Flintlock: The Siege Of Dawn Review

Flintlock: The Siege Of Dawn is a fantasy action-adventure game from studio A44. Described by the developers as a Souls-lite, it focuses on slower-paced, methodical combat encounters and exploration but it iterates on the popular formula with more complex action and platforming as well as a more traditional narrative.

An example of Flintlock Fantasy, the setting is a medieval fantasy world that just saw its invention of firearms. The story is set during a long war of humanity against the undead coming back to life and emerging as grotesque monsters as well as against the gods responsible for the phenomenon. The game takes off when our protagonist, Nor Vanek, a sapper joins the rest of the Coalition army during the titular siege of the city of Dawn. In an attempt to take over the city, her unit ends up escalating the conflict by breaking a seal which, unknown to them, was keeping the gods at bay. Following her near-death after facing the god Uru, Nor meets Enki, a fox-like deity who joins her on a quest to gather allies and end the conflict for good.

Nor and Enki left a big impression on me, and I think are the root of why the game worked for me despite my fatigue with the Soulslike genre. The world is basically on the verge of an apocalypse or at least a scary change, and its people can be desperate and lashing out. Still, our protagonists try to be diplomatic whenever possible. They both have difficult pasts but rather than being jaded, cynical, or overly emotional themselves, it allows them to approach situations with cool heads and empathy. As a fan of old Star Trek shows, this reminded me a lot of them; our characters can set aside their interpersonal drama to work together and treat other people well. 

It occurred to me that many players would want character relationships to have more spotlight with long emotional scenes that push it further along but I thought Flintlock hit the right balance. Soulslikes and RPGs in general, even when linear, often fail to keep the focus on bigger stakes; the world is in danger, but we somehow have time to spend hours on trite activities and personal quests. Reflecting our characters' attitudes, Flintlock keeps our main objective front and centre while weaving in side content and character development more organically.

On the other hand, this also works out very well in the context of Soulslike, a type of game known for its focus on gameplay, very rarely changing the perspective away from our protagonist or taking our control away from them. Nor and Enki fill in the downtime with their conversation keeping the focus on the plot and learning about each other as we do the same without interfering with the flow of the gameplay. It is satisfying for players like me who don't want the gameplay to take the backseat to the story, and it might please players who get disengaged from games like Elden Ring due to the plot being simple and with rare developments.

While on our quest we travel through three semi-open maps. In addition to the battlefield around Dawn and the city itself, we visit snowy mountains filled with medieval structures connected by dangerous winding paths and a desert area by the sea peppered with hamlets made out of sandstone, bandit camps and oases. The world is accompanied by an understated melodic soundtrack which adds a sombre, slightly tense, and mystical ambience but sounds more hopeful when we visit cities and hamlets that we liberate while pursuing our main objective.

The creative direction is fairly grounded and gritty, with certain fantastical flourishes. The areas we visit are designed like real places, making logical sense in the world. Settlements have parts dedicated to trade, housing and often a coffee shop serves as the centre where we can gather information about side quests and trade. Similarly, the caves we visit are usually mines or passages constructed for those specific uses rather than just interesting gameplay. The obstacles we encounter are usually due to lack of use and deterioration or because of supernatural phenomena like large chunks of mountains lifted up and floating in the air. To tackle those, Flintlock has robust platforming, allowing us to fluidly traverse from simple to extreme obstacles. With the power of black powder and the help of Enki, Nor can double jump, dash, and use magical rifts to quickly scale the environment and travel great distances. Those abilities flow together and build on each other’s momentum well and because of a combination of their flexibility as well as the level design they often allow us to tackle obstacles in multiple ways.

The most common obstacles that we encounter are of course hostile characters ranging from simple zombies to knights loyal to the gods, bandits taking advantage of the war, local fantastic fauna, and godly supernatural beings. While our movement abilities often allow us to manoeuvre around them, they can also be leveraged when engaging in combat to get the most out of our duo’s large array of fighting tools. Nor starts as a competent fighter, wielding one-handed weapons and firearms fueled by black powder while Enki fills in a support role, enhancing Nor’s damage, setting up more devastating attacks, and occasionally unleashing a powerful Withering capable of turning the tide of battle. The audio and visual design for combat animations is impactful and readable, making it satisfying to dispatch enemies and clear to see what you or your enemies are doing. As you progress, you expand your repertoire, slowly ramping up to more crazy stuff through ability and gear upgrades. Your combat abilities flow well with your movement, freely available even in midair, allowing you to stay mobile and leverage the environment. At the same time, Enki’s ranged attacks can be used while Nor is busy with other actions to fill any downtime or gap in your offence. By combining all your abilities you can perform greatly satisfying attack chains and if skilful devastate groups of enemies which could overwhelm you in the early parts of the game.

Combat skills are tested the most during the boss fights with each being a unique challenge complimented by an exciting soundtrack combining bombastic instrumentals with electronic sounds and fast beats. They are all some combination of melee and ranged combat, it was a pleasant surprise that even the boss enemies are susceptible to all abilities as they follow similar rules to regular enemies testing your familiarity with game mechanics as well as the ability to adapt on the fly rather than just pattern recognition and memory. They can be parried, countered, and stunned by using the same things the player is learning throughout the game. I found that even on the first try and on the highest difficulty, I could make decent progress on a boss fight without having to memorise their entire moveset.

The progression in Soulslike fashion makes you gather currency (Reputation) from enemies with a risk of losing it when you are defeated and don't recover it. There is a welcome twist in the form of a style multiplier somewhat reminiscent of Devil May Cry. As you defeat enemies, the currency will get added to a separate pool that you can claim at any time. At the same time, your multiplier will go up for each action you perform during combat. The multiplier will increase the amount of reputation you gain when claiming it, but if you take damage your multiplier will reset and the base amount of accumulated reputation will be claimed automatically. This adds some excitement to base gameplay as claiming your reputation often can be as rewarding as risking to push your multiplier to the limit. If you want to gain some reputation risk-free you can also play a mini-game of Sebo with the NPCs which is also a good way to take a break from tense combat. The reputation can be spent on cosmetics, abilities, and equipment to customise your playstyle.

The first type of equipment you will find are alternative melee and ranged weapons for Nor which have little variation in moveset but they all have unique effects depending on the attacks used. For example, one of the axes sets enemies on fire and causes an explosion when you land a fully charged swing while my favourite Herald’s Blade is not only the fastest but also taps into your reputation multiplier using it to multiply its damage which is accompanied by the blade glowing red and crackling. Nor’s abilities can be further enhanced by equipping armour which will alter how her abilities work like her attacks granting more black powder or her melee weapons having greater reach and even her dodge becoming a teleport. There are also secondary firearms with limited ammo which allow you to deal with enemies from a distance. The first of those weapons is a musket used for sniping but you will quickly acquire guns like mortars and shoulder-mounted cannons which are all great in intercepting enemies in different ways.

While my experience with the combat was mostly great, I did run into some issues. Some enemy attacks were difficult to spot or react to with some of them ducking behind Nor during an attack or flying up off screen and swooping down. My greatest nemesis must have been shield-wielding enemies that would launch a lightning-fast shield bash, very hard to react at close range. I also found the hard difficulty setting a little frustrating because enemies would take multiple hits from my hefty axe before they would flinch and interrupt their attack which was a bit jarring and cost me my multiplier. This forced me to play quite defensively early on which didn’t lend itself to fighting multiple enemies. As I progressed this problem faded when I got access to more abilities allowing me to play more aggressively and overwhelm enemies with good gameplay.

While I still think it would just feel better for enemies to flinch realistically to getting hit even on high difficulty this did highlight how well thought out all the skills were, each serving a purpose. They aren't attacks that simply vary in range and damage from each other as you would see in Elden Ring but moves that flow well together, have interesting interactions and set enemies up for other abilities and effects. While I frequently found some parts of the skill tree a fodder for me to progress to more interesting stuff, I soon found myself using even them, frequently finding new niche tactics or new combos to push my advantage. Even skills with the same general effect had nuances which encouraged the use of one over the other in certain situations or against certain enemy types of which there is a good variety of too.

In summary, I like Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn a lot. The base premise is interesting, but it also has little twists, and interesting characters that kept me engaged. The world is very well realised in terms of visuals and audio and perfectly keeps the fantastic subject matter grounded and relatable. I also noticed an interesting underlying theme of transition through technological advancement forcing people to adapt, religion changing, and those used to war facing the potential of peace. Most importantly the gameplay flows well and is very satisfying, whether it's beating a horde of enemies or jumping and dashing through the varied landscapes, a lot of little details complement each other to form a greater whole.