There’s no escaping the clear inspirations behind Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn. One look at a trailer for it will show A44 Games’ sophomore title draws combat inspiration from Bloodborne and the overworld exploration and narrative cues from modern God of War games. This shouldn’t surprise anyone, as their previous title, Ashen, received a lot of love for how well it mimicked the Dark Souls formula while adding a handful of little twists. The Dark Souls framework, however, works well even when something more simplified is built around it. But Flintlock is an ambitious attempt to fuse the complicated foundations of Bloodborne and God of War.
God of War and Bloodborne Come Together, Sort Of
Going in, I wasn’t confident A44 could pull it off. Flintlock is an AA title that I never expected to rival some of the greatest games ever made. I went in merely hoping its combat could carry a 20-hour runtime. If it had a great narrative and an intriguing world to explore, all the better. I’m happy to report that, for the most part, it does.
Flintlock stars Nor, whom you take direct control of, and Enki, a diminished god seeking justice who assists Nor along the way. The dead are spilling out of a door from the realm of gods, and it’s up to the pair to seek allies and close it.
To do so, Nor and Enki have to cut their way through hordes of dead, the humans in their way, and a couple of mischievous dieties. This is where Flintlock’s strength comes to the forefront: the combat is pretty satisfying once you get the hang of it. You see, Nor wields an axe or hammer to smash foes in her right hand and a pistol in her left. The pistol can pick off enemies from a distance, but more importantly, if timed right, it can also interrupt unparryable attacks—hence the Bloodborne comparison. Throw in some magical spells from Enki and a bunch of passive effects from gear, and you’ve got versatile combat that stayed enjoyable until the credits rolled.
Haven’t I Killed You Somewhere Before?
I did grow tired of the enemy variety, however. Pretty much every foe I faced was some form of humanoid, save for a scorpion-like creature and a poison-spitting spider. The dead mostly rushed at me, aside from a couple higher-tiered creepers that threw some ghastly energy balls. The bandits came at me with swift strikes and long-ranged weaponry, and wayward knights had shields to rip away with critical attacks. Sure, I welcomed the variance within the humanoid ranks, but by the time my curse-afflicting build coalesced, each encounter became a chore to burn through on my way to the final boss.
There’s only five bosses in the game but they do feature more unique designs than regular mobs. The first bout against an ambitious god gave me a lot of trouble; she took me a dozen tries to get her attack patterns straight. After I unlocked the ability to briefly stun with a well-timed pistol shot, however, the latter bosses fell much easier. Honestly, after playing through Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree and their bosses, I welcomed the lack of intensity the normal difficulty provided. But for those looking for a stiff challenge, consider bumping the difficulty up from the beginning.
Related: Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Is More of the Same Frustrating Fun (Review)
A Beautiful World and Shallow Story
All this mayhem takes place in two sprawling regions: the snowy mountains of the Three Peaks and the arid desert and coastline of Wanderer’s Rest. Each area is fairly linear, funneling Nor through mountain passes, though a handful of side quests lead off the beaten path. Exploration rewarded me with health upgrades, new weapons, armor pieces, and the like. Both of these areas are gorgeous, causing me to stop to snap screenshots of some awe-inspiring vistas.
Unfortunately, while Flintlock has an intriguing world to explore with some fun lore, right from the opening moments the plot and characters lost me. While Nor and Enki have some fun banter back and forth, their tale fails to dig deep enough into a story centered around guilt and responsibility. I couldn’t even tell you the names of the companions that joined them to provide upgrading services despite how much the narrative highlighted their importance. One of them, an old man named Baz (I just checked), orated key moments, and thus I expected him to have way more impact on the plot. Maybe he’d jump in during a key moment and save Nor’s life? Maybe I’d learn something about his history and why he adopted her after her parents died? But no – I learned little about him other than he had a pretty sick mustache and could make my fiery axe of choice much stronger.
Verdict: Mediocre
In the end, our review is that Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn isn’t a must play for narrative-driven action RPG fans or the Soulslike-obsessed looking for their next fix. It is, however, an enjoyable enough way to spend a couple weekends with a good combat system verging on great and a beautiful world to explore. If you go in fully capable of looking past some disappointing enemy variety and a bland overarching narrative, you’ll come away happy enough with Nor and Enki’s quest.
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is available to play now.
Published: Jul 18, 2024 03:35 pm