God killing has turn into a staple in video games starring Kratos, Bayonetta, Terra Branford, and numerous different characters. With action-RPG soulslike Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, a brand new pair of god killers by the names of Nor and Enki joins their ranks. With a well-known story about being wronged by the varied gods of this world and changing into consumed by revenge, it by no means fairly manages to achieve the peaks of its friends, borrowing heaps of components from different genres with out standing out in any of them. However whereas that retains it from true greatness, Flintlock nonetheless constantly discovered methods to entertain me with flashy fight and swift motion throughout my 26-hour near-completionist run.
I used to be late to hitch the fan membership that fashioned round developer A44’s earlier recreation, Ashen, after its debut again in 2018, nevertheless it shortly discovered its manner into my record of favourite soulslikes as soon as I did, thanks partially to how pleasing it was to conquer its massive bosses with a co-op accomplice. Six years later A44 is again with Flintlock, and whereas it might look vastly completely different from Ashen, loads of the identical basis could be felt in its fight, storytelling, and general design. That’s to not say it’s precisely the identical, as efforts had been clearly targeted towards making the fight extra brutal and cinematic with some actually cool finishers whereas additionally introducing new mechanics like an expertise multiplier that enhances the same old risk-reward rigidity of soulslike video games.
Nor begins as a reliable and headstrong soldier on the lookout for glory that I might positively classify because the “look earlier than you leap” kind, whereas her accomplice Enki is an lovable but highly effective god who has secluded himself from the world. He has his personal causes for becoming a member of Nor after her journey turns into one of revenge, aiding her with each his magical skills and knowledge about his realm, and his an brisk and humble curiosity when studying of issues he’s missed makes his half of the story by far the spotlight. Sadly, Nor’s vengeful story does often fall into varied cliches, and (avoiding spoilers) the minimalist cutscenes that happen from the angle of one other NPC that travels with them as you go between places typically really feel like they’re lacking components of the story. The bond that develops between Nor and Enki throughout their journey isn’t groundbreaking stuff, however watching them was nonetheless pleasing to the top and did depart me curious what might occur subsequent if Flintlock had been to get a sequel.
You solely get a small bit of exposition initially earlier than you’re thrown into the center of a struggle towards the undead, however moreover a giant second with a bigger than life foe close to the top of the prologue, this setup failed to offer me a motive to care in regards to the struggle or the people who I used to be combating for. That’s primarily on account of practically all of the NPCs being both reluctant or outright dismissive of Nor’s presence. The earliest hours of Flintlock are a bit tough generally as you will have restricted fight choices, which might make fights really feel a lot shallower and had me fearful that it won’t increase sufficient to turn into attention-grabbing. Fortunately, that adjustments when you acquire entry to extra weapons and some upgrades on the talent tree, nevertheless it took a bit longer than I might have favored.
Other than the principle characters, 4 NPCs be a part of your camp and help by providing varied upgrades to your weapons – however aside from one quest chain involving a brother and sister within the group, they had been fairly forgettable. It was one of these conditions the place you meet characters within the opening hour after which they disappear, solely to want saving or help hours later. In the event that they weren’t positioned on the principle path, I most likely would have written them off as lifeless and never thought of them once more. Then again, the varied NPCs you’ll come throughout by sidequests are extra memorable: There have been two brothers operating an area I might enter, and a, uh… distinctive character that elevated my most well being potions, provided info, and offered alternate outfits after liberating a city.
Fight is quick and flows extraordinarily nicely; assaults chain into one another with ease and you’ll actually really feel the impression with every hit of your axes, hammers, rifles, grenades, and magical skills that come courtesy of Enki. Flintlock additionally affords varied armor items so that you can discover that present distinctive skills, like detonating enemies after stacking curses, splitting grenades into two, or growing your assault vary. These armor choices all have set bonuses, so that you’re inspired to stack a minimum of two of them for an enhanced impact, and that system expands with extra attention-grabbing selections in a while.
Enki has the power to curse enemies, which stuns them and affords Nor the chance for a really flashy transfer that can both rip off armor or straight-up execute them, relying on the kind of enemy and its well being. Enki will also be upgraded to restrain, knock down, distract, and assault on his personal, to the purpose the place he typically felt a bit too robust even after I was taking part in on the toughest of the three difficulties. I imply, he’s a god, so I suppose it’s truthful, however in later areas I might take out whole teams of sure enemies with solely his assaults. (I pulled this off due to a inventive construct that detonated an enemy after stacking 4 buffs inside 10 seconds.
Prime that off with tremendous strikes like a storm that knocks enemies up or a beam that offers main injury and stun, and I nearly felt dangerous for them. This ended up being a good way for me to farm expertise (known as Popularity), since – much like Satan Could Cry and Bayonetta – you earn a brief expertise multiplier that’s constructed up by combating with out Nor getting hit, and it’s laborious for her to take injury when Enki is doing all of the work. Whereas it was difficult to amass an enormous multiplier in the course of the early recreation, after choosing up extra skills and weapons to swap between I discovered myself routinely going previous 100%, with my prime being round 170%. However till then, that system inspired me to make use of completely different weapons and variations on my common combos in a manner I haven’t seen performed in a soulslike earlier than.
There are some points with the combo multiplier mechanic, although, and the principle one is in enemy unpredictability. By that I don’t imply an assault that catches me off guard, inflicting me to overlook a block or parry – these are par for the course throughout a good selection of enemies, starting from varied undead creatures, knights with massive shields or broadswords, massive chocobo-shaped birds, spiders, and (of course) varied gods. What’s troublesome is that there are a selection of enemy assault animations that seemingly lock on to you, that means that when dodging with both a normal dodge or by leaping away the enemy will swing round at a 90-180 diploma angle and nonetheless hit me regardless of it trying like I ought to’ve gotten away. The excellent news is that I solely noticed this in fights with common enemies quite than massive bosses the place it actually would’ve been an issue.
You’ve got three talent bushes that enhance your gun, magic, and melee injury, and their branches find yourself mixing collectively as you method the highest of them. This construction lets you bypass the decrease upgrades on one tree if you wish to prioritize sure upgrades over others, whereas nonetheless accessing its high-tier skills finally. I loved this as a result of I used to be in a position to totally spec into the magic tree early, which gave me the power to have Enki droop enemies within the air and, in a while, offered a single self-revive that refreshed after resting. This was a godsend within the later boss fights, the place one-shot kills aren’t unusual – they’re avoidable and counterable, however accidents occur! After grabbing that talent on the prime I merely purchased the best upgrades of the opposite bushes earlier than working my manner again right down to the cheaper choices as I needed them, as an alternative of having to work my manner up by ones I didn’t.
Flintlock’s tighter marketing campaign size additionally signifies that practically each path on the earth results in one thing impactful, and you should utilize Nor’s potential to double bounce and air sprint to seek out secrets and techniques like new weapons or well being will increase. There are additionally sometimes shortcuts to get you again to the principle path shortly – these can both take the shape of relaxation factors you possibly can quick journey to, or an interactable cranium on a pedestal which prompts power rifts within the sky that Nor and Enki can fly to in fast succession. These rifts are flashy and versatile, and moreover appearing as shortcuts to return to your goal, they typically supply a manner so that you can attain areas that might be in any other case inaccessible. They’re most likely one of my favourite mechanics in Flintlock as they’re additionally positioned to shortly get you again to a principal boss or smaller boss-like enemies for those who die.
Every open zone has a quantity of sidequests, with a majority of their aims positioned shut to 1 one other, making it straightforward to complete all of them in fast succession and inspiring you to deal with them as they pop up. There are a couple of exceptions to this rule: One quest had me scaling a mountain to seek out the daughter of an NPC who was unable to make the climb for his or her annual meetup, whereas one other had me looking out a mine for a employee that had gone lacking. Many of the sidequests had been easy but pleasing and infrequently had twists, like a knight who provided to take his military and vacate their outpost if I defeated him in fight with out utilizing my gunpowder-based weapons – after I broke that rule throughout our duel, all bets had been off.
Positioned all over the world are additionally varied notes and indicators which have a glow impact to let you already know they are often collected, that are primarily in locations you’ll go to when finishing quests and supply various levels of perception into the world. There are additionally about 30 flags hanging throughout the primary two zones which you could destroy for a Popularity reward, in addition to a collectible while you’ve destroyed all of them in a zone. In comparison with different RPGs, this comparatively trim record of extras was a breath of contemporary air since I didn’t have to fret about gathering tons of of objects, baubles, or different collectibles, in the end making me need to discover its world much more.
There’s additionally a really quick and easy minigame known as Sebo that’s performed by transferring cash on a board to kind a triangle inside a restricted quantity of turns whereas an opponent makes an attempt to dam you. These Tic-Tac-Toe-like matches not often final greater than two minutes every, and with each victory the quantity of Popularity you earn will increase, making strings of wins repay bigtime. There’s a bit of depth added as you progress in that boards and the beginning places of cash change, and new methods kind by discovering particular cash hidden in wells all through the world that might supply the power to swap coin places, bounce over cash, or kind barricades to forestall motion.