Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is a mix of interesting ideas that have no business being in the same game.
A44 Games came up on my radar when they released Ashen in 2018. A proud souls-lite with solid gameplay and a unique presentation. The thing that sets it apart from all the other souls-lites is that this game was designed to be played together with a friend or have AI fill that role for you. Altogether, Ashen was a great first release from an indie developer.
With the success of A44 Games’ first game in mind, I kept an eye out for updates related to Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn. The marketing of this game was excellent and I was considerably excited to play this game on release. On paper, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn looks like an amazing game.
A world where gunpowder becomes so valuable that it catches the attention of mythical beings, difficult souls-like combat with RPG elements, and guns? Sign me up. Could this fill the hole that has been left in my heart by the lack of a Bloodborne PC port? Sadly, no. Flintlock: Siege of Dawn is a game of great ideas, but falls flat with the execution.
In the story of Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, you play as Nor, who is a warrior fighting back against gods that have come to this world with their undead army. Think of the Napoleonic era with the muskets, flintlock guns, and swords being the primary weapons of the time where gunpowder has become an extremely valuable resource.
Gunpowder is so valuable, that even the gods have taken an interest in it and decided to take it for themselves forcefully from the humans. A door that had been keeping the undead monsters captive fails and a god named Uru is set free, who is a threat to this world.
Along with this, a small fox-like creature named Enki also emerges from that door. Enki is another god who wants to help you save this world and he lets you borrow his abilities to fend off the undead.
Enki was designed well as a companion. At first, Nor is distrustful of the mystical and isn’t happy about having his help, but through conversations and little moments, you can see Nor warm up to the idea of having Enki around and it is nice to see that happen. The progression did feel a little rushed as Nor’s sentiments and emotions throughout Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn bounce from one place to another.
Sometimes, it just felt like what Nor says mid-gameplay and during cutscenes didn’t seem consistent. You could hear her say something nice to Enki while playing, and then be met with that distrustful behavior in a cutscene afterwards.
There are also several side characters who you can see the main character speak to, and while Nor says she is close to these people, nothing is really done too well to convey that through meaningful dialogue or candid moments.
Combat-wise, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn has some interesting mechanics. You are taught the basics against a mini-boss at the start of the game. You have melee weapons that have expandable moves through leveling up, guns that you can charge up by hitting enemies, access to parrying with your melee weapon, Enki’s spells, and some movement abilities like a slide. This may sound good, but in practice, the mechanics feel a little disjointed.
You can stun enemies during power moves. Normally, these hit hard and can send Nor flying or do high levels of damage. But in that quick shot, she can stun them and take advantage of that stun by leaping in and swinging away.
But to refill that flintlock, you have to kill enemies normally. I have no clue why this is the case. Maybe everybody sprays themselves with a bit of gunpowder before they’re sent out to attack you. But it works in that loop of gameplay.
The combat progression in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn has you using the Reputation that you get from killing enemies, to reload your gun with this QTE effectively. You also use the same resource to unlock more skills in three different trees and the pistol shops use black powder to exchange with guns.
There are different elements sort of spread throughout Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn in different ways, and they try to bring it all together, but it doesn’t quite work. For example, exploring throughout the land, killing enemies, and gathering items lets you get armor and upgrade that armor.
There’s also a clothing system in different stores that you find in places that you freed, which means you’re bouncing between your actual camp and those other locations to get different equipment. And it can sort of be nice to break up the look of Nor, but the sort of options you have makes you seem like you are about to enter a nightclub in the 90s. While that can be a cool vibe to have, it doesn’t go too well with this setting.
Speaking of the setting, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn has two main areas you explore. Here, you will come across NPCs to speak to them and do side quests, explore the world by platforming, and fight enemies and bosses you come across. There are some other smaller areas, but you will be in the two main areas for the majority of the time.
The world of Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn lacks a strong sense of place. Despite the high fidelity of the locations you visit, few stand out or compel you to take in the scenery. Towns you save will be filled with people and objects that don’t react to your presence save for opponents for an out-of-place board game called Sebo.
Unremarkable cave systems and cliffsides weren’t aided by the addition of swirling purple energy or blue crystals when they’d appear again later in the game. The unique mixed setting of “magic and gunpowder” often falls flat as a result.
You traverse this world with a hefty amount of platforming. You have these triangles that work as a grappling hook with the help of Enki and you unlock a double jump later on. The problem here is that Nor does not grab onto ledges very consistently. This can be frustrating as Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn can also be very vertical.
Sometimes, you will jump into a ledge, only to fall 3-4 platforms lower because of this. You have some cool movement skills that you use while exploring, but I find it odd that A44 Games were not able to design it in a way that would let you use it in combat. Swift and satisfying movement in combat is often what takes a moderately fun game to the next level.
Another flaw in the world is the level of design. You are just arbitrarily given walls that or told that a gate cannot open because you forgot to kill a certain enemy in the room. This would’ve been fine if it was a crucial enemy, but it’s not even that.
There may be some guy hidden in a large vertical room you have to climb up and down to find and once you finally pick him off, it doesn’t even feel good. This is an odd decision to make, considering Soulsbourne games usually let you run straight to the boss of an area.
The boss fights in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn are weak. There are about 4 distinct bosses who are rehashed and spread throughout the game. It’s like the God of War situation where the same giant troll boss was reused, like, 6-7 times throughout the runtime.
The music in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is pretty good. I think it fits the game suitably here. It’s moody for what you expect about gods fighting gods and some random lady who likes to fling axes into everybody’s faces like a discount Kratos.
And it’s got a good series of somber tracks, especially in the later game locations that almost fits the zombie-like vibe that many of the enemies you fight have with wispy bits of music fading in as you enter a location, then building up as you head down into a cave complex to fight some random bad guy.
The voice acting, however, is middling in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn. The delivery of lines was fine, but it was hard to parse through what was meant to be important for the story and what was just fluff. What also doesn’t help is the mixing of the audio.
There is no depth to the sound for some reason. You will have no idea where someone is talking to you from no matter what headphones you use which I found to be frustrating and odd, although this may not be noticeable when the game is played from a TV.
Coming back to what I like about Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, Enki is an outstanding companion. At first, he seems mysterious and quiet, but the bits of dialogue you get from him end up being interesting later on. He does joint attacks alongside you in combat and is generally just cute. In contrast to Forspoken, where the companion you have just wouldn’t stop talking, Enki is well-designed.
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn does a lot of things and it has a lot of ideas, but it lacks cohesion. The mechanics here sound impressive on their own, but they don’t feel fun to play as the execution of the ideas falls flat. Despite its atmospheric music and moments of potential, the execution fails to meet the high expectations set by its marketing, making it a solid but underwhelming experience.
Despite this, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is still a solid experience, but admittedly it does not hold up to the hype it garnered before release. It’s easy to forget that A44 Games is an indie developer and this is only their second release. Had they focused a bit more on the execution of the ideas rather than the quantity of them and perhaps reduced the scale a little bit, this could’ve been a great game. As it stands, though, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn gets an iffy recommendation.
