hey and we're back with another episode of before you buy that show we give you some straight up gameplay and our first impressions of the latest games releasing as usual it's me Jake baldino and today we're talking about flint lock the siege of dawn uh this is an action adventure game it's been in the works for a bit I believe it was delayed but now it's out this week and it's a good oldfashioned video game just like a single player adventure and it's a hybrid uh like a V dash of Souls and something like God of War with the combat feel the kind of generic title should tell you straight away though it's definitely forgettable from a story and main character standpoint but it's got some decent gameplay chops where I personally still had fun playing through it I went in not expecting much but it satisfied my gamer lizard brain if that makes sense let me explain and uh before we do keep going uh just know that we've been playing a review copy on PS5 that's the footage you see running here it's in a performance mode option and and this video is spoiler-free so Flintlock is set in a world that's kind of like the order 1886 and Dungeons and Dragons fantasy mixed together with a bunch of video game stuff gunpowder is a main resource soldiers in silly hats and pants and muskets fight magical cult Knights zombies and gods this world is pretty much torn apart after some Gods escape and you a soldier named no strikes out on a quest after your crew is pretty much wiped out at the start of the game by a big evil God creature very quickly you meet and team up with a friendly God that kind of looks like a little magical teleporting Fox named anky and he gives you special powers so while I had fun playing the game the story and the character stuff didn't really do it for me nor as a main character is a bit dull while I liked her voice acting the game just takes too long to unfurl her character details and deep into the game I was already a bit checked out on here the quest itself too felt a little murky to me at first like it starts off rather abruptly and then for a while it feels like you're just going through the motions with little character or story motivation other than go here this is the stuff I will ultimately forget and move on from pretty quickly you might as well I don't know but I I will say having said all that what I do respect is that they went for it here there are interesting factions towns costumes creatures and bits of lore that do feel kind of cool they're just surrounded by other elements that feel more visually generic like some of the earlier areas and enemy types so to use the hack need phrase man I'm I'm sorry but it's a mixed bag but the name of the game is combat and exploration and I enjoyed most of that it's not out of this world Innovative or over the toop or super precise but it is engaging and well thought out with a fair bit of Challenge and some uh very good level and area design that kept me poking around for Loot and secrets and optional enemy encounters the area designs are very messy yes but also just have a lot of verticality and hidden nooks and crannies that I I just liked it's an open-ended world you know less of an open world feel and and more like a complex series of levels and Pathways and it's structured a little bit like a soulslike uh there's Estus flx for healing there's a bonfire system uh where you find them you at them and then enemies reset and you can level up there if you die you lose all your souls and you got to go find them again but the currency here is called reputation and it's got a fun spin so uh you collect reputation in game by killing stuff and progressing and you can spend this currency on a skill tree you know it seems simple enough the game rewards you for mixing it up in combat though so the more successful and more varied you are in fights the more reputation you'll gain because a little bonus multiplier on the side of the screen starts ticking up but it disappears if you're hit so at any point when you gain rep and you have that multiplier going up you can press a button on like say the d-pad and cash it in with that bonus percentage multiplier for a little extra and it's satisfying to lock that in after like a big fight or right before you get your ass beat like just timing it right it's a really good little gamble it's like a little risk reward meta that just kind of enabled me to pay attention a little bit more moment to moment and not just mindlessly hacking and slashing so combat itself works like this you have a melee weapon typically an axe as well as a pistol with only a few shots melee strikes are your main ways to kill enemies up close and doing so recharges your shots so your gun can actually be used in a variety of different ways as the game progresses but the main core thing is that it's a good attack but also an enemy attack interrupt there's also a block button but you can only block standard attacks you can also uh Parry opening up enemies for a pretty stylish Counterattack that is pretty satisfying to pull off uh enemies have a stance meter that can be Whittle down to then stagger an enemy opening them up to a big attack and you can Whittle that down by using anky anky the little magic guy also has ultimate magic attacks uh that you can occasionally use and you discover more as you progress you can also get some throwables and a long range musket as well as a few other surprise longrange weapons I won't spoil but uh these longrange weapons need to be used carefully and they have a Gears of War style active reload mechanic for bonuses get a perfect head shot and you get like a max pain style slow-mo bullet camera if you can't tell yes this game throws a lot of different stuff at you it's a mish mash it's a mess and it certainly gets messy in fights it doesn't always look impressive I probably overuse the Dodge roll a lot and sometimes the lock on screws you over but it's a fairly fun mess that can occasionally be challenging there's also a lot of platforming with double jumps air dashes and the ability to kind of like Zip fly to certain points you're doing a lot of jumping and flipping and climbing during your exploring and it's all actually pretty good except for a finicky ledge grab that doesn't always feel quite right the character after a double jump just never quite satisfyingly clings to a ledge correctly like it always feels awkward and unpredictable and not in a difficulty way but in just a kind of Half Baked way and I point that out because again you're going to be doing a lot of jumping and platforming and sometimes I'd Mis allege for no good reason other than the game just like I guess not being in the mood for it at that moment and I found that to be sometimes frustrating still all of this gameplay stuff problems and all kept me playing again it's all chaotic it's not the most precise but it works I always just like coming into a new area and assessing like seeing what kind of snipers are positioned or like a weird big zombie monster I got to take care of first or getting surprise jump scared by a hidden enemy I I didn't see coming I love just like clearing out an area or really figuring out the intricacies of an area that that's the satisfying stuff here uh I really wanted to earn reputation points so I I kept working hard at getting my multipliers up and it helps that I really wanted to earn more because the game just has a good simple action RPG skill tree with three different tiers to buy into focusing on melee Gunplay or magic a majority of the things you buy into are really rewarding and and makes substantial differences that's what I like about a good skill tree uh you got stuff like the ability to counteract with your pistol instead of melee a big downward blast more ways to stun an enemy uh and some cool stuff I won't spoil that was just fun to discover and use and it's steep I will say like it takes a while to chew through it all the currency required is a lot for unlocks as it goes up so I found myself wanting to take on little simple side quests not only to find some decent loot but to just get more of this currency to get more abilities that to me that carrot on a stick feels right it feels well done and that's a mission accomplished that's the stuff that scratches that lizard gamer brain Instinct in me and there is good gear to venture out off the main path and find you know pauldrons helmets gauntlets weapons and cosmetic outfits all of it looks really cool especially as soon as you start covering up the starting outfit but all of the main gear has either important RPG stats or like a game-changing feature meaning I really just found what worked best for me and I stuck with it for a majority of the game like a shoulder piece that slows down time if I get a perfect Dodge like stuff like that I found crucial because I relied so much on Dodges so you have a little bit of customization but you might end up like me and you find what you like whether it's a weapon or gear and just stick with that one problem was that upgrading your weapons and gear requires Gathering materials out in the world which is fine you know click on wood click on Stone stuff like that but it it also requires a [ __ ] ton of this reputation currency it was kind of a buzz kill as you know you find weapons in the world but there's really a focus on finding your Mains and then steadily upgrading them like I said it just felt like it got in the way of my progress of unlocking cool abilities cuz I wanted to upgrade my stuff but I really would have rather have spent that reputation on getting the more cool gamechanging abilities you know there's always a balance to stuff like this but I just I felt like it was a bit much I could have used like another currency or collect and my other issue with the game is that it can be a bit repetitive from the things you do to progress to just a lot of the same type of stuff in the first few hours you know just like endless zombies and caves that it might bore some types of players and that's a shame because the game opens up uh some cool and more varied locations further in that are they way more interesting than the first few hours but ultimately for me flint lock fills that middle tier void that double a kind of flawed messed up Game Void you know it's not the next massive budget AAA game it's just a flawed mixed up oldfashioned video game Adventure like in Alex or evil West or banisher ghost of new Eden more recently or Atlas Fallen although I like this way more than Atlas fall and I got to say that but you know if you keep your expectations in check you might have a good flawed time it's a lower priced game it's also on Game Pass then I'd say maybe check it out if you're into these weirder Adventures whenever there's downtime or I don't know if the price is right for you it should take you like 20 hours to see most of it but hey anyway that's a before you buy you know how this goes by now I give you some pros some cons you know the good and the bad and my personal opinion and now I want to hear yours down in the comments this game isn't out quite yet but I want to know if it was on your radar it certainly wasn't on mine but I'm still kind of glad I played it let me know what you think of this or those other kind of like games that are kind of in the middle of the road you know those 7 out of 10 games stuff like that like let's talk about this down in the comments if you enjoyed this though maybe it helped you out one way or the other clicking the like button is all you got to do it really helps us out we would appreciate that and uh you can find me on social media or on YouTube Jake baldino if you want to see more but as always thanks for watching we'll see you guys next time h