Flintlock: Siege of Dawn

Here's my double take

I'm not always a fan of everygame that flops out in front of me during press conferences which is why I tend to only ever really pick up on a choice few. However now and then I do end up passing by something which really should have appealed to me more, given the names behind the project. Which opens up dual lines on inquiry, namely in what exactly it is was I missed from the reveal, and how that reveal might have been lacking from a marketing perspective. But whichever lines I open, the result is that I end up paying the game a lot more attention. So allow me to go back on myself and take a real look at 'Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn', the action game that might not have swooned me when I first saw it, but did make me take that second look once I saw that the creator's of Ashen were backing in. Ashen being that great stylised action adventure game set across a dream-like dreary world with faceless dollish characters. It really sticks in the brain.

Whereas Flintlock absolutely slipped out of it, which speaks volumes about the power of an artstyle. Ashen is intentionally geometric in it's visuals, from the world to the shape of it's people, it's palette is washed out, it's theme nomadic; yet all of that blurs into a presentation that stands out amongst its peers and becomes that game's recognisable identity. What Flintlock has presented is no doubt visually superior to Ashen in terms of fidelity and rendering, likely as consequence of all the funds and growth the studio has enjoyed thanks to the modest success of their last game, but that has lost some of that unique visual style. And the visual uniqueness is a big deal; it's the key initial identifier when anyone looks at the game and thus makes the difference between an engaged watcher and someone who's just skimming the visuals for that 'wow' moment, like I was when I first saw this game.

But coming back to look at this game and forcing myself to care, I can see there are some elements from the trailer worth talking about. Namely the fluidity of the animations which seem, go figure, to grow upon what Ashen was doing; and is a very important component to making this style of game work. (I've said it before, action slasher games live and die on the responsiveness of combat) Also it would be remiss not to mention that the there's a real sense of depth to the palette we're seeing that seems to belie the scale of the open world available to us. Whether that's a trick to the particle volume filling the air equally with smog and specks of light, I really do feel like there's innumerable explorable nooks and crannies to plunder, likely brimming with monsters to slay, speaking of.

There's some pleasing variety to the denizens of this world, all pouring from some form of hell if I've read the description accurately enough. As the style of the game seems to be this mix between romanticised colonialism-era architecture and fantasy, the enemy creatures seem an intriguing mix between Conquistador skeletons and magical Armor-donning mystic knights. Of course, such variety and the one-on-one presentation of the bigger battles is going to draw some well-earned Soulslike comparisons, and considering the gameplay of Ashen I can only assume that those comparisons are very welcome. In fact, I do get this vague scratching feeling at the back of my neck that this is an action adventure reimagining of Greedfall in a way, making these two games peas in a pod for a very specific style of thematic genre. 

Flintlock seems to be leaning itself towards the mixing of styles of combat in order to make something that feels fluid and popping to the eye. As such there will be the heavy weight of a hammer's swing alongside the flare of magical arts, the range advantage of a gun and the stylish elemental flailing's of the companion rodent who flanks the hero. All of which feed into the flashiness of the power fantasy which makes this game's most stark departure from the Souls-like comparison I can find. Those games want you to feel the oppressive boot of weakness ever treading on you, whereas Flintlock owns the more traditional approach of letting the player be the whirlwind of death that they dream about being in their nighties. Although not so much that you don't feel the robustness of facing a deadly boss, of course. There must always be the balance.

Ashen was a game of few words, to say the least; meaning that by the very merit of adding a voiced protagonist, Flintlock is breaking new grounds. Now I'm not expecting some grand adventure of pathos and learning to unfurl before our character like a rich tapestry of consequence and growth, but I wouldn't be upset if that did happen. To be honest, I know very well how a definitive character can get between a player and their craft especially in games like these. Whoever the protagonist of 'Lords of the Fallen' was, I couldn't care less for their story, and William from Nioh bugged me no end with his utterly incomprehensive personal drives. (Seriously; why did he do literally anything in that entire narrative; It never made sense to me. And no, getting back his Irish fairy waifu does not cover the entire war he fights and wins.) Our Nor Vanek, aside from reminding me of Nara from Chorus, does not strike me as the type to hijack the players journey; so I can only pray we either get everything or nothing; not a nauseating half-job like this genre has suffered before.

Aside from that I feel the need to emphaise that this game looks fine. I know I've already complemented the thematic styling of the world, but visually I'm really getting that thirst to explore this city as I did for the cool vistas of Egypt in Assassin's Creed Origins. There's some traces of that DNA in some of the pale stone and tropical climate, only without the utterly enjoying elements that made that world a chore to navigate. (Seeing enemy patrols ever other street made me want to gouge out my eyes.) The open world aspect holds certain promises, and I wonder if an urban sprawl will prove the right step up from Ashen's nature-ruled plains and caves, or if the team will struggle as CDPR did in their jump from The Witcher to Cyberpunk. (Hopefully they won't struggle that much, even if they do. That would be a real shame.)

So upon second viewing Flintlock really does have a lot of unique charms to it, even if it's not the showstopping head turner that one might usually expect at a video game trade's show. This developer has proven themselves a talent in the past, however; which is why I'm willing to give this one the benefit of the doubt when it does finally arrive. It could be this is another big up and comer that the mainstream is sleeping on just like Spiders. Only with a much less spine-tingling name to recite so I don't have to clarify whenever I mention it that I'm not encouraging people to buy pictures of arachnids off Steam. Although that being said, at least I don't need to keep looking up a Spiders name on google to remember who they are. A44, not exactly a tongue roller, that one.