Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is a new soulslike that will be released in July for PC, PS5, and Xbox Game Pass. Currently, a free demo is available on Steam. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus had the opportunity to play it in advance and wants to introduce you to the game as part of Find Your Next Game, even though he has kissed the ground more often than he would like.
I like tough games. Whether in survival games, RPGs, or soulslikes: it can be dark, dirty, and even tiring. This makes every victory even sweeter.
The soulsborne games, namely Dark Souls and Bloodborne, as well as the soulslike genre they created, are just such games: brutally difficult, but with a reward feeling like no other.
At gamescom 2022, the devs showed me Flintlock for the first time, a game somewhere between God of War and Elden Ring. I was already excited about it back then:
- A soulslike genre with a fantasy world and flintlock pistols, bringing a certain pirate and pioneer flair.
- Equally crazy characters as in Dark Souls, with café owners who carry their faces in their hands.
- Battles against awakened gods, because anything else would be too easy.
- And finally, a small fox god who accompanies me and supports me with magic.
Back then, I could only watch. Now I finally had the opportunity to play Flintlock for the first time in a preview version. I don’t think I’ve ever pressed Alt+F4 so early in a game. And that was just the demo…
A soulslike with pistols and … Gwent?
With Find Your Next Game, we want to show you games on GameStar, GamePro, and MeinMMO that you can invest your time in next. I think Flintlock can achieve just that, because I know for sure that many of you will totally celebrate Elden Ring.
To catch you up first: What is Flintlock actually? The story is quite quickly explained. You play as Nor, a pioneer in the war against an army of the undead and accidentally ensure that imprisoned gods are set free.
Now you clean up again, avenge fallen friends, go kill gods, and in the meantime, save the world from destruction. At its core, the game is a soulslike game with all the features that come with it:
- “Souls” that are called glory here and used for leveling, purchasing, and crafting – and which are, of course, lost upon death.
- Action gameplay focusing on combat and features like combos, dodging, and parrying.
- “Bonfires,” or resting places that must be unlocked, where you can rest and reset the world.
- Loads of regular enemies that can already become dangerous and, of course, enormous boss fights.
What differentiates Flintlock from the genre are its peculiarities. Despite the rather sinister story and all the undead everywhere, the game is not particularly “dark.” The sun shines, there are many normal humans, and even some laughing people.
The main difference lies in the weapons and skills. You start with an axe and a flintlock pistol, later getting other variants and at least one musket (which corresponds to the bow in souls). The weapons are important because you use them to execute combos, interrupt enemies, or take out targets with headshots to control the flow of combat.
Instead of building a build through attributes like in souls, you learn new abilities with the “souls.” Thus, your companion can choose more spells, you can suddenly hit while dodging, or charge shots. This aligns with your playstyle.
Additionally, there is – for some reason – a minigame that almost every NPC wants to play with you: Sebo, a variant of mills. It resembles Gwent in Witcher 3, which I found annoying back then, but it offers easily earned glory. When there’s nothing else to do in a lost world…
Even ordinary mobs deal heavy blows
What captivates me about Flintlock is the gameplay. Like in any good soulslike, it’s all about timing and skill – and knowing the enemy. I have to study movements and learn when to counter with which move.
However, in Flintlock, almost every enemy has attacks that cannot be parried and have enormous range. This is not a problem in itself, as a quick pistol shot can interrupt them. Only that:
- Gunpowder is limited and replenished through melee combat.
- The pistol fires quite slowly; the animation takes forever.
- An ongoing action, like an attack, is not interrupted.
I don’t know how often it’s happened that I’ve died to some random mob, certainly more than 20 times. My colleague Christoph Waldboth only failed against bosses in Elden Ring, but in Flintlock, even some random bandits beat me up.
Is it frustrating? Yes, absolutely. Am I giving up because of it? No, definitely not! Those bastards stole my souls, my glory, and I want them back!
4 hours in the demo is enough to hook me
Twice, I lost 5,000 glory (a proud sum for the demo) due to sheer silly mistakes. The worst: after a really close fight against the bandit chief, my Nor jumped toward an explosive barrel when she shot at it.
I don’t know why she did that, but she blew herself up, costing me my entire fortune. That was my first rage quit after less than 2 hours after an otherwise great run:
The point I was at is already the end of the demo. I found myself in a “stronghold,” which are villages and places you can liberate to unlock new merchants, NPCs, and quests. So much more RPG than in souls.
After about 4 hours, I managed to take this stronghold, during which I spent more than 2 hours just for that one location and its end boss – who, by the way, is just a miniboss, not a real story boss. Thanks for that.
You can now play the demo for free on Steam as part of the Steam Next Fest. The full release will be on July 18 for PC, Xbox, and PS5. It will be available on Game Pass starting Day 1.
I will use the demo further to check out a bit more of the world, because just like in Dark Souls, there are tons of side quests, collectibles, and hidden items to find.
I will probably die multiple times, I will probably curse the game multiple times, and I will probably start it again the next day to continue. The crux of soulslikes. Perhaps Flintlock will even drive me far enough to go back to the gym: Lies of P made me so mad that I quit in anger and drove to the gym at night
