Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn Review – Accessible and Fun Soulslite

Nearly five years after the launch of Ashen, Wellington-based game developer A44 is about to launch its second game, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn.

Whereas Ashen was published by indie label Annapurna Interactive and brought up from the ID@Xbox program as an Xbox/PC exclusive at first, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn enjoys a raised profile and a full multiplatform launch from the get-go with publisher Kepler Interactive. A44 also doubled in size to make it, bolstering its headcount from 30 to 60 developers, which is admittedly still on the lower end for a developer looking to craft a game not too far from triple-A production levels.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn follows in the footsteps of its predecessor in many ways but also departs from it in others. It's still largely inspired by the Soulslike genre created by FromSoftware, so you can expect bonfire-like Lodestones and camps as checkpoints, having only one chance to gather your lost experience (called reputation here) if you are defeated before it is gone forever, and a set amount of potions that only recharges after resting at camps; which, however, respawns all regular foes in the world.

However, it is much more accessible for those who, like myself, aren't too keen on standard Soulslikes. To start with, A44 did not shy away from adding a difficulty selection, unlike FromSoftware. While the mere mention of it may sound borderline heretical to diehard fans of Dark Souls and Elden Ring, the Japanese studio's refusal to allow easier settings in their games keeps a good chunk of would-be fans from enjoying those titles. There's a reason why the 'easy' (or rather, normal) difficulty mods are extremely popular on PC, while console users are forced to go through the ordeal as-is or simply walk away.

No such thing is necessary in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, which offers three options when starting a new game: Story (which disables Achievements), Normal (described as balanced but challenging), and Possessed, which delivers something more akin to the punishing experience Souls fans have come to love and hate at once. But there's more: players can also fast travel at will and without any cost to any unlocked Lodestone or camp.

Overall, when playing on Normal, I felt none of the trademark frustration usually tied to the experience of playing a Soulslike game. Granted, there were a few tougher boss fights and enemies that required some tactical adjustments to be overcome, but that's par for the course for any action RPG like God of War, which is also an inspiration for this game. In the review guide, A44 mentioned the desire to position Flintlock as an entry point for the genre that prides itself on not being unfair to players. In this regard, the game passes with flying colors.

It's great that the game is so accessible. This way, players will have the chance to experience a truly unique fantasy world inspired by the rather niche titular Flintlock genre. In this type of setting, firearms and black powder are just as prevalent as magical beings, and that's exactly what you'll find here.

Protagonist Nor Vanek (voiced by Olive Gray, who you might remember as Miranda Keyes in the Halo TV series) is a Sapper, trained since a young age (she was a war orphan) to be part of an elite combat engineering unit within The Coalition army. The Coalition is all that stands between the army of the Dead that has been pouring out of the city of Dawn for the past ten years. At the beginning of the game, his adoptive father, Baz (voiced by Elias Toufexis, known to gamers for playing Adam Jensen in the last two Deus Ex games), goes on a suicide mission with a couple more members of the Sapper unit to bomb the Door to the Great Below, in a desperate attempt to stop the flow of undead. Being highly protective of Nor, he leaves her behind - but she rushes to join the squad as soon as she learns of their endeavor.

The team does appear to succeed at blowing up the Door, but this creates new problems instead of fixing anything. Namely, a few nasty gods escape and cause all sorts of trouble throughout the world (which is a peculiar mix of Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Middle Easterner, and New Zealander influences). Furthermore, Nor herself is initially separated from the Sapper unit. However, she finds a new, mysterious companion, the fox-like god Enki (voiced by Alistair Petrie, mostly known for playing General Draven in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story). Despite her initial mistrust of any god, Nor eventually agrees to work with Enki to defeat those rampaging gods. By the way, if you're worried about Enki being as annoying as Forspoken's Cuff, I can reassure you that's not the case at all.

While not exactly full of twists, the story, told through conventional dialogue and cinematics rather than FromSoftware's cryptic ways, is ultimately enjoyable. Critically, the developers made the cast of supporting characters interesting despite only dedicating a modest amount of quest content to them. While I certainly support the definition of Soulslite for Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn when it comes to being a leaner, more accessible version of Soulslike, the game is perhaps a bit too 'light' on content in general.

A44 claimed a length of 20 hours plus another 10 for completionists, but Steam says I finished the game in just 14.7 hours, and the achievements confirm I completed all side quests, freed all hamlets, unlocked all firearms, found all Enki feathers (which level up your companion for better performance in combat), and fully upgraded my campsite. The side content was pretty good, but there was so little of it compared to the usual action RPG that it's hard not to be a little disappointed, particularly if you're having fun. Granted, the game has a budget price of $39.99, but you're still left wanting at the end.

That extends to character progression. You can obtain new armor and weapons (both melee and ranged), but there's only a handful of them throughout the entire game. The same goes for the skill tree, which lets you specialize in Steel (melee), Black Powder (Ranged), or Magic (gracefully provided by Enki), though you will most likely end up with a mix of all three, given how small the tree is. On the bright side, you can experiment with skills more easily than in other games, as Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn lets you 'unlearn' a skill while refunding a good amount of reputation to invest elsewhere.

Overall, the game's combat is relatively fast-paced and requires full usage of Nor Vanek's tools. For example, an unblockable (red) attack can be dodged, but a better option might be to use your trusty firearm, as that will stun the enemy for a brief time. There are also grenades and various types of firearms, including a cannon and a flamethrower.

Traversal is also pretty fun, taking advantage of a high degree of verticality in the design of the maps. The developers previously described it as Spider-Man-like, although I'm not sure that's accurate. In Spider-Man's games, you can move more or less freely while web-swinging, whereas here, you're just zipping in a predetermined path through magical rifts. Still, it's a good way to reach some secret areas and fully explore the world.

Visually, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn looks good without being mind-blowing. It is powered by Unreal Engine 4; an upgrade to UE5 could have done wonders for the game, not only for the visuals with the likes of Lumen and Nanite but mostly for the stuttering improvements introduced by Epic.

Unfortunately, the game suffers from the stuttering seen in many UE4 games released in the past two years. Mind you, it's not nearly as bad as The Callisto Protocol, but it's there, even when playing on a PC with an RTX 4090 and NVIDIA DLSS 3 enabled.

Reviewed on PC (code provided by the publisher).

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