LOCK AND LOAD

Ashen’s developer leads the Soulslike through an industrial revolution in Flintlock: The Siege Of Dawn

- Jeremy Peel

Humanity might have defied the gods when it first brought fire down from the mountain, but it only truly troubled their omnipotence once it trapped that flame in a barrel – igniting gunpowder to propel itself into a new age of power, volatility and self-determination.

It’s at this precipice that mankind finds itself in Flintlock, the second project from New Zealand’s A44 Games. Founded by talent from Weta Digital, and having made its debut in 2018 with gorgeous action RPG Ashen, the studio is now a part of the global studio collective Kepler Interactive. Flintlock represents a major step up in ambition for A44, made possible thanks to the help of that backing. It has the Soulslike elements of the studio’s previous title, plus a setting expanded beyond dungeons and plains to a full open world.

This isn’t the only leap forward A44 is making with this game. Where for Ashen it stuck with a swords-andsorcery setting, it’s placing Flintlock within a burgeoning fantasy subgenre with which it shares a name. Magic is still in play but faces competition as technology progresses to the cusp of the industrial revolution. And the gods of Flintlock’s world? They aren’t best pleased about it. “Humans had found themselves in a place where they felt like they had a seat at the table,” explains Derek Bradley, A44 CEO and Flintlock’s game director. “And then the gods turned up and just absolutely disregarded them. They would enthrall a human instead of speak to them – mind-control them and treat them like puppets.”