As they so often say: honesty is the best policy. As surprised and genuinely more interested I am in what developer Aurxora44 – though we’ll stick with A44 for short – are cooking up with Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn now that I’ve seen it in motion, albeit in a hands-off showing, credit where credit’s due to the New Zealand-based team for not shying away from their influences and intentions alike. Easy it may be to fall back on that favored of comparisons whenever real-time, third-person combat of sufficient challenge is involved, while this may not be A44’s first rodeo in this space, to hear the team come out and embrace that desire to be seen still as a Soulslike is admirable. Before name-dropping the likes of 2018’s God of War and suddenly you feel compelled to mention that latter title as something of note in an introductory fashion like this.
Sure, a few minutes of combat will easily give away the influences of Sony Santa Monica’s recent work. Axe-wielding, parry-focused, heavy-hitting melee weapons, while an AI companion offers supernaturally-charged support – interspersed with the occasional banter that, all things considered, feels like the least-polished of A44’s vertical slice shown. Sprinkle in a bit of “semi-open world” (the game’s own words too – another commendable admittance) traversal, strategic reliance on one’s guns, double-jumping, a trick system that immediately had the name Tony Hawk flash in my head and…woah woah woah, hang on for just one second! What’s going on in this game, again?
Yes, once proceedings get going, it’s easy to feel a touch dizzy with uncertainty with all the ideas orbiting A44’s newest project. It’s only when you find yourself combing over all the finer details and complimentary mechanics and systems of Flintlock do you find that surprise of earlier truly start to materialize. And not just surprise at just how far and wide A44 are drawing influences from – another case where you feel that the figurative house is indeed a stack of cards ready to topple over – but surprise too at the thought that: “y’know what, this could actually work.” Call it naive optimism or otherwise, but as brief a glimpse it’s been, there’s something about the competency of Flintlock’s gameplay. More specifically, unlike the team’s debut effort Ashen, Flintlock’s intentions instead seem to be one not of appeasement, but experimentation. The kind of experimentation that may run the risk of coming off a little goofy, a little susceptible to letting its back-end seams be visible one too many times.
On a technical front, the game’s current build wasn’t shy at throwing up a frame-rate dip or short-range flicker of assets popping in and out from time to time. Flintlock may not exactly feel polished to a mirror sheen, but at present these brief inconsistencies matter little when the combat – the meat of Flintlock’s appeal – is so curious to unpack. I say curious – and refer to it as one to unpack – because as noted, A44’s interpretation of combat may feel familiar (that fusion of Soulslike relentlessness and God of War’s rhythm), but it’s everything going on around it that gives this aspect plenty to chew on. Starting with its core, thematic premise: a world where guns and magic are vying for dominance and whereby players will constantly be asking just how much, if at all, they want to rely on raw firepower over their own melee skills. The basic gist is that out in the field (the semi-open field, if you will) players have a limited amount of rounds to use during combat. In the build shown, players were limited to six shots. Thus, six rounds – six times players can rely on what is essentially an overpowered attack that so often decimates regular enemy health bars and can be vital during mini-boss and even major boss encounters. So then, an item one should leave for either last-ditch or perfectly-timed opportunities.
Opportunities that come by way of players making the most of a combat system, that itself relies on successfully parrying an enemy’s telegraphed moves. Doing so helps you chip away at an accompanying Guard meter that hovers over their HP. Fill it up all the way and the enemy is staggered – a gameplay loop that, while not entirely original on its own, because of that added firearm incentive means that Flintlock’s preferred play-style, though aggressive, is tinged with a bit more of a strategic edge. But then we move onto the acrobatic movement – the presence of a double-jump hard to ignore – and so too, the scoring system which is where the bizarre-yet-enticing pull of combat really kicks into gear. The latter of which working by way of an ongoing combo that adds up all the different moves/attacks you make and the times with which you enact said decisions.
For example, interrupting an enemy’s strike at the last second will net you more points than a basic interrupt. The drawback however, very much like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and games of its ilk, is that one hit will prevent you from banking that rising combo of points. Having to start over from scratch, as you do. And given said points serve as the in-game currency for Flintlock, that undercurrent of thinking aggressively but strategically only builds moreso. Add some expected flash, complete with perilous AoE and long-distance enemy patterns to avoid and while on the surface the spectacle may not be new, it’s how A44 interweave and interlock these seemingly conflicted mechanics that adds up – bizarrely of all – into a rather entertaining whole. Naturally, this could all very well crumble under its own weight. Maybe this is indeed all one too many systems or even one ambitious stride too far for the game to feel either coherent or reasonably fleshed out alike later down the road. Admiration may be present, but what good will it do if you can’t find the means to make it all work seamlessly, like pistons in some grand feat of engineering?
Perhaps it’s the fact that, as noted, this isn’t A44’s debut in such a popular sub-genre of action-leaning gameplay. Or that, with Flintlock, the team’s upscale in ambition isn’t even the most prominent take-away, though any team that aims bigger with subsequent projects seldom goes without at least a curious glance. And were it not for the way combat so often unravels – offering plenty of options, but so few easy or at least obvious answers – in Flintlock, it may well have settled on simply a glance. The story here could not be anymore different: this is exactly the kind of interlocking, push-pull, risk:reward system of combat many will take great pride in mastering. Or if nothing else, indulge in with a smile as the occasional ridiculousness of the spectacle does enough to push through. I was smiling at just how impactful A44’s sound team have made the bass range – notably during finishing moves where the devastating might of one’s attacks are finished off with a round to a collapsed enemy’s head. Oh yes, that’s another satisfying aspect you can throw into Flintlock’s vertical slice: the treatment of sound in parts just makes you want to grin ear to ear. Those of you with a good, bass-savvy pair of headphones, you know what to do.
With Ashen, being blunt, Aurora44 felt like a team approaching an established template and finding content in simply tying it together with a novel aesthetic, without much else to entice. While it would be a stretch to claim Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is head-to-toe original on the basis of its core loop, what makes this title such a surprise curiosity is just how well its broad palette of combat influences gel. In some respects, breaking from out even the typical Soulslike formula – via a combo-based scoring system – and still convincing you it has a rightful place. Can the New Zealand studio find it within themselves to prevent this intriguing grouping of ideas from feeling too convoluted? While you’re at it, polish up the minor technical details and maybe take a second look at how disjointed some of the dialogue exchanges between protagonists Nor and her supernatural fox-like companion Enki feel. Do this Aurora44 and you could be on for a winning follow-up; on its combat pitch alone, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn has gone from modest look-in to what may well be one of 2023’s biggest surprise packages.
