Flintlock: Siege of Dawn Is A Darkhorse For Microsoft’s Best Game At Showcase

A44’s new action, adventure RPG, Flintlock: Siege of Dawn, I think has the potential to becoming the best game shown at Microsoft and Bethesda’s showcase. You are probably questioning my sanity right now. How could I say that Flintlock will surpass games like A Plague Tale: Requiem, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Redfall, Diablo 4, and the long awaited Starfield for Game of The Year.

Well, a few reasons. One: by the look of it from the trailer, I think it has all the makings of a great game. The game had a tremendous Elden Ring/ God of War/Witcher 3 feel to it. First off, let me explain the God of War feel that I get from this. An axe-wielding, god slaying main protagonist seeking to slay even more quarrelsome, irritable superbeings all the while accompanied by (what looks to be) a small, loyal travel companion. You can’t say this doesn’t sound a little like God of War.

Even the main protagonist, Nor Vanek, fights a lot like Kratos. At least in terms of the style of fighting. Bruting, overwhelming, axe swings driven at their respective enemies is just too much of a similarity for me not to pick up on. Although, Nor Vanek is one-upping Kratos with her flintlock pistol shot. So, they are not entirely similar.

Anyway, the second, bigger similarity/comparison to a video game I picked up on was Elden Ring. Traversing through a war-torn, ravaged world by the very gods the beings of said world once revered does sound a lot like the shattering of the Elden Ring and the subsequent wars fought by the Elden Ring demigods for its shards. But that is not all.

The manner of combat seems very much out of a ‘Souls’ game. Fighting one-vs-one against the god ‘bosses’ of the world, along with their multitudes of minions, is a staple aspect of a ‘Souls’ game. And with the resounding debut of Elden Ring, it only bodes well for Flintlock: Siege of Dawn.

And finally, the Witcher 3 vibe, that I got from it comes solely from the fact that it is going to be an open world game. The nature of fighting against multiple god beings will inevitably lead to different side quests and various locations teeming with quest-giving NPCs. Now, Elden Ring is still my Game of The Year for 2022, but the one weak point the game has would be its side quests.

They were not all bad in Elden Ring, just some of them were underwhelming. Or sometimes just hard to find. I have probably missed a dozen great quests just because there was no journal or note system to keep track of them.

Unlike in Elden Ring, the Witcher 3 had every quest vividly detailed in the game’s quest menu. And I can count over twenty side quests in that game that are just as good, if not better, than the main story itself (i.e.: Triss Merigold’s quest, Keira Metz’s quest, Bloody Baron’s quest, Reasons of State, The Cave of Dreams, the whole Heart of Stone DLC, I could really go on forever). I think the game developers would be geniuses if they are able to combine the gameplay of God of War, the AI mechanics of Elden Ring, and the quest detail of Witcher 3).

If Flintlock: Siege of Dawn can do that, then this will be a bonified Game of the Year contender.

Oh, speaking of the Witcher 3, is it just me or does Nor Vanek sound just like Yennefer Vengerberg.