Gods and guns. What more could you want? While the flintlock fantasy subgenre has long since carved out a space in genre fiction thanks to Naomi Novik’s Temeraire and Brian McClellan’s Powder Mage series, it remains shockingly elusive in videogames. GreedFall and Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire certainly come close, but their scales are tipped further towards high fantasy than they are gunpowder and military dress. Thankfully, A44 Games puts both front and center in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, an upcoming soulslike with an axe to grind.
I got my first taste of Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn during a GDC interview in March, where creative director Simon Dasan walked me through its “gods versus guns” elevator pitch. I’ve held a candle for this double-A indie soulslike game ever since, and this hands-on preview was my opportunity to find out if this flame would serve as the veritable spark to a gunpowder keg, or if it would gutter under the weight of my expectations.
Flintlock follows Nor Vanek, a Sapper in the Coalition Army that stands between the eponymous city of Dawn and the Door to the Great Below: a gateway that bridges the gap between humanity and the gods. We first encounter Nor on the warpath (her natural state, it turns out) after she discovers that her adoptive father and brothers-in-arms have embarked upon a mission to seal the Door without her. After a heated exchange with a long-suffering field marshal, Nor takes off through the trenches in hot pursuit – and so my battle against the gods begins.
Nor’s scrappy demeanor follows her right onto the battlefield. Her primary weapon is a standard-issue combat axe issued to frontline soldiers trained for trench and tunnel warfare. Her melee moveset is standard soulslike fare, but it wouldn’t be a flintlock fantasy without gunpowder on hand. A44 takes its cue from Bloodborne when it comes to Nor’s black powder pistol, and I take great satisfaction interrupting break attacks that I can’t otherwise block or parry. It also has its uses elsewhere, whether that’s kiting enemies or igniting barrels of gunpowder to destroy blockades. Those looking for a third-person shooter experience aren’t left entirely high and dry. I receive a marksman’s musket courtesy of Baz, and take great satisfaction lining up headshots between arduous reloads.
Many of Nor’s abilities are reminiscent of classic hack-and-slash games in both their function and execution, yet giving into the impulse to lean into that power fantasy invites a swift death. My battle against a Stone Herald – a living statue of an armored knight wielding an enormous greatsword – is the most significant challenge I face in this regard. We dance around each other in a small arena that forces me to time my parries, dodges, and break interrupts in the same cadence with which I’d approach a traditional FromSoftware boss. However, this sustained fight also reveals how few parry animations are in Nor’s repertoire, and the repetition puts a damper on my dopamine hit.
Flintlock’s reputation system delivers surprise nuance to the long-established mechanic that soulslikes take as their namesake. Instead of each enemy bestowing a set amount of reputation upon death, the amount I receive varies depending on my actions in battle. A glorious victory against a fearsome foe punctuated by perfectly timed dodges, parries, and chain attacks awards me a greater reputation bonus than an encounter with the same enemy where I just manage to scrape through the fight. The reputation counter also resets whenever I take damage in combat before I can ‘bank’ it, adding welcome weight to every combat decision. I curb the instinct to ‘turtle’ and instead step forward to meet every blow that comes my way, and my efforts are rewarded accordingly.
My first and only combat encounter with a godlike entity in this preview comes at the culmination of the Coalition Army’s ill-fated suicide mission, and it’s a testament to the strong art direction that forms Flintlock’s pantheon. The Guardian of the Door is a two-faced chimera with stone scales, a plume of black feathers, and an Egyptian death mask crowned with a solar eclipse halo. It certainly captures the intimidation factor I expect from any self-professed soulslike boss, but I’m disappointed to discover that I can’t take an honest crack at defeating it. Instead, an unavoidable blast of dark magic transitions to a cutscene to further the plot. This is perhaps the most blatant declaration that A44 is not content to doggedly follow in the footsteps of FromSoftware to realize its vision for Flintlock. Instead, it has a clear story to tell, placing it on the continuum of God of War and other character-driven action-adventure games.
This particular plot development leads Nor to a chance meeting with Enki, a vulpine god of unknown allegiance and Flintlock’s unofficial mascot. Between his iridescent feathers, batlike ears, and soothing voice, it’s impossible to dislike Enki – and that leaves me highly suspicious of his motives in helping Nor despite her (highly ineffectual) attempt to kill him. After this introductory cutscene, Enki is as omnipresent in Flintlock as Nor herself. Like God of War’s Atreus, I can call upon his abilities in combat at the press of a button, though this four-legged god’s powers are quite different. At my command, Enki pounces on enemies in an explosion of feathers and magic, placing a curse of death upon them that leaves them susceptible to Nor’s melee attacks. It also fills their priming gauge, which isn’t dissimilar from Sekiro’s posture gauge; once filled, it renders enemies immobile and “primed” for a critical hit.
Enki’s utility is such a refreshing addition to the classic soulslike combat experience that I pour all the reputation I’ve accrued into his skill tree, leaving the rote physical and ranged skills on the table for later. That said, whether it’s Powder, Steel, or Magic that takes your fancy, the fruits of each skill tree enrich the base combat experience and offer more ways to build reputation. This preview build only allows me to sample the first four skills in each tree, but I already have my favorites. Enki’s passive taunt is a literal lifesaver, as is the ability to deflect bullets with Nor’s axe. Naturally, there are plenty of offensive abilities to choose from, and my love of Flintlock’s verticality leaves me very partial to an aerial shockwave that inflicts both damage and knockback on impact.
Enki also imbues Nor with incredible mobility, including a double jump and aerial dodge to traverse gaps and close the distance between enemies. This parkour system isn’t quite perfect; Nor’s standard jump is too floaty for my tastes, and the cadence of platforming suffers from slightly awkward mantling. However, Nor can also open and travel between Rifts that appear sequentially throughout Flintlock’s semi-open world, echoing Sekiro’s grappling hook. This swift traversal ameliorates the backtracking tedium endemic in soulslikes without resorting to fast travel systems that would pull me in and out of Flintlock’s world. Instead, I’m afforded a view of that world from a brand-new perspective, exposing unexplored areas and allowing me to get the drop on enemies. No matter how I choose to use them, Nor is correct in her assessment that bursting out of a pocket in time and space “never gets old.”
Flintlock’s world is divided into different areas with a clear linear path dictated by the story. However, there are plenty of opportunities to temporarily stray from that path in search of collectibles or to complete a side quest. The Sekiro influence is alive and well, with each map boasting an impressive verticality to complement Nor’s own. A44 Games has also taken its native home of Aotearoa as the prime inspiration for the lands of Kian, and it’s a breath of fresh air among the current proliferation of Norse Viking games. In just this preview alone, I see a glimmer of homage to idyllic port towns and the alpine reaches of Kā Tiritiri o te Moana interwoven with the wartorn battlefields and esoteric structures that capture the quintessential gunpowder fantasy.
Hamlets dispersed across this landscape follow the same model as outpost liberation objectives across scores of open-world games, from Far Cry to Mad Max. I battle my way through the hostile occupiers – in one hamlet, the undead; in another, turncoat humans allied with the gods – and defeat their leader to restore the hamlets to their former glory. There’s less to do in these settlements than I’d ordinarily like, as non-interactable townsfolk patrol the paths and bark about tithes and taxes. Instead, the value of liberating a hamlet lies inside the heart of its community: the coffee shop.
Of course, this is more than just your regular Starbucks. These temple-like structures are furnished with ornate rugs and wreathed in brazier smoke, overseen by a multi-limbed Host that puts their patrons at ease by holding up a mask where a human head would ordinarily sit. Their bizarre appearance notwithstanding, Hosts are a font of side-quests, cosmetics, and healing upgrades. Above all else, though, I appreciate A44’s restraint in refusing to explain the Host’s existence in this world.
A44’s show-don’t-tell approach extends to Nor’s relationships with her fellow Sappers. “Oh no, Cerith is here,” Nor groans as we approach a waspish woman wielding a rifle, her face painted with gunpowder and grime. No further explanation is required; A44 doesn’t exhaust me with any exposition to establish the rivalry between Nor and Johara Cerith, just as I don’t need a blow-by-blow account of Nor’s history with adoptive father Baz to understand their familial affection for each other.
Instead, these character-building breadcrumbs are tossed my way during Nor’s conversations with Enki during open exploration, from the whereabouts of Nor’s real parents to her philosophy on killing: “Quick as you can: back of the head or straight to the heart. No one deserves to suffer.” It’s also prime real estate for A44 to offer players a glimpse into its pantheon’s psychology outside battle – such as Enki’s wonderment at the kindness between strangers, apparently unheard of as far as Flintlock’s gods are concerned. These conversations are fleeting and don’t distract me from the task at hand, but they’re a welcome window into the world and its dramatis personae.
In many respects, my Flintlock preview constitutes the perfect demo. It offered me a good few hours (and bodies) to sink my axe into, but the dearth of gods in a story game that follows a would-be god killer is a notable omission that leaves me hungry for more. Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is due to release on Thursday, July 18, 2024, but you can also get acquainted with Nor and Enki in the demo available during Steam Next Fest. Alternatively, check out the most anticipated upcoming PC games to mark on your calendar.