Review - Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn

Action-Adventure, Flintlock review, Flintlock: The Seige of Dawn, PC, Playstation 5, review, Soulslite, Xbox Series X

Flintlock is a new action-adventure game published by Kepler Interactive and developed by A44, the same developers that bought us Ashen back in 2018. I never played it, but I do hear good things.

It seems like every action-adventure game that is released lately is being described as a souls-like or souls-lite and Flintlock falls into that category, but I'm not sure that's correct. Sure, it takes some inspiration from the series, but it's also got its own charm to it.

You play as Nor, a hard as nails soldier who has been at war with the dead for long enough to have a distain for the Gods. The story starts with your team trying to destroy a barrier and things go pear shaped very quickly. You are introduced to your little magical fox buddy Enki and the two of you set out on a fantastic adventure to save the world.

Once I decided to ignore the combat multiplier, the combat started to flow better

Combo Breaker

The combat is the soul of Flintlock. Its fast, and full of combos and abilities. There is a very interesting mechanic revolving around XP or reputation as it's called. You gain reputation from competing quests, finding chests and defeating enemies. When you defeat enemies, you gain reputation by performing different combos and abilities. The more enemies you defeat the higher the multiplier rises, but resets to zero when you are hit. So, it's a massive risk vs reward and would be amazing if the combat wasn't so finicky.

Most of your damage comes from your axe, so you have to be up-close and personal. You are given a parry early on which works very well, the window is pretty generous and its followed up by some very satisfying executions, however every enemy also has an unblockable attack that must be dodged. Because you are up so close and it happens so fast I was getting hit more often that not, and losing my reputation multiplier. It also becomes more apparent when you are fighting 5 or 6 enemies at a time and they all do their power attack at once.

Once I stopped caring about the multiplier and just faced each battle head on I found myself having alot more fun. The further into the game you get the more powers you unlock which makes the combat a lot more enjoyable.

Sights & Sounds

The world Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is set in is gorgeous with lots to explore. Traversal is fluid and fun, using flashy double jumps and air dashes to get to unreachable places. You can also use Enki to teleport around the map using the shortcuts you unlock while exploring, and its well worth exploring. There are hidden bosses and quests that unlock powerful weapons and armor that have special bonuses and look fantastic. There is also fast travel unlocked by visiting shrines scattered throughout the world.

There aren't massive amounts of collectables which is a nice change. Just some flags that need to be shot.

Some of the audio mixing is too quiet, especially during conversations at your camp

As you progress through the story of Flintlock your friendship with Enki strengthens. The dialog and voice acting between Enki and Nor is enjoyable to listen to as you explore the world fleshing out the story. You also meet a few old friends along the way. Unfortunately, I found their voice acting felt a little flat at times and it's hard to stay invested. I also found some of the mixing levels were not right during some of the conversations at your camp. The dialog was often drowned out by world noises like birds and wind.

Additionally I had a horrible audio glitch from roughly halfway through, that would distort my speakers whenever there was a lot happening on the screen, usually during combat. I tried resetting my game and console with no luck. So, I just played the rest of the 12-hour story dealing with it. Yes, it was annoying but hopefully it will be fixed in an update. No one else I spoke to had this problem, so it seems I was just unlucky.

It became very choppy when quality mode was turned on

I played on The Xbox Series X and by default performance mode is on and it felt really good compared to quality mode. Even just walking through the environment was choppy and I would leave motion blur off too.

Final Thoughts

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is a fantastic action adventure game, with some challenging but fun combat to master. Its full of beautiful areas to explore and Gods to kill. It's a must play for any action-adventure fans.