Genre Action Publisher
Kepler Interactive
Developer
A44 Games
Minimum requirements Intel Core i5-8400 2.8 GHz / AMD Ryzen 3 3300X 3.8 GHz, 8 GB RAM, DirectX 12-capable graphics card with 6 or 8 GB of memory, such as NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 / AMD Radeon RX 580, 30 GB of hard drive space Recommended requirements Intel Core i7-8700K 3.7 GHz / AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 3.8 GHz, 16 GB RAM, DirectX 12-capable graphics card with 8 GB of memory, such as NVIDIA GeForce GTX 2060 Super / AMD Radeon RX 5700 Release date July 18, 2024 Localization Text Age rating 16 years and older Platforms PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
Played on Xbox Series S
The A44 Games team is still in love with the Dark Souls series — both its debut project Ashen from 2018 and the recent Flintlock were inspired by FromSoftware’s hits. Ashen is rarely remembered now, but back then the action game stood out from other “soulful” clones: it looked original in appearance, and the development of small locations was impressive, and it was interesting to spend time with partners. But Flintlock turned out to be somehow… ordinary. Banal. Surprisingly bland, despite the setting. There are a couple of great ideas here that could have pulled a mediocre game up, but many elements are made so boringly that the passage turns into a routine.
⇡#Together with you
We are transported to the region of Kian, where hordes of the dead began to penetrate through the Gates of the Great Abyss ten years ago. The Coalition squad decided to put an end to the attacks of the evil spirits and tried to blow up the Gates, but the soldiers only made things worse – the defense was broken through, and the dead began to crawl all over the world. By their actions, the Coalition released the god Uru, the leader of the army of evil spirits, whom we are hunting. We are the warrior-engineer Nor, who will be accompanied by the god Enki (in the guise of either a fox or a long-eared fennec fox).
Equipped items such as helmet and shoulder pads are displayed on the heroine
This is where the story ends, so to speak – from now on we will simply visit different areas of Kian and exchange a few phrases with people whom we will immediately forget about. The story is so crumpled and uninteresting that you wonder – how could you push the narrative so far into the background, having such an unusual setting? Flintlock is in the so-called gunpowder fantasy genre: the characters are dressed like soldiers of the Napoleonic army, their arsenal includes muskets and cannons that fire cannonballs, and the game’s scenery is similar to A Plague Tale with the same medieval buildings and general devastation against the backdrop of beautiful nature. At the same time, there is magic here, which the heroine uses with the help of a companion.
Although the relationship between Nor and Enki makes the story a little less dull. Nor despises the gods, because because of them her people have been living in unbearable conditions for ten years (and will continue to live after the failure of the Coalition), and Enki understands her attitude and calmly takes the attacks on him. Companions in such action games are a common thing: this was in the above-mentioned A Plague Tale, in the reboot of God of War and in many other similar games. The scriptwriters did not reinvent the wheel: sometimes the characters tease each other, sometimes one explains something to the other about the structure of the world – in general, a mostly friendly atmosphere is created, and from these dialogues it is interesting to learn details about the lives of the heroes.
Sometimes the game starts to “cosplay” Far Cry with captured villages that are transformed after being cleared of enemies
But otherwise, you want to ignore the narrative, and it’s not like it’s trying to draw attention to itself — there are very few in-engine videos, and conversations, even with plot characters, are very short. It’s as if the creators of Flintlock tried to work according to the FromSoftware template, but didn’t fully understand how the narrative element works there. If the central plot line is not outstanding, then looking for clues and details about the world in the same Dark Souls is interesting — here, the notes are boring (and with such small font, you don’t even want to read them), and everything else is not interesting. It was necessary to try to make the plot in such an environment as passable as possible.
⇡#In pursuit of reputation
The gameplay is better, although for the most part the description of Flintlock’s gameplay could have been copied from a review of any other soulslike without changing anything in it. We run around locations, hit enemies with melee weapons, we can block and parry their attacks, and also dodge by rolling. There are usually few opponents, but when there are more than three, it is better to lure them out one by one. Of course, they hit hard here, and in case of serious injury they allow you to use first aid kits – their number is limited. To restore supplies, we rest near the attraction stones – these are local analogues of bonfires from Dark Souls. In this case, you both improve your health and return the consumables spent, but at the same time, killed enemies are reborn in the same places where they were before their death.
One of the sources of reputation is the board game sebo, similar to tic-tac-toe. It gets boring right away
There are also differences from other soulslikes. One of the main ones is that the heroine has a pistol with several gunpowder charges. You can shoot at an enemy and not only damage him, but also interrupt his attack, which is especially useful against penetrating moves – those in which the enemy lights up red, indicating that such a blow cannot be parried or blocked. Over time, you get access to other firearms, including a musket and a ricochet cannon – you can even aim and shoot at long distances with them. But such weapons are in another slot and you sometimes forget about them, and a pistol is an integral part of the equipment. Each of its charges is restored after four blows in close combat, and combinations of regular attacks and shots make fights spectacular and tense – you constantly hope that you will have time to deliver a fourth blow and shoot before the opponent lights up red.
Another interesting feature is the curses that Enki casts. By pressing the button that is usually responsible for a strong attack, you direct the fox god towards the enemy – each of his blows gradually fills the scale above the opponent’s head (here it is called the preparation scale). When it is full, the enemy loses control over his body and can be critically attacked. Subsequently, Enki will knock armored enemies off their feet and lift opponents into the air, which can also be useful.
Enki can even apply negative effects to bosses. Too bad, these bosses are mostly disappointing and sometimes don’t even feel like such
But the coolest feature of Flintlock is related to reputation. It’s like souls in Dark Souls or currency in its clones – something you use to level up your character and buy equipment upgrades. You get reputation for defeating enemies, but it’s not so much the reputation that’s important as its multiplier, which grows when you perform various actions. Just hit an enemy – you increase the multiplier by 2%. Shoot him – you add a couple more percent. A jump strike, a run shot, a sliding attack, using Enki’s curses – there are many ways to influence the multiplier. If you don’t fight with someone for a long time, the percentages don’t disappear – you can run with them endlessly and at any time, by holding down the button on the crosspad, multiply the amount of reputation earned by a percentage. Because as soon as you take damage, the multiplier resets.
The game doesn’t punish you too much for missed hits – you’ll still get all the reputation you’ve collected, but it won’t be multiplied by anything. But those who play carefully and use the entire arsenal will earn nice bonuses if they press the cross in time. This is a very interesting mechanic that suggests not to rush headlong using all the first aid kits, but to try to finish battles without taking damage.
When firing a musket, the camera follows the bullet, like in Sniper Elite – though without the X-rays.
The only problem is that Flintlock is not the best game for such mechanics. The combat system is okay, but not nearly as convenient as in many soulslikes. Here you often catch a bullet from nowhere – this takes away a little health, but the multiplier is reset, and each time it causes unpleasant emotions. In addition, you can not interrupt animations, because of which you are constantly punished for trying to use different techniques – you can not roll or parry an attack until the previous action is completed. This would look appropriate in another game, but here it does not fit with the reputation multiplier system – you want to increase it with different actions, but sometimes Flintlock seems against it.
The same can be said about the exploration of the world – this aspect is also full of cool ideas that are not properly developed. The heroine has a double jump, and she is trained to dash in the air, and finding pedestals with skulls opens portals above the ground, between which you can jump with the help of Enki, reaching hard-to-reach places and unlocking shortcuts. All this is a lot of fun, especially against the background of other soulslikes, where the character is sometimes not even able to jump. But exploration very rarely leads to anything interesting. In most cases, you either find armor that you will never use, or stumble upon wood, iron and sulfur needed to upgrade equipment. Useful, of course, but in other games such materials are in plain sight, and not hidden behind platforming challenges, so disappointment awaits here almost at every corner.
Jumping between portals never gets boring, and there are quite a few of them scattered around the world – you just need to find the skull keys
***
Flintlock looks like another game from independent developers who overestimated their abilities. It’s not bad — the phrase “another soulslike” just suits it too perfectly. And it’s a shame — the game has some truly wonderful, original ideas, the successful implementation of which I would like to see not only in the team’s future projects, but also in other similar action games. However, no matter how interesting some of the mechanics here are, they don’t save from the monotony and crookedness of the combat system, and they don’t make the plot exciting.
Advantages:
unusual surroundings with beautiful decorations; sometimes funny dialogues between the main characters; moving around the world is fun thanks to a double jump and portals; a multiplier for the currency earned is a great idea that rewards careful progress.
Flaws:
the story is boring to the point of yawning; the combat system is awkward, including due to the inability to interrupt animations; the structure is monotonous and the opponents are equally monotonous; uninteresting prizes are awarded for exploring the world.
Graphics
The game looks low-budget, in particular due to the “wooden” animations, but overall the picture turned out to be pleasant, including thanks to the setting.
Sound
The strangest thing about the sound here is the shrill screams of defeated enemies. The “Wilhelm scream” has many competitors thanks to this game. Otherwise, there is nothing to remember.
Single player game
Since the plot is, to put it mildly, nonexistent, only the combat system and exploration of the environment keep you glued to the screen – although they are not without their flaws.
Estimated time of completion
12 hours for the main story and another evening or two for side quests.
Collective game
Not provided.
General impression
Another soulslike where great ideas have a hard time being realized due to a mediocre plot, not the best combat system and boring rewards for exploring the world.
Rating: 6.0/10
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