How do you take your soulslike?
How do you like your coffee?
In this soon-to-sally-forthsoulslikefrom the makers ofAshen, the creature design is a highlight.
Whether it’s a good souls ‘em up remains to be seen.
I’ve only played a couple of hours in the Steam Next Fest demo.
All this is to say that Flintlock is set in a strange world at war with the gods.
The job, then, is clean-up.
Sekiro is probably the closest comparison, really.
Here you watch out for signposted unblockable attacks, which require you to shoot your way out of them.
Maybe I find it hard to read the enemy animations.
Whatever it is, it threw me off during the demo.
But it’s early days.
Plus I find a soulsathon’s margin for jank is more forgivable the more even-handed it is.
I’m still annoyed when hurt by enemy sword thrusts that seem to go right past me.
But I’d be more irritated if it meant certain death, as opposed to a hefty scratch.
Enki himself is another sweetly designed beast.
But he can do some damage in fights.
There are other subtleties that build up to make an interesting soulsy ramble.
4% extra reputation.
10% extra reputation.
20% extra reputation.
Until you get whacked.
Of course, if you eat dirt, usual souls rules apply.
There’s more to it.
Long muskets to fire.
But I’ll let youexplore all that in the demo yourself, if you want.
Weirdly, I’m left feeling its action adventure stylings more than the souls ones.
Sometimes they seem to hit that mark, as in the gorgeous animation of Enki’s foxy flight.
Or in the fact that your musket seems to shoot a full half-metre off the crosshair.
This is an early build, so glitches are expected.
Then again, I’ve seen enough freaky creature design and handy shortcuts to keep me intrigued.
I’ll sip some coffee as I wait.
