Summary
I played theFlintlock: The Siege of Dawndemo duringSteam Next Fest, which is just as good as flying to Los Angeles to play it atSummer Game Fest, honest. you’re able to check out my short-form thoughts on it in my round-up of Steam’s latest demofest, but I wanted to dive into the game in a little more detail because I might have uncovered my favourite genre in a long while.
Flintlock announces itself as a souls-lite, and if I’d known this before starting the demo, I might have steered clear. Soulslikes aren’t my bag. I understand that the intense frustration leads to moments of ecstatic bliss as you finally beat the boss you’ve been butting your head against for a dozen hours, but I don’t have the time nor patience for that.
I like my games with a bit more pace to them. Give meTitanfall 2 wallrunningoverDark Souls fat rollingany day. But if a game has close quarters combat, I’d like a little bit more skill than mashing buttons. That’s where the souls-lite subgenre, and Flintlock specifically, find the perfect balance.
The linear levels in Flintlock’s Next Fest demo start in trenches and continue through caverns, adding complexity as protagonist Nor gains new powers. But from the very beginning, she runs fast, the camera is mobile and free, and jumping and ducking to avoid obstacles feels zippy and good.
When you meet a benevolent god and gain the ability to double jump, double dodge, jump-dodge, and dodge-jump, movement only gets better. The 3D platforming sections, something which are the bane of my existence in Soulslikes, feel great, and I can’t wait to see where the tunnels take us next.
This translates to combat, too. Armed with a small axe and a flintlock pistol – hence the name – you shoot and slash your way through numerous zombie-like enemies. You lock-on like a Soulslike, dodge like a Soulslike, time your parries like a Soulslike, but everything feels so much smoother and more dynamic while you do so.
I was a little worried that bringing a pistol to a fantasy fight would feel overpowered, but it’s well-balanced. Your trusty flintlock has three rounds loaded, and you must land four hits with your axe to reload each one. This stops the weapon from feeling overpowered, but its Bloodborne-esque ability to stagger opponents feels better than landing any headshot.
As an opponent begins to swing their weapon, you can shoot them to stagger them. It does damage, but the window of opportunity is far more important, and will undoubtedly be the best route to defeating bosses. This is what elevates Flintlock from just being an RPG where you can mash your way through its levels. It’s a Soulsborne mechanic through and through, but when combined with the fluid movement of modernAssassin’s Creed, it’s a perfect marriage.
I must take a moment to talk about Flintlock’s world. While it feels as smooth as a musket round mechanically, its diverse world of gods and soldiers is as intriguing a fantasy playground as any. From the demo’s one boss battle (an auto-lose situation that’s slightly disappointing) to the vulpine deity who lends you a hand when you awake afterwards, the mythology and depth of this world is an immediate draw.
The human characters, too, are interesting. From Nor, with her vivid triangle of war paint and almost Napoleonic military uniform, to her eclectic gang of allies, our cast is diverse and engaging. Despite the fact we go from trenches of allies and superiors to a solo mission early on, I hope we can explore Nor’s relationships to her fellow soldiers later in the game, because the mustachioed gents and weary generals provide ample opportunity for storytelling.
Originality is something thatFromSoftwarehas always excelled in – and doubled down on withElden Ring– and it’s a part of the Soulslike experience that many of its imitators fail to recognise. The punishing experience is ultimately unsatisfying if the world you’re exploring is derivative.
I’m hoping that, like it makes the Soulslike genre more approachable, fluid, and exciting, Flintlock does the same for lore. I don’t want to have to read two dozen item descriptions in order to have a vague sense of what’s going on in the wider world, I want a coherent narrative and a pantheon I understand.
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn was the biggest surprise of Steam Next Fest for me. I expected to be charmed by a pixel art platformer or blown away from a slow-burn narrative point-and-click adventure. I didn’t expect to be playing a game with triple-A-style realistic graphics at all, let alone for it to astonish me by introducing a whole new genre.
