A short way into an extended hands-off presentation of Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, and my main thought was: this feels a lot like a mix between God of War and Souls games, at which point creative director Simon Dasan described it as… more or less exactly that. “A massive thing for us was to try and take that real Soulslike field of action, and then make it more accessible, kind of bring it all together to the masses,” he explained, to the sound of main character Nor slashing theatrically through an enemy grunt.
Flintlock: The Siege of DawnDeveloper: A44 GamesPublisher: Kepler InteractiveAvailability: Out Q3 2024 on PC (Steam, Epic), PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Flintlock, the next game from the New Zealand studio behind Ashen, is breezy and fluid, emphasising movement and offence where typical Souslikes might nudge you towards a more staid defensive dance. But the switch to proactivity is countered by the usual trappings of the genre: a semi-linear world, small numbers of enemies, and combat that, while flashier and faster, still seems to reward precision above all.
Arriving in a crumbling castle courtyard around a third of the way into the game, you find the area subjugated by a god. Battling through some initially typical Soulslike enemies – think zombified dudes in armour – Dasan and co demonstrated a few variations on how exactly that combat works.
At the basic level, there’s plenty of dodging between enemy attacks before letting off a brief melee combo of your own. But alongside that you’ll find a metre that gradually fills on successful hits – fill this up completely, and your companion, a little chatterbox of a fox god called Enki, can then let off some special attacks, a bit like Atreus in God of War, but with more punch. These specials almost act like an ultimate, executing weaker enemies or ripping the armour off heavier ones.
You’ll also need to cycle regularly between melee slashes and a few shots of your Flintlock pistol, which works well as Bloodborne-style combo breaker for staggering enemies and interrupting their flow, while there are other “black powder” based weapons, like longer-range rifles and grenades, that you’ll gain access to over time. There’s also a classic three-way split of skill trees – powder, magic, and steel – which are largely self-explanatory and govern each of the three key approaches across your guns, Enki-powered special moves, and weapons and armour. There’s a loot system, which may cause some groans, but it doesn’t appear grindy, instead being based around subtle combos from things like wearing full sets of gear – to me as much a nice excuse to stare at the elaborate 17th century-inspired metal inlays on a fancy shoulder plate as anything else.