When Ashen was released back in 2018 by A44 Games, it was considered a descent souls-like experience. The game received impressive reviews and fans admired A44’s work as well. Now, the studio has announced a new game, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn.
The new RPG from A44 Games builds upon Ashen and features a wider, more immersive open world. Talking to Edge Magazine, A44 CEO Derek Bradley said:
Flintlock’s world is undergoing a cultural revolution as well as a violent one. Ashen was a very narrow open-world. But nonetheless we tried to learn a
bunch of those lessons. Now we have been able to push that a lot further.
Bradley further stated that Flintlock will offer a ton of open-world features like “factions and mini-games”. Apart from the better open world, Flintlock is offering players an interesting Fox like companion, Enki. According to the CEO, it’s hard to talk about the protagonist Nor without talking about Enki. The Fox like companion will do a ton of different stuff for players like distracting enemies, using crowd control and more.
You almost can’t talk about Nor without talking about Enki. They are such an interesting Duo. Nor is the stoic army brat, because she’s literally grown up in the trenches. She is the virtuoso gunslinger, very competent, very matter-of-fact, very driven. She can feel the pain and push through it. Enki on the other hands, is a selfish, lovable, greedy, loyal little trickster. When you’re in, you’re in – but until you’re in, you can’t really trust him.
He [Enki] can’t finish them very easily. He ends up doing a whole bunch of utility, which basically lines them up for you to shoot them, or to plunge your axe into their spine. He’ll run around the fight and occasionally trip people and do cheeky things with them. He’ll bark at them, they’ll turn around and you can have a go at them.
So while Enki can’t take out enemies on his own, he can be very useful in distracting enemies. He will also have utility out of combat in some ways.
Flintlock will feature a close camera like we have seen in God of War. It will enable players to feel the world and the character closely:
The close camera perspective let’s players feel the dirt. We almost want them to smell this world. You can see every little scratch on Nor’s armour.
The combat in the game is a mix of melee and range. You can carry an axe as well as a gun with you to take enemies out. Talking about weapons, Bradley said:
The guns are more like the commas, and then you have got these bigger heavy weapons, which are more like full stops.
While talking about the souls-like combat, Bradley explained that they are trying to keep the essence of Ashen while making it as such so that it also attracts the new audience. He did admit that it’s hard to find a balance between the two.
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is scheduled to release in 2022. From what we have heard and seen so far, it looks like an interesting RPG and with more budget at hand, A44 Games is looking to keep it a AAA level.