Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn review

What is it? A «Souls-lite» set in a world where humans fight gods with the power of gunpowder.
Release date July 18, 2024
Expect to pay $40/£33.50
Developer A44 Games
Publisher Kepler Interactive
Reviewed on Gigabyte G5 laptop
Steam Deck Playable
Link Official site

A flintlock is a firearm from ye olden days which uses flint-striking ignition to fire. It’s fallen out of fashion lately, mainly because it takes about 400 years to reload. The idea of trying to use one to kill several gods is pretty daunting. But I'd certainly rather take on that challenge than the far more terrifying one of being a Soulslike releasing less than a month after Shadow of the Erdtree. Maybe this game deserves a 90 just for bravery?

You play as Nor, an axe-wielding warrior trapped in a seemingly endless war with the living dead, because someone’s unfortunately left the door to the afterlife open. After one of those classic attempts at fixing everything that actually makes it all much worse, Nor gets a nice big pile of guilt to motivate her through the rest of the adventure. More interestingly, she also meets and teams up with Enki, a «tiny fox thing» that's also a god. 

Enki introduces some novel powers, but let's get the more familiar stuff out of the way first. Combat is about locking onto foes, dodging, blocking, whacking them with your favourite axe when you get an opening, and ideally pulling off a parry and dealing out some lovely retaliation straight after. So far, so Souls, but there’s a welcome shot of Bloodborne in here too. You have a firearm on your hip that you can use to interrupt attacks. Ammo replenishes after executing a few melee strikes, and let’s thank every god that they went with that idea instead of realistic flintlock reloading. 

There are a fair few firearms to be found, including an outstanding blunderbuss that blasts enemies off their feet. There's something wonderfully petulant about being on the back foot in an axe fight and then just pulling out your gun and pressing