Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn hands-on preview — Striking flint

Soulsy games are all the rage, eh? It feels like every game that looks neat is one, and most of them revel in killing me. Finding something unique and less… cheesy… isn’t always easy. I want to live, and if Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn (henceforth referred to as Flintlock) can give me a new lease on life with its more forgiving system, I’m all for it. After playing it at the Xbox Showcase, I might believe in the genre again.

In my preview, I was thrown in after the beginning of the game. I’m not exactly sure where, but this slice was intentional to give me a taste of what A44 Games is going for. I was able to experience the world, combat, and the ways of traversal, even if a small portion of the feast that will be available.

Feast is certainly correct if visuals are anything to go by. Flintlock is gorgeous to behold, with phenomenal art design coming from their choice of setting. This 19th century era of gunpowder combined with fantasy works wonders in the world, with cobblestone roads and stonework houses that match the aesthetic. Beyond that, Nor Vanek (the main character) is striking from armor to weapons. As you attack, the particle effects from your projectile weapons and magic are stellar, just a beautiful display of what A44 Games can do.

As mentioned above, I was a bit apprehensive given the “soulsy” formula. Something the devs mentioned to me as we came in for our demo, however, was that there are different difficulty modes. I was immediately more psyched, as this adds approachability that most of these kinds of games don’t have. Given this is a day one Game Pass game, I can see more people engaging with Flintlock on a “story difficulty”, rather than falling off after the first boss destroys them.

My task was getting into the city of Sibyl, and while I never reached that objective, it felt like there was a lot worth exploring on the side. The level design is very soulslike; going off the beaten path will not only give you the opportunity to find extra items, but those epic additional backdoor routes for getting ahead if you die. Speaking of the whole dying thing, I never did, so I’m unsure of the consequences. I’d assume you respawn back where you last saved, with enemies respawning like other Soulslikes. That said, this demonstrates how easy it is to onboard in Flintlock even if you’re not into Souls games.

Fighting the creatures you run into is something to do deliberately, more akin to an action-RPG. Even with the lesser difficulty, however, you can’t go in willy-nilly or you’re going to get wrecked. Dodging, getting a few slashes in with Nor’s sword, finding a good parry, all things that will be familiar to anyone in this genre. Add in the amazing pistol and musket, along with an old-school grenade launcher (and a few throwable grenades), and the kit you take in with you is pretty cool. I really enjoyed swinging my blade a few times to earn a bullet or two for the pistol, firing a shot, then following it up with more sword swipes, with a couple of awesome scripted finishers when you got a good stagger in.

Staggering is a concept that you need to learn, and was the thing that took me the longest to figure out. Enki, your little magical fox companion, will weave his way through creatures if you have the charge to use him. This will build a stagger meter which will slow your enemies down. Eventually, when you earn it, you can unleash an ultimate ability, which pauses every baddie in a full stagger, allowing you to smash them down with authority (and style). It’s extremely useful when you’re in a crowd, allowing you to thin the herd.

I know I keep coming back to approachability, but Flintlock manages to be so much less obtuse than its counterparts. It is dubbed a “Souls-lite”, which has something to do with that, but the game makes sense where others expect you to just figure it out. There are still some mechanics that are clearly inspired by the genre, like resting or speaking with a shopkeeper to refill your health flasks and munitions inventory. But, I have objective markers on a compass, I have control prompts, I have clearly defined HUD elements: the functions that help me know what I’m doing while playing. These things make me want to play Flintlock even more, meaning the design choices that have been made – what comes in from a Souls game and what doesn’t – are working.

Given the short duration of my playtime, there isn’t a lot more to say about Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn. Even so, what I played made me interested in the systems and story, exactly what a good demo should do. I won’t have to wait long to play more either, as Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn releases on July 18th, day one on Xbox and PC Game Pass. It will also be available on PC storefronts and PlayStation 5. Also, there’s a demo via Steam Next Fest (although it may be gone after today), so make sure you try it yourself!

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