Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn released on July 18th of this year and was marketed as being souls-like with its difficulty. Developed by A44 games who only have 1 other game under their belt called Ashen. It was released in December of 2018 and then much later on Steam. That game was a sleeper hit with its distinct artstyle and superb narration of its story.
Much of Ashen’s inspiration was Dark Souls, with its brooding tone and visuals always sending a chill down your spine as it relayed the consequences of the actions taken, never is there a good option to choose as every option has its downsides. It seems with Flintlock, A44 games have seemingly shot for the moon but sadly have missed entirely.
A World In Disarray Due To ‘Gods’
We have seen this setting or trope before most memorably with God of war. Kratos hates the gods so much but his story leads him to deal with whether he’s up for it or not and the story picks up in that direction. Here we play as Nor, a soldier with her ‘jump now look later’ attitude who makes her distaste of the gods and succeed at any cost attitude known from the very beginning of the game.
We are thrust into this city that is suffering an assault from the dead sent by these Gods who we have to fight to stop this siege. We made our way to the forefront of the gate where it was sealed by magic by our fellow soldiers. But Nor sees this seal and promptly destroys it, so that we may face one of the Gods responsible, fighting this boss proves impossible as with any souls-like where the first boss you meet is mostly considered the final boss of the game.
We get thrown off the edge of the arena due to ‘skill issue’ only to end up in this cave underneath where we meet our companion for the rest of the game who is also a god inhabiting a fox’s body named Enki, who convinces us the only way to fix this world is through his help.
Gunpowder And Axes
Anytime I see a character wielding a gun on his/her left hand and a melee weapon on the right, I am immediately reminded of Bloodborne and what grips me is sadness as my wish for its PC release remains as that, a wish. Anyway, the combat of Flintlock feels like a mix between bloodborne and God of War, which is mainly due to the Axe. The swings feel satisfying and powerful, firing of the gun in-between swings feels as natural as you could get, Enki helps out by stunning the enemies with the press of a button much like Atreus from God of War.
Yet there aren’t any combat skills to get that could introduce new moves, there aren’t any combos involving guns mixing up the attack chain or anything spectacular with Enki. Most are passive skills that may increase your ammo count or apply a status effect at X number of swings with the axe. The regular swinging while it may feel natural and powerful it also becomes boring as the game progresses.
A Story That Just Doesn’t Compel
Now from the very start we are made aware that Nor HATES these Gods, saying that they killed everyone she ever loved and they are never to be forgiven, yet we as the player never get anything more than that. Who did they specifically kill? What are their names? Who were they to Nor? There are various moments like this throughout the game which unveils the assumption that it’s all half-baked. Each character we meet never gives more than the bare minimum but whatever is given feels so pointless that it’s easily forgotten what was even the purpose of interacting with them in the first place.
This unfortunately permeates through to the side quests. Not evolving more than simple fetch quests. A44 missed the opportunity to flesh out character backstories or world building lore for the player to explore and find out. While the quest awards are worth it enough as they give armor set pieces which give set bonuses when at least two pieces are equipped which allows us to combine two different armor sets and get two different set bonuses.
This underbaked feeling also comes at the ending of the story also with no sense of satisfaction, closure or affect seen in the world when the Gods are slain. Which kind of defeats the point of their title, nothing gets affected, nothing happens to the world in terms of changes in nature or landscape. The Gods are evil and now they are dead, the end.
A Successful Siege of Art Direction And Technical Performance
On the bright side, the game looks visually stunning. The various towns are colorfully illuminated as well with a mix of buildings from the 1800s in England to buildings from a time period in the mediterranean. But what is the most confusing is the overall setting. While the individual towns look vastly different and beautiful, what is brought about is a sense of non-cohesion. There is no way to know where we are, only a vague dialogue here and there hinting that we aren’t on Earth. The game also runs buttery smooth holding a solid frame rate with no stutters or crashes occurring the entire time.
A Conclusion Leaving Much To Be Desired
The game nailed the art direction and performance for sure but what A44 were aiming for was a AAA title experience with the game’s trailers showing gaudy visuals, the serious action and intense moments presented. But when actually playing through the story, those moments are so few and far between it becomes easy to forget. The depth of the characters is nonexistent it seems with conversations feeling unnatural and with no reasons to compel the player to get to know them better.
At the end of the game the player is more left wondering about how the story could’ve been so much better and the gameplay could’ve been more fleshed out rather than thinking about the meaning of the story or the fate of the world now that the Gods are dead.
