“Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn doesn't quite do enough to make it stand out in a crowded genre.”
- Great lead characters
- Excellent combo system
- High degree of maneuverability
- Approachable for the genre
- Bosses are underwhelming
- Poor enemy variety
- Woefully inept AI
- Exploration lacks rewards
What makes a great Soulslike stand out from the pack? Is it the dreaded difficulty and the inexorable push until you succeed? How about the cryptic stories threaded throughout a mysterious world? Perhaps it’s the secrets players uncover, enriching their journey as they continue to explore every nook and cranny? These questions came to mind as I played Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, an action role-playing game (ARPG) from A44 Games, the studio behind 2018’s Ashen.
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn can be considered a Soulslike that riffs on a familiar formula with style. It has dodge and parry-focused combat, enemy-respawning rest stops, and corpse run gameplay that has players returning to the site of their death to recover currency (known as Reputation here). Though Flintlock brings a few refreshing tweaks to that formula, it leaves some features unexplored and fails to capitalize on its most promising ideas.
Of gods and monsters
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn puts players in the shoes of Nor Vanek, a trained sapper and explosives engineer and member of the Coalition, a ragtag army that seeks to prevent the undead from laying waste to the world of Kian. The campaign begins just as a powerful entity, Uru, breaks free. After falling to her doom, Nor is awakened by a fox-like creature called Enki, who introduces himself as a minor god of sorts.
Sometimes it feels like Flintlock wastes some of its more promising ideas.
These two heroes bounce off of each other well through the story. Nor is somewhat mistrustful and wary of others, whereas Enki is calmer, but is also secretive when it comes to his own motivations. In spite of their contrasting attitudes, complete with a few squabbles during regular banter and in more pivotal moments, they come to learn that they need one another if they wish to succeed in foiling the machinations of Uru and the other gods. Their relationship grows over the course of the playthrough, giving Flintlock a strong backbone. By contrast, the greater narrative arc itself is fairly weak, as are the backstories of other supporting characters. I found it hard to get invested in much outside of Nor and Enki’s tale.
Unlike other Soulslike games, Flintlock’s plot is relatively straightforward; hardly anything can be thought of as obtuse. It leans on dark fantasy tropes, where uniformed troops akin to those from the Napoleonic Era duke it out against shambling corpses and corrupted knights. This clash of styles creates an authentic setting, with regions and levels inspired by New Zealand (where A44 Games is based) and the Middle East.
Sometimes it feels like Flintlock wastes some of its more promising ideas. Kian is ravaged by the dead, which creates a strong potential for horror in enemy designs. Instead, I mostly saw generic zombies with explosive barrels, shields, or cannons, knights with different armaments, and the occasional human-sized insectoid creature. Even the bosses (barring the final boss encounter) didn’t leave me as awestruck as I had hoped; nearly everyone has their own version of a laser beam or area-of-effect (AoE) ability that covers the entire arena, which made for rather predictable engagements.
Combo breaker
While enemy variety and design are lacking, Flintlock offers a great twist on Soulslike combat with its combo multiplier system. One might think of such influences as God of War, Darksiders, or Devil May Cry, and they won’t be far off. The more unique maneuvers I perform without taking damage, the higher the multiplier and potential Reputation currency that I earn.
There are no downsides to getting creative with attacks.
I grew to love combining different moves and actions as part of a sequence. I’d slash a foe a couple of times, dodge at the last second, fire a pistol, and then parry a blow so I could follow up with a devastating counter. The system is quite forgiving too, as I still bank any Reputation I’ve earned from combos when I get hit or take damage. There are no downsides to getting creative with attacks, making Flintlock significantly more approachable for newcomers to the Soulslike genre.
There are other abilities to make use of, such as Enki’s curses and priming. Building up an enemy’s gauge via Enki’s attacks stuns them and allows me to deal critical damage. I can also learn various skills and get perks by spending Reputation, including extra armor synergies, a ground pound that causes a shockwave, and even a Bloodborne-esque gun parry. Enki also has Withering ultimates that can be unleashed, including a destructive AoE explosion, a buff that causes melee attacks to prime a target, and a scorching beam of holy light that lasts for several seconds.
Having a wealth of moves at my disposal, in conjunction with the tried-and-tested Soulslike formula of parries and dodges, makes for exciting and frantic moments. Although its normal difficulty is a bit on the easier side of things, I imagine that veterans of the genre will be intrigued by the notion of doing no-hit runs to rack up a ridiculous multiplier value.
Fly through the air with the greatest of ease
One of the more inventive aspects of Flintlock is its traversal. Nor doesn’t just have a sprint and a jump, but also a double jump and an air dash that are unlocked early in the campaign. These maneuvers can also be used in combat and to avoid combat, and I certainly appreciated the additional mobility.
Likewise, there are rifts that let players glide through the air as Enki to reach new locations. The moments when I floated from one rift to another are some of the best in the game, as they allowed me to see vast expanses and gorgeous locales, even though most actual areas are rather small or linear.
These acrobatic moves, along with rift mechanics and unparalleled verticality, reminded me of 2023’s Forspoken and some of the more recent Assassin’s Creed games. It’s a nice change of pace from the slow-moving player characters I’ve seen in other Soulslike titles, and it makes Flintlock stand out in a typically slower-paced genre.
That’s another area where I find myself feeling like Flintlock’s potential simply isn’t fully realized. While exploration itself is complemented by a high degree of maneuverability, there’s no aura of mystery or well-hidden secrets to make it worthwhile. You’re almost guaranteed to find something anywhere you go, be it an item chest or character boost, since areas are readily shown on the map. Compared to Lies of P, Lords of the Fallen, and various Soulsborne offerings, discoveries in Flintlock aren’t nearly as rewarding as there’s no sense of accomplishment for daring to go off the beaten path.
There’s an asterisk on many of Flintlock’s best features.
I especially feel that lost potential in side content. Players can free settlements by defeating a miniboss, opening up new characters and sidequests. I was drawn in by that concept initially, especially after seeing a rather strange creature known as a Host in one town. It turned out that Hosts weren’t some grand mystery; they existed to hand out quests and sell recolored uniforms. Hamlet NPCs, meanwhile, just exist. At best, some NPCs can be challenged to a game of Sebo, where players move coins on a board to form a triangle. I played a few matches to earn extra Reputation, but it wasn’t as engaging in the long run. There’s an asterisk on many of Flintlock’s best features.
A whole lotta jank
Though underexplored in areas, Flintlock does have a lot going for it in its core action-RPG setup. Unfortunately, that potential is dragged down by a litany of issues that mar the overall experience. Some are fairly minor, like how tooltips and fast travel prompts aren’t properly aligned on the map. Animations, meanwhile, look stiff — and at times even jarring. A good example is how armored knights are supposed to do a wind-up charge, but the movement happens in just a split second. Similarly, attack animations lack variety regardless of the melee weapon I use; wielding a hammer and landing a critical blow looks the same as chopping down a foe with an ax or a blade.
Even worse is that enemy AI can be effortlessly exploited. I can climb on a ledge or crate, and my opponents can’t even reach me since there’s no way for them to mantle. They just mill and shuffle around like a clutter of cats. Some enemies tend to walk back and forth aimlessly, as though their scripting is still thinking of what they need to do next. At first, I thought it was because Enki was distracting them via a passive skill, but he was standing right beside my character.
After a thorough 25 hours with Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, I’m left torn on what winds up landing as a run-of-the-mill Soulslike. Ideas like its combo system make for a fresh spin on a well-trodden genre, showing a spark of creativity in design. Those are just held back by other underdeveloped ideas that don’t necessarily excel in a particular facet. An added layer of jank certainly doesn’t help matters either. Whether you think of Flintlock as a true Soulslike or a Soulslite, as its developer calls it, it’s still lacking in both departments.
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn was tested on PC.
