Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn Review

From the start, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is interesting with the opening introduction to main character Nor a soldier who is part of a coalition fighting against the undead and old gods. Right away, I liked Nor because of her confidence and her battle skills. Armed with an axe and a flintlock pistol, Nor takes down all the enemies in her path. The game gives you a nice feel for the combat with a quick tutorial. I do see how and why it's getting compared to a souls light game, but it's also it's own thing. I will say a couple of thingsthat I do not like is the fact that if you play on story mode you do not get any of the achievements. You can only get them if you play on normal or hard mode. It's ableist to do this and there's no point to lock achievements like this. It feels insulting to people who want to just enjoy the story and feels like a punishment. Frankly game developers need to do better and make their games accessible for everyone. That brings me to the second thing. The accessibility settings aren't bad, but they could do a lot better. Being able to adjust the size of the font for subtitles is appreciated as well as being able to turn off motion blur, but there needs to be more than that especially for people who are disabled. Make your games accessible so that everyone can play. 

Other than those two things, I found myself really enjoying Flintlock from the start. Things go off with a bang, literally and it's where Nor's adventure truly begins and we get to see more of the world building and lore of Flintlock. 

Nor and the Coalition being badass. 

Nor meets a creature that looks like an adorable fox and then finds out he is a god named Enki. I found this aspect of the game fascinating because Enki and the gods in the game are based on actual gods from ancient Mesopatamia. I looked up Enki because I was curious and found that Enki is the Sumerian god of wisdom, fresh water, intelligence, mischief, healing, creation, fertility, and art. His magic also used trickery to benefit humans. This adds an insightful perspective on the partnership between Nor and Enki because of the conversations they have as they travel together. Enki is clearly a bridge to the world of the gods for Nor as he shares some of his experiences with them and his experiences of traveling the human world. 

Enki can fight alongside Nor and their tag team efforts in battle is well done. Combat is fast paced, but above all it's fun. With Nor's battle skills and Enki's magic they can chain attacks together really well making them practically unstoppable. Nor can get better weapons and firearms from merchants at camp or from a merchant at the coffee house in each village. There's also brightly colored and stylish soldier outfits Nor can buy. There's also various types of armor Nor finds or can buy from merchants. All of these as well as the firearms and weapons can be upgraded as long as she has the materials for them. 

Nor battles an undead boss. 

There are side quests along the way that offer some good rewards for Enki like increasing his magic powers as well as some weapons for Nor. A lot of the side quests were just stand alone with the exception of one that added to part of the story. I did them all and I appreciated being able to explore different places. One fun way of travel was Enki carrying Nor through triangular rifts which helped getting across vast chasms or up to very high towers. 

Some of my favorite moments were when Nor and Enki would stop for a moment and discuss mundane things like a water wheel. I was amused and charmed at how Enki found a water wheel amazing and talked about how he could hear the water singing through it and that he wanted to just sit and listen to it. It added another layer to their growing friendship that was endearing. 

I enjoyed all of these aspects of Flintlock and I found myself quite invested in the story. The boss battles are intense, but great fun and they all go with the flow of the story. Flintlock itself is not a long game. With the side quests and the main story I finished the game in about fifteen hours. It's not a bad thing that it was short and sweet. I liked the ending and the fact that it leaves it open ended a bit if they ever want to do some DLC or a sequel is rather nice. For me, it was a fantastic adventure and I had a great time with it every magical step of the way. 

Nor and Enki taking a break. 

*Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is available on the following platforms: Xbox Series X/S (on Gamepass), Playstation 5, and Windows (On Steam)

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