Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn - Xbox Games Showcase Final Impressions

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is finally (almost) here. It'll release on July 18 after a couple of delays, and it'll land on PC, Xbox Series, and PS5, leaving Xbox One and PS4's old-gen behind for good, contrary to what was announced at first. This last aspect is important, as the game is fast-paced and heavily-detailed, and I'm looking forward to seeing the end result on current-gen consoles, given how tasking it seemed on PC texture-wise, for instance.

Even though it was listed as a "TBA game" on our Xbox Games Showcase appointments, this is a project we've known for a while. Even more, you might have played the demo that A44 Games released a week ago as an introductory glimpse into the game. However, what I played, as per captured in the gameplay clip below, together with what I discussed with creative director Simon Dasan, as per available in the interview below, go much deeper into every aspect. So other than the complementary words I'm writing here, I'd heavily recommend you watch both.

Same as Phantom Blade: Zero, which I also tried out, this game wanted to stand out from the crowded Souls genre, which was heavily-featured in the different showcases in LA.

Firstly, it's a Soulslite, meaning it won't be as unforgiving and obscure as your usual suspects. Secondly, and much more important in my opinion, it builds its own personality around fancy traversal moves, fast varied combat, and a very interesting lore.

Protagonist Nor is but of course meant to save humanity as gods have been let loose, and the twist to it is that her main ally is Enki, a... god who acts as an extension to her powder abilities with his added magic powers. So I'm already curious to know what will happen when your main mission is to "kill all gods" but then you rely on this creature.

But this is no God of War, despite some lazy comparisons. Speaking about the creature, it also felt coincident but in a good sense that the way you send Enki to bother and attack other enemies was reminiscent of what I did with Kay Vess and Nix in Star Wars Outlaws. Perhaps another trend we'll see exploding soon?

By combining both characters you get an impressively varied set of moves. You can use ranged attacks, double-jump, double-dodge, or soar through the environment thanks to Enki's Triangle Portals that I'm sure you've seen in previous footage. You can shoot, hit, parry with different weapons (including explosives), and from what I played, specific groups of nauseating enemies will make you study the environment and come up with the best tactical approach. When you get used to all this, you push those enemies to their Prime to then unleash a Glory Kill, a scripted finisher that is one of the very best things about this game as it feels quite satisfying.

As you can tell by watching the gameplay clip below, there's something else that sets this apart from other Soul-like games. The colour. The light. The contrast between those nasty, Silent Hill-like monsters, and the lively world. This is dark fantasy, but in a shiny setting. Creepy lore inspired by Mesopotamian and Ancient Egypt cultures, but set in a relatable world inspired by the Middle-East and New Zealand, the latter being where the studio is based. And I just love all this for a change, as it makes it all the more interesting to me compared to the 135th bleak Soulslike they keep throwing at us.

And it plays very good, quite smooth and responsive, which is a must at this stage. I really enjoyed my time setting some of those repugnant foes on fire, taking them down with my shotgun and, above all, finishing them off with my axe. And I only got to scratch a little bit of the game's comprehensive skill trees for both Kay Nor and of course Nix Enki, other than the different armours and weapons you will be able to equip the former with.

So yes, in a space full of dark brown Soulslikes, I'm excited to play a colourful, artistically-unique, and fast-paced Soulslite in a month's time. It's exactly the type of action-RPG experience that might be able to refresh both the genre... and what looks like a very warm summer.