Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn review — A challenging but extremely satisfying Soulslite

I wasn't sure what to expect when I first booted up Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn on my Xbox Series X and started a game in Normal mode. You see, I've never really been interested in the Soulslike genre. Not even Elden Ring could tempt me, despite many friends saying it was one of the more approachable Soulslikes. But knowing that Flintlock was technically a "Soulslite" made me curious and want to check out its gameplay for myself. 

After spending roughly 20 hours with Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, I was able to see credits roll and walk away feeling satisfied overall. It's definitely not a perfect game, but it is enjoyable and something I recommend to people who like single-player RPGs that are a bit more challenging than average. 

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn (XBOX) — $49.99 at Best Buy

The Dead are attacking the living and threatening the world. Armed with nothing but an axe and a flintlock pistol, it's up to you to defeat the gods who are responsible in this Soulslite with platforming elements. Thankfully, you have the help of a supernatural fox-like entity to make things easier. 

(Xbox) Buy at: Best Buy | Amazon | Walmart

(PC) Buy at: CDKeys (Steam) | GMG (Steam) | Humble Bundle  

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn — What is it?

Flintlock the Siege of Dawn | No Rest 'Til Dawn Trailer - YouTube

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Genre: As its name implies, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is a flintlock fantasy game. This fantasy subgenre has a 19th-century British colonial aesthetic and usually features combat that centers around a mixture of magic and flintlock firearms. 

Plot: The story follows Nor Vanek, a seasoned military combat engineer who is tasked with closing The Door to the Great Below. When separated from her comrades, she is joined by Enki, a mysterious fox-like creature with supernatural powers. Together, they aim to return to the city of Dawn while liberating occupied towns and taking down evil gods along the way.

Gameplay: Publisher Kepler Interactive describes Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn as a single-player "Soulslite" that offers challenging gameplay somewhere between Elden Ring and God of War (thanks Rock, Paper, Shotgun). My own experience playing this game helped me to see that this is an accurate description. Flintlock also has a good deal of platforming, which isn't necessarily something that Soulslikes are known for. 

Difficulty: Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn has three difficulty settings: Story, Normal, and Possessed, so you can choose the difficulty level you'd prefer. You can also pause the game and change difficulties at any point in time, which makes it less stressful than many other non-pausing Soulslikes out there. 

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn — Story and characters

At the start of the game, Nor and her military comrades battle a powerful god named Uru who is sieging the city of Dawn (thus the game's title). Things don't go well, and she gets separated from her friends, unsure of their fate. Shortly thereafter, a small fox-like creature named Enki joins her side. Despite initial friction, they both need to get back to Dawn, so Enki promises to aid Nor in combat with his supernatural powers and also makes it possible for her to double jump in exchange for her assistance. Mysteries revolve around Enki, and you'll uncover more information about this curious creature as the story progresses. 

It's obvious that a lot of effort went into the creation of this world. Dialogue is laden with slang terms and cultural customs, both of which must have been devised during hefty world-building in the creation process. What's more, the game has an interesting plot. 

However, the actual main character relationship does not sell the tale well. Enki and Nor sometimes hate each other and sometimes really care for each other, but these sentiments usually don't feel earned based on the dialogue exchanged between the two during cutscenes. If anything, sometimes they respond to each other in ways that don't make sense. 

Still, the fact that Flintlock offers actual cutscenes and a coherent plot is more than can be said for some Soulslikes out there. If you're like me and prefer to have a plot to keep you playing, then Flintlock will do the trick.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn — Art and performance

I feel very mixed when it comes to Flintlock's art style. On the one hand, environments and landscapes look stunning and detailed. I found myself intentionally walking over to the cliffs simply to take in the beautiful views. Throughout the course of the story, there are a few cities to explore, as well as caves, castles, ethereal floating areas, and swaths of wilderness, all of which look really good. Some architecture and certain character elements are even inspired by ancient Mesopotamia, which works well to give the game a supernatural feel at times.

However, Flintlock's character designs and environments send out contrasting vibes that don't always work together. I'd even go as far as to say that Flintlock sometimes feels like a game comprised of hodgepodge art styles, rather than a coherent theme with one unique vision. 

For instance, the game starts off in a very 19th-century-colonial-looking military camp with war trenches, so it feels right to come across gun-wielding foes who also have a melee weapon (like Nor does). The thing is, Nor soon gets thrown into a different area of the world, and it feels out of place for her to fight fully armored knights who wield long swords and heraldric shields and look like they've just stepped out of Arthurian legend. This juxtaposition often makes Nor feel like she doesn't fit into the time period of the areas she explores.

Another odd thing is that the game's intro makes it very clear that Nor adamantly hates gods and wants to kill them. However, the coffee shop hosts she encounters definitely seem god-like, and yet Nor loves talking to them. For this reason, it seems like there is a disconnect between character design and plot sometimes.

As far as character designs go, the fox-like Enki and the powerful god Uru (who appears at the beginning of the game) are some of the best character designs in Flintlock. As someone who fosters cats, I'm a sucker for cute animals with demonic personalities, so Enki's glowing eyes, dark blueish-purple feathers, monkey front paws, and taloned back legs appealed to me very early on. Meanwhile, the powerful Uru looks like it really did just walk out of Mesopotamian lore with its sleek griffin-like body, ethereal three-eyed mask, and floating disk. It gives off the right vibes for a powerful and dangerous otherworldly deity.

However, the faces of the main human characters look like they are missing a rendering layer or two, and their expressions look awkward at times. This detracts from cutscenes, since these characters don't look nearly as polished as the rest of the game's assets. That said, if you equip a helmet, you won't really be able to see Nor's face for the majority of the game. 

Some enemies and bosses feel very generic. You've got your typical zombie hordes (known as The Dead), knights, skeletons with crossbows, giant spiders, and more. In some instances, it also feels like certain bosses were created by borrowing cool design elements from other Soulslike bosses, rather than being a unique take on an enemy intended specifically for this story. It would feel better if these disparate design choices had some kind of meaning for the plot. But as it is, some of the gods aren't very memorable.

Smooth performance to keep up with exciting combat

As for performance, I never experienced any major issues with Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn during my playthrough. There were only a few times when the game didn't seem to fully render certain textures right away, but it never disrupted my actual playing experience. The game mostly ran consistently on my Xbox Series X, with smooth visuals as long as I had the graphics setting on Performance rather than on Quality. When I tested the Quality setting at one point, the game became notably choppy, but that's not unusual for consoles.

Since successful Flintlock combat majorly hinges on a player's fast responses, it was good to see that the game operated very smoothly overall and was very responsive to my button presses.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn — Gameplay and combat

Almost everything about Flintlock is designed to be fast-paced and exciting. Nor ends up exploring three different maps during the course of the game, each one filled with powerful enemies and varied environments. One moment, she might be out in the desert platforming from one mesa to another, and the next, she'll find herself in an occupied coastal hamlet, running through busy streets. 

While there aren't a ton of side-quests, you can pick up extra missions, which usually reward you with helpful gear. Typically, the best way to find side quests is by defeating the leader of an occupied town and then talking to the host at the coffee shop. Alternatively, there are sometimes random NPCs or people in your camp who will want assistance.

Much like The Witcher's Gwent and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's Queen's Blood, Fintlock has its own turn-based board game called Sebo, which you can play with various NPCs. Sebo has two phases. In the first phase, you attempt to position your pieces in such a way that you make a triangle within a certain number of moves. Then, the second phase is all about blocking your opponent from forming a triangle within a certain number of moves.

Special Sebo pieces with unique capabilities are hidden in wells all over the map, so you can tip the odds in your favor if you collect these optional items. I didn't really enjoy Sebo and found that it often wasn't balanced enough to offer a steady and strategic playing experience each time. Sometimes, the pieces would get placed in such a way that all I had to do was move a tile back and forth until time ran out, which felt like a cheap and undeserved victory. 

That said, it's in your best interest to beat as many Sebo NPCs as possible, since this rewards you with Reputation points. Of course, there are plenty of other ways to get Reputation when exploring Flintlock's world.

To help with navigation, there are multiple fast-travel beacons all around the map. You can basically fast-travel at any point in time unless you're in combat. That said, I found that hovering over a fast-travel icon was sometimes difficult if another map icon was too close to it. For instance, there was a time when I wanted to fast travel back to my camp, but the main quest icon was at the same spot and got in the way of the fast travel ability. 

In addition to fast travel, our heroine unlocks triangular rifts that let her quickly shoot across the map to other rifts in the area. She can jump out from a rift at any point in time, at any angle she wants, and then double jump just before hitting the ground to avoid taking falling damage. However, when she is at a particularly high rift, Nor cannot fall too far as this will either kill her or reset her back to the starting rift area.

The map is also often filled with steep slopes that activate a sliding sequence when Nor approaches. It keeps the action going so you always have something to do rather than simply run from one point of the map to the other. The trick with all of this easy travel is that it's possible to pass secrets and hidden items if you rely on the quicker means of transport too often. 

Speaking of, Flintlock does an excellent job of rewarding players for exploration. If you take time to go to the far corners of the map instead of where the main quests take you, you'll find helpful gear, permanent health increases, Enki upgrades, and plenty of materials required for upgrading your gear. Speaking of, certain weapons work better against specific foes. 

For instance, I found an axe that inflicts burn damage, and it tended to do more damage to The Dead. Meanwhile, getting a hammer made it easier for me to defeat armored enemies. You can equip two melee weapons at once and swap between them using the D-Pad. As such, I found myself frequently toggling between my two weapons of choice depending on what foes I came across. Of course, the more you explore, the more enemies you find, which also increases the amount of Reputation you earn and makes it possible to unlock more skills or acquire more items.

While exploring the maps, Nor can also find explosive barrels, place them in designated spots, shoot them, and then uncover hidden areas once the blast settles. There are often useful items or gear in these secret spots. Just make sure Nor isn't too close to the blast or she can get killed. 

Getting into the combat rhythm

If I was to describe Flintlock combat in one word, I would say "rhythmic" with a close second being "satisfying."

As with many Soulslikes, this Soulslite requires you to pay attention to enemy movements and respond accordingly with either parrying, dodging, or attacking. It will feel like your fingers are doing a bit of a fast-paced dance when you play efficiently, which is fun and rewarding when done right. Nor starts off equipped with just an axe and a simple pistol, but she can also command Enki to mark enemies for death. This basically means slowly building up a gauge that when full temporarily stuns your foe so you can land a powerful attack or even remove a piece of armor, thus making your foe take more damage than before. 

Enki also has different skills and abilities that he can equip. One of my favorites being his ability to restore my health as I hack away at enemies. You'll want to keep an eye out for any Enki upgrades and swap them out for better ones as you keep playing. 

Flintlock foes are quick, hard hitters right from the start of the game and can take Nor out with just a few strikes. Whenever an opponent glows red, I know that an especially hard hit is headed Nor's way, but I can often disrupt their movements with a quick blast from the flintlock pistol if I press the RB button in time. From there, I can get a couple of quick axe strikes in before backing away from a foe's swing (or parrying it) and watching for another opening. 

A satisfying multiplier that pays off when you play well

Part of what makes Flintlock gameplay, so fun is its multiplier system. Whenever Nor defeats an enemy, she earns Reputation points, which can be used to purchase skills from the skill tree, buy cosmetic clothing at coffee shops, or upgrade Nor's gear. The thing is, landing specific types of attacks adds a percentage bonus to the Reputation points earned (example: +6% for Powder Dodge Attack). However, this bonus immediately goes away if Nor takes damage, and she's forced to accept the base Reputation points earned (sans percentage bonus).

The thing is, after defeating foes, I can either press the left D-Pad button to cash in my points and secure my percentage bonus, or I can take a gamble and try to take on more enemies without getting hit to increase the overall amount of points earned. As you might guess, this puts an added desire to do well in combat. In my case, it helped me gain more confidence in myself as I landed strikes at the right time, parried when necessary, or shot my pistol to disrupt an attack. In some instances, I was able to walk away with a rather hefty bonus, which often made the risk worth it.

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If Nor is killed, she drops all of the Reputation points she had and gets respawned at the last fast travel point she visited. As is common with Soulslikes, dropped Reputation points will go away completely if Nor dies again before retrieving them. This puts added pressure to play well and spend your points regularly.

As far as skill progression goes, Nor can be made more powerful by locating helmets, pauldrons, and gauntlets. Each of these pieces of gear offers specific perks and can be upgraded if you supply the necessary amount of materials and Reputation points to people at camp. There's also the aforementioned skill tree that provides helpful perks like extending Nor's melee range by two meters or making Enki more useful in combat.

Pause and find the right difficulty to make gameplay fun

I played Flintlock all the way through on Normal mode, but the game does allow you to change difficulty basically at any time by opening the pause menu. You heard that right. Unlike other Soulslike games like Elden Ring and Dark Souls, you can actually pause Flintlock if needed. If enemies are too hard, change to Story mode. Alternatively, if enemies feel too easy, up the difficulty to Possessed mode. The game will just warn you that Achievements won't be unlocked if you change modes mid-game. 

After beating Flintlock, I booted up my last save and fought the final boss again, only this time on Story mode, just to see what the difference was like. Gameplay was notably easier, with Nor taking a whole lot less damage than on Normal mode. That said, I'm sure Story mode could still prove challenging for some. But these options make the game one of the most approachable Soulslikes, which is nice.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn — Should you play it?

I definitely recommend people play this game if they like single-player adventures that offer a little bit of a challenge. If nothing else, anyone with Game Pass definitely should check Flintlock out since it's coming to the gaming service on day one.

While Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn isn't perfect, I really did enjoy my time playing it and found myself thinking about it long after I beat it. I attribute this positive feeling largely to the Soulslite's satisfying combat, fast-paced travel methods, and fun platforming focus. While bosses were difficult, they always felt fair and balanced. I never felt cheated by bad game design, since gameplay is always responsive and does what I tell it to — I just have to be quick enough to respond to enemy movements.

This game also does a great job of rewarding you with gear, helpful items, or enemies to fight when you go exploring. As such, it's satisfying to check the corners of the map and look for hidden goodies. 

While the environments and some boss designs are stunning, the art style sometimes clashes and doesn't make a lot of sense. Meanwhile, the plot is good and helped maintain my interest, just don't expect the best dialogue or storytelling. All in all, Flintlock is a fun Soulslite that's perfect for single-player RPG fans who also love platforming and a slightly more challenging take on combat than average.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn (XBOX) — $49.99 at Best Buy

Taking on a powerful god didn't go so well. But now, with the help of a fox-like creature, Nor is out to kill all gods and she's got an axe, a pistol, and magic on her side. 

(Xbox) Buy at: Best Buy | Amazon | Walmart

(PC) Buy at: CDKeys (Steam) | GMG (Steam) | Humble Bundle