In many ways, Flintlock: Siege of Dawn lives up to its namesake. A flintlock s a beautiful weapon but also an inconsistent and often unreliable one, just as likely hit the target as it is to miss or fail completely. As a follow-up to the impressive Ashen, Flintlock: Siege of Dawn is A44 attempting to enter the double-A gaming market with a cinematic 10-15 hour adventure that’s worth playing thanks to being on Game Pass, but struggles to justify itself outside of that.
Flintlock’s world and story immediately grabbed my attention. You play as Nor, a sapper in a world of black powder and knights and trench warfare. An army is currently barely holding off a never-ending tide of the dead pouring out of a fortress where a strange portal has opened up. The world is under siege, and based on the deep trenches, sandbags and devastation, it’s obvious this fight has been going non-stop for quite some time. Nor’s father figure has gone on a suicide mission to blow the portal up, so she persuades her commander to let her give chase.
Available On: Xbox Series S/X, PS5, PC
Reviewed On: PC
Developed by: A44
Published by: Kepler Interactive
Price: $39.99/£34.99
Really, it’s the world and its massive potential that speaks to me the most strongly. Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn’s mixture of black powder weapons, swords, magic, fantasy and more reminds me a little of Brian McClellan’s Powder Mage trilogy, a series of books where people were able to use black powder to fuel their magic. There are a lot of cool elements mixed in this game and while that can sometimes lead to a slightly muddled visual style, it’s a world I think has oodles of potential for great storytelling.
Unfortunately, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn’s storytelling isn’t great. It has its moments, including some genuinely good interactions between Nor and Enki, but overall the plot is barebones and the writing often trips over itself. Nor’s hatred of the Gods and her motivation to kill them all is barely explored, nor are the companions she gathers along the way, despite the game repeatedly telling us she is close to them. Her feelings toward Enki seem to fluctuate wildly between cutscenes and in-game banter, too, which really doesn’t help the development of their relationship which should be the central pillar of the whole story.
As for Nor, there are a few moments where she shines as a character, but mostly she’s another forgettable lead character that doesn’t have an effective or engaging arc. And it’s a real shame that A44 never plays into her military role as a sapper, which historically is someone who focuses on things like demolitions, breaching fortifications and clearing minefields. Instead, she’s just a generic soldier who hits things with her axe.
The developers describe Flintlock as a “souls-lite” in the game’s official blurb. It’s easy to see why: your resources are lost upon death and must be collected, there are bonfires where you can stop to rest (which respawns enemies) and you even have a healing flask with limited uses. I admit that when I realised it was taking inspiration from the Souls genre, I let out a sigh and exclaimed “Oh God, not another one.” Truthfully though, Flintlock is only a Souls-like in the vaguest of terms, barely grazing the idea, almost as if it just wants to be able to lay claim to the term for marketing reasons. The bigger hallmarks of the Souls genre, such as difficulty and depth of builds are missing entirely.
I’d argue Flintlock takes more inspiration from something like the modern God of War games. The over-the-shoulder camera, the semi-open environments, the combat and a lot more remind me of Kratos’ journeys than Dark Souls or Elden Ring. Another useful point of comparison is the recent Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden which was also a double-A game trying to punch above its weight.
Nor’s main weapon is her axe which she swings with a tap of the shoulder button, but she can also unload her black powder pistol which is the only way of interrupting enemy attacks when they flash red. Getting black powder charges back can only be done by smacking the enemy with the axe, for some inexplicable reason, while regular attacks can be dodged, blocked or parried if you’re feeling fancy. Enki also plays a role in combat by dashing in for quick attacks at your command which builds up a special meter that stuns foes, leaving them open to an arse-kicking. He can also unleash some God powers to help turn the tide of battle.
Of course, there’s a bit more to the combat than what I’m describing, but overall it’s a simple fighting system that feels quite decent, especially when you get the hang of the slightly odd parry timing, but doesn’t grow much across the game short runtime. The general pace of fights does speak to that whole Souls-lite thing, encouraging you to wade in for a hit or two before backing out again, and I found the idea of interrupting opponents with a black powder blast to the face satisfying. That said, I wish the camera would pull back a little when the game decides to throw a lot of enemies on the screen at once, especially since the combat system does not feel great when fighting a lot of foes.
There’s a reasonable amount of platforming in Flintlock, and to the developer’s credit, they really let you use Nor’s double-jump and air-dash to get around the environments. But its during the leaps and bounds that Nor’s floaty physics comes into play, giving it a sense of weightlessness. It doesn’t help that sometimes she’ll bump into a ledge and turn sideways instead of immediately grabbing on, which does admittedly look hilarious. Sometimes though, she doesn’t grab on at all, which is considerably less hilarious.
Enki helps out with the platforming by occasionally being able to open purple portals in the air which he and Nor can traverse. It’s a cool idea but its primary function is to form shortcuts and is otherwise rarely ever used.
There are a lot of hints that Flintlock was intended to be even more ambitious than it is. For example, there are random villages you can enter where the goal becomes to fight and defeat the leader, at which point the village is freed and all the people will magically move back in like nothing ever happened. A coffee shop opens up as a reward, giving you an extra use of your healing flask, some nice new cosmetics and maybe a side quest or two. Liberating these towns is kind of fun, but it’s a gameplay mechanic that also feels entirely separate from the rest of the game. It doesn’t really fit in with anything else.
Then there’s Sebo, a coin-based mini-game that Nor can play with random people she encounters. And I really do mean random people – you’ll find Sebo players in the strangest locations, including in rooms where you just wiped out a bunch of enemies. I guess the idea was to mimic the success of Gwent in The Witcher 3 but instead of putting Sebo players in sensible locations they just put them wherever. These Sebo players are also the only NPCs who will actually react to your presence because all the rest will ignore you and your antics. Even if you swing your axe in a village, you can’t smash anything and nobody will comment on your poor manners.
In Conclusion…
Like a flintlock pistol, the shots that Siege of Dawn fires don’t always hit the mark. Its combat is fun but simplistic, its world is beautiful and vast but has very little in and is largely static, its story is brimming with potential that it never fully taps into, and its platforming is too floaty. Each element it brings to the table needs a more fine tuning.
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn isn’t a bad game, but it does feel more like a proof-of-concept for a much better idea, which is why I’d love to see a sequel, although the early player numbers make me worried that it will never happen. Given the ending, it seems like A44 are intending on there being more to this world.
If you have Game Pass it’s absolutely worth checking it out. On a personal level, I actually had a lot of fun with it, but on a more critical level, the whole game needed more time in the oven.
