gain an advantage over different enemies seems like it should be an integral part of things.
Along with melee weapons, Nor can find new pistols as rewards or chest items. Anything that fires slower than her starting gun, however, is almost worthless no matter how much more powerful they are - the inability to counter enemies is too much of a drawback.
It wasn’t until many hours in that I got a viable replacement pistol. It was weaker than the original, but it was quicker, and that’s all that really matters when a red circle is breathing down your neck.
Pistols are balanced by requiring Black Powder to shoot. Firing expends powder charges that are regained by striking with your axe and hammer, a straightforward case of “hitty make bang-bang happen.”
There are other guns that have their own limited ammo, two of which can be equipped alongside one pistol to fulfill more flexible roles. The first one you get is a rifle that remains most useful throughout, capable of powerful headshots from a considerable distance. Other ranged weapons include mortars, ricocheting cannons, and later a flamethrower, but frankly I found them largely useless in comparison to the rifle.
It’s an issue that permeates your weapon, gun, and armor options. While diverse in style, there’s really not very much gear to find, and most of your early equipment is simply better.
Your godly companion, Enki, has his own unlockable abilities, able to curse enemies with debuffs at the press of a button. While secondary effects can be added, the principle use of curses is to afflict a “prime” gauge on your target that stuns it when filled by melee attacks, allowing for a powerful critical hit. Enki can unlock passive utilities as well, giving him ways to draw aggro or even hold opponents in place for a while.
Enki can infuse your attacks with magic in various ways and offer powerful spells called Witherings. Curses and magic attacks are used by spending points that recharge over time, while your equipped Withering is replenished by your offense.
Black Powder is used to double jump and gain an extra dodge in a rather cool way, Nor tossing it behind and below herself to gain momentum off the explosion. It’s a largely cosmetic affair, but there are moments of platforming that require jumping and air-dodging to navigate, all of which are surprisingly well designed except for the fact Nor doesn’t immediately grab ledges when she hits them - instead she’ll bounce off them for a second as if she missed before suddenly holding the ledge. It can be quite confusing.
Flintlock does a lot but thanks to a simple control scheme and situations that incentivize their frequent use, I never found myself overwhelmed. Often I’ll encounter games that throw so many options at me I forget to use them all, but the only tool I didn’t pay much attention to are grenades, simply because they’re not all that great.
Renown serves as Flintlock’s Souls-flavored currency, used for everything from ability unlocks to gear upgrades to cosmetic outfits. The amount you get in comparison to the significant cost of everything initially feels grinding, but making use of Renown’s multiplier system helps out.
Your currency isn’t immediately earned, but reserved alongside a percentile multiplier that increases as you fight so long as you don’t take damage. You can bank your Renown at any time with a bonus based on the current multiplier, but if you take a hit, you get your earnings with no bonus. While it’s not a massive innovation, it can be very rewarding and offers a gamble with low risk and high potential reward.
Flaws aside, Flintlock is built on a solid foundation and offers a quick-paced Soulslike affair that quite frankly benefits from the lack of a stamina meter.
Visually, things look acceptable. It’s not graphically impressive and that’s fine, but the art direction suffers from simply not being at all imaginative. Some of the animations defy physics, especially noticeable in Photo Mode where you can see Nor’s arms twisting into impossible shapes during attacks. Some animations simply don’t exist, like when you score a headshot and an enemy goes from idle to dying with no frames between the two states.
Like I said, it’s got that shamelessly janky feel to it. You’ll either love it or you won’t.
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn isn’t a particularly necessary addition to the Soulslike genre. It doesn’t stand out in any major way, and it’s certainly rough. It is nonetheless amusing in its own scrappy way, the many tools at the player’s disposal are well presented, and after a touchy start it develops into a decent bit of fun.
Just a shame they didn’t stick with the trench stuff. Quite a missed opportunity to separate itself from so many similar games on the market. Oh well.
7/10
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