Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn Reviews

Everything together creates a package that at first feels hopeful and intriguing, ending in a chamber full of wet gunpowder. In other words… a dud.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn takes the weighty feel of a Soulslike and adds mechanics that allow constant flexibility and experimentation. It also engagingly tells an interesting narrative without breaking the flow of the gameplay.

Killing gods is hardly something RPGamers are unfamiliar with. Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is perhaps slightly different by making that the goal from the outset, however.

A few years ago, I attended a developer presentation for a promising new Soulslike called Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn. It left me intrigued and impressed. The 18th century-ish setting checked some interesting boxes and the duo-protagonist mechanic looked cool. The magic and guns combo helped the fast-paced combat stand out. Fast forward to the game’s full release, and all I can say is, what happened along the way? Flintlock still has many good ideas at its core, maybe even better than good. But some of the polish and freshness is missing. Don’t stop reading, though. The news isn’t all bad.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is a short romp of a revenge quest, offering a trite story that isn’t overbearing. Its combat has a few unique ideas and does sing when you follow the loop exactly, but the seams show often in the form of imprecise hit boxes and animations. The worldbuilding offers just enough unique elements to be interesting during the game, but not enough to chew on afterwards. It isn’t the most memorable experience, but it’s fun and relatively well-made, offering a quick hit for anyone who enjoys methodical combat.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn successfully strikes a balance between being a great entry point into the Soulslike genre for those new to the genre, while still largely scratching the itch that genre veterans will be on the lookout for.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn does its best to provide an epic adventure despite clear limitations. This semi-open world action game’s bright spots include an exciting premise, a unique tag-team spin on Souls-inspired combat, and an entertaining exploration mechanic. Unfortunately, it falls short of providing a wholly satisfying or polished adventure, resulting in a respectable but flawed revenge quest.

As someone who enjoys all sorts of Soulslikes, I was looking forward to Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn and now, I'm one disappointed bear.

Although Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn has satisfying combat, this entry-level souls-like RPG is held back by some bland questing and a forgettable narrative.

In the end, our review is that Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn isn’t a must play for narrative-driven action RPG fans or the Soulslike-obsessed looking for their next fix. It is, however, an enjoyable enough way to spend a couple weekends with a good combat system verging on great and a beautiful world to explore. If you go in fully capable of looking past some disappointing enemy variety and a bland overarching narrative, you’ll come away happy enough with Nor and Enki’s quest.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is a rough but original take on Souls-like ARPGs.

A Souls-lite with Napoleonic flair and explosive movement that delivers too much of the familiar to carve a niche of its own.

That's not to say Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is a bad game; it's a budget game and it wears that on its sleeve. If you were to look at Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn from the top down, it becomes clear that the top has a lot more depth than the very bottom, and a lot of little design decisions do not live up to their full potential.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is a breath of fresh air when it comes to the Souls-lite genre. The challenging combat, unusual lore, and well-crafted environments blend the new with the old in an original way. While the gameplay could be more refined, the game succeeds in making the genre more accessible. The story is rather quick on the draw at the start and the ending trails off suddenly, but the relationship between Nor and Enki is enough to carry the bulk of the narrative. As a first entry, Flintlock is off to a solid start, and I look forward to having more adventures with this unlikely pair.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is a lot of fun if you engage with all of it.  At first, I was flying through the main quest before I slowed down and explored every inch of each map.  Once I made that change I went from enjoying my time to loving it.  It’s not the tightest game out there, but it has a lot of great ideas that come together for a package well worth experience.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is a sublime semi-open world that champions quality over quantity, but unrefined combat puts a damper on A44's original gunpowder fantasy.

Nearly five years after the launch of Ashen, Wellington-based game developer A44 is about to launch its second game, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn.

Flintlock is an explosive Soulslite that throws lots of weapons your way. The pacing may not be great, but that can be looked over thanks to the gameplay itself.

Killing Gods in the magical world of Kian sounds appealing on paper, but the needless Soulslike elements and uninspired gameplay drain the life out of an otherwise promising premise.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is an action-RPG that delivers on most of its promises, along with some solid side content that is well worth indulging in – even if the full game isn't anything particularly remarkable.

With a unique setting and low barrier to entry, Flintlock might just be the invitation to the soulslike genre you’ve been waiting for

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn mixes up the action-RPG formula a little bit, allowing you to control and risk your currency to earn more. Combine that with a flashy, engaging combat system with a thoughtful difficulty adjustment system, and you have a recipe for a good time. Exploration tends to drag down the experience, with many side paths running far too long for what you find in them. Parrying also lacks the kind of refinement necessary to truly make combat shine. Aside from these balancing issues, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is still a solid Soulsborne affair worth checking out.

A smart, sporadically generic but on-the-whole exhilarating mixture of ideas from God Of War and Soulslikes.

With hyper-mobile combat and traversal, and a varied arsenal of 17th-century firepower, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn stands apart from its peers in more ways than one.

This "Souls-lite" struggles to stand out among FromSoftware's many imitators.

“Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn doesn't quite do enough to make it stand out in a crowded genre.”

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is a valiant attempt at a fun and accessible soulslike, but falls short of its many inspirations.

By the time we rolled credits, that was the prevailing feeling we were left with. While we found more enjoyment in the latter two thirds of Flintlock than in the initial intro and opening area, we couldn't help but feel let down by Flintlock in almost every way.

A well designed game with satisfying mechanics that is brought down by performance issues and some lack in enemy variety.

Flintlock The Siege of Dawn epitomises the 7/10. It's the sort of thing you'll play once and enjoy. Inessential but still worth your time.