Flintlock The Siege of Dawn review – No i-frames, no problem

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is an action-packed Soulslite that pits you against the God of the Dead. Don’t let the “Souls” bit put you off, for this game has only been slightly inspired by the infamous Dark Souls franchise and provides something fresh, interesting, and fun.

Even I had to git gud for Flintlock The Siege of Dawn

I went into Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn with excitement and confidence. I love Soulslike games and have a number of them under my belt. However, Flintlock is a Soulslite, and my disciplined ways were quickly proved useless against the game’s combat system. A very humbling experience, in a different way.

If you are expecting to jump into this game with your disciplined combat doctrines instilled into you by FromSoftware, then you’ll either be relieved or bitterly disappointed. At its heart, Flintlock is an action game with some Soulslike elements — but that’s really it.

There may only be one letter of difference between Soulslite and Soulslike, but these games are a world apart. Although another letter of difference would be the “i” in i-frame, for Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn doesn’t have any. It uses regular frames.

If you try to roll into an axe swinging for you at full speed… you’ll hit the axe. This may seem silly when said like that, but i-frames, or “invincibility frames”, are what defines Soulslikes and their combat systems. Being able to dodge through enemy and boss attacks thanks to these frames is a key feature that makes Soulslikes beatable.

In Flintlock, however, you aren’t granted such mercy, so you must stay clear of or parry your foes if you don’t want to get hit.

The combat of Flintlock was rather jarring at first. I tried to perfectly execute my dodges and rolls to bypass enemy attacks, but ended up getting hit most of the time. Upon utilizing the great mobility of double jumping and dodging in mid-air to somersault over my assailants, I still ended up getting hit.

Certain enemy attacks in Flintlock are hard to avoid. Not because they’re complex, but because the AI simply wants to hit you, so they’ll keep charging and turning around to strike you no matter how far or high you seem to leap. This did cause some frustrations and gave me painful Dark Souls 2 flashbacks, but it isn’t a huge deal. Especially as you learn new skills to get around this later.

Despite my initial struggles, Flintlock The Siege of Dawn isn’t particularly difficult. I only died once every so often, with most of my deaths being near the start as I shrugged off my Soulslike habits to embrace Flintlock. In other words, I had to git gud.

Flintlock The Siege of Dawn is an action game at heart

A key part of getting used to the combat in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is recognizing that it’s an action game, and it gives you plenty of tools to fight your enemies.

In Flintlock, there are the following weapon types:

• Melee weapons
• Primary firearms
• Secondary firearms
• Grenades
• Enki Witherings

You can equip multiple of each weapon type to quickly swap them whilst in combat, and they can all be used and accessed easily. Combat in this game is a blast because of the variety you get since the opportunity to use one of these weapons is always there.

Instead of gaining Reputation (the currency) upon defeating an enemy, you’ll get Reputation for your attacks and actions. What’s more, as you perform different actions, you’ll increase your Reputation modifier. You can cash in the modifier to multiply the amount of Reputation you’ve earned from attacking enemies.

Upon getting hit, however, the multiplier is lost and you instantly bank the base amount of Reputation you had been earning without the multiplier. This adds a wonderful and tense system where each second in combat is a gamble with a high Reputation modifier. On one hand, you could cash it all in now for sweet bonus Reputation, or you could keep trying to raise it…

I can’t express how much I love this system in the game. A little gambling always enhances the gaming experience.

The combat system is reminiscent of Bloodborne, in that you can quickly blast an enemy with your pistol to interrupt their unblockable attacks. As there are no i-frames, this makes combat very aggressive and fast-paced.

Parrying is easy but only opens up a quick and free hit, not a devastating strike like in other Soulslikes. You’ll be using your pistol and parrying to stop enemy hits rather than dancing around to avoid them — although that is totally an option.

Finally, you’ve got Enki, your little divine companion. Enki is incredibly useful (and rather adorable) and really elevates the combat system. You’ll use him to inflict the curse of death on enemies, which fills up the curse bar every time you hit an enemy whilst they’re affected. When this bar fills up, you’ll be granted a powerful blow that can also destroy enemy armor.

The comprehensive and exciting skill tree in Flintlock allows you to gain new skills and passive abilities that will enhance either your pistol, melee attacks, or Enki’s support.

I personally really enjoyed Enki’s skills the most — I soon had him distracting, “priming,” restricting, and knocking down other enemies. Watching my little spirit fox go to town was always enjoyable and incredibly useful in horde situations.

All things considered, when I got the hang of Flintlock’s combat, I was unstoppable. It was nice to finally be able to use a firearm in a Soulslike (*cough cough* we need a Bloodborne PC port *cough cough*) and being able to leap all over the place and curse my enemies made combat a genuinely enjoyable activity every time.

I’ve rattled on about the combat in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn because that’s what people will really be playing for. Soulslike veterans will use this as a metric to determine whether it’s worth playing and action game fans will be seeing if it’s too much like Dark Souls.

There is a lot more going for Flintlock that I enjoyed as much as the action, and some hang-ups that I can’t not mention.

Flintlock The Siege of Dawn is deceptive in its pacing

When playing Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, it was only upon hitting the second half of the game that I realized the game is not as short as it was telling me it was.

In the first half of the game, you are set along a narrative that your end goal is surprisingly close. During my playtime, I was constantly haunted by the feeling that there is so much going for the game, but it’s rather shallow.

When I reached what I thought could be the end game, I was surprised to see the game not only continued but had a lot more in store for me. I had only played half of it.

Although this was a pleasant surprise, as I wanted more, it was an uncomfortable switch from “I can’t believe the game will be over soon. I really wish there were more quests and equipment as there are so many categories for them”, to “oh, there is”.

This may seem like a weird complaint, however, my experience was tarnished because of it. I was mentally ready for the end, I was preparing to be finished with the game and rant on in this review about how good it was. Getting your mind prepared for the end of something only for it not to end isn’t a pleasant transition.

If I had known that there was more in store for me, I would have had a more pleasant experience. I wouldn’t have been constantly slightly disappointed that there were so many systems, that they were all under-utilized. I wouldn’t have gotten into the zone that the story was coming to an end. I would have had something more to look forward to.

Hitting the second half of the game was like a slam on the breaks. Everything the game had set me to believe just wasn’t true. If you are to play Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, just be mindful of this. The pacing in the first half leaves something to be desired.

Now that you’re aware of this, I suppose this won’t be a problem for you. So, you’re welcome.

Flintlock The Siege of Dawn is a light and fun casual action game

All in all, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn plays more like a great entry into the Soulslike genre. It’s short, sweet, and throws a lot at you without much depth. This does allow a greater emphasis on just getting out there and fighting enemies with some light exploration.

The maps and areas are very manageable and rather simple, with only a few areas for deep exploration and discovery. Some invisible walls are present, but they aren’t too invasive.

There are plenty of other activities to keep you occupied in Flintlock, such as Sebo, a coin game that can be played with the locals. Freeing Hamlets by eliminating leaders and taking on quests for people are also enjoyable and provide a nice break from the core exploration and action gameplay.

If the goal here was to provide a lighter and easier experience for action or Soulslike fans or provide an entry into the genre for uninitiated players, then A44 Games did an excellent job.

I really enjoyed my time with Flintlock The Siege of Dawn, and would recommend it to anyone who’s looking for an action game that isn’t too deep or consuming.