Open-world crime game Samson beats up a bunch of bugs in a new patch, as developer admits it 'released a game with flaws'

Samson screenshot — (Image credit: Liquid Swords)

Liquid Swords has been open about the development difficulties it has encountered with Samson, its newly released open-world crime game that adds a roguelike spin to Grand Theft Auto's loop of driving and fighting. The studio led by Just Cause creator Christofer Sundberg "laid off half the team" last year, forcing them to rework Samson from a more ambitious design into a leaner, meaner run-based experience.

Yet while these compromises may have helped Samson to the finish line, it doesn't appear to have resulted in a more polished product. The game currently sits at a 53% Mixed rating on Steam, with the vast majority of negative opinions revolving around bugs and technical issues.

"The atmosphere is stellar and I would love to spend more time within this city, but the moment to moment gameplay just derails the whole experience" writes Steam user Finxl, while CLMS points out that "in my <2hrs of play, I already have a laundry list of issues that I am astonished survived any amount of QA." Most negative reviews read similarly, suggesting that, for the moment at least, Samson is a rough ride.

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The good news is that Liquid Swords is fully aware of the problems, and is working in earnest to fix them. "We have been having fun watching folks have fun with the game and we released a game with flaws for a number of reasons," Sundberg wrote in a Steam post on launch day. "Early impressions are mixed and many of you are experiencing game breaking bugs and performance issues. That's unacceptable and we are listening to everyone's feedback."

Samson - Official 'Missions & Jobs' Developer Overview Trailer - YouTube

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The first patch arrived a day after launch, with Liquid Swords releasing a hotfix that addressed numerous issues with performance and crashes. It also added several systemic tweaks, such as adding fall damage to NPCs as a "failsafe", though it's not entirely clear what this is a failsafe for.

On Friday, Liquid Swords released a performance guide to help players get the most out of the game in its current state, and also issued a roadmap charting updates coming in the near future. This week will bring a second patch that focuses on "stability, gameplay, polish and continuous player feedback," while another, as-yet unspecified patch will arrive on April 22.

For all the problems, Samson seems to have enjoyed a moderately successful launch, if the number of reviews it has are anything to go by. Players are clearly hankering for that open-city experience largely absent from gaming since the release of Grand Theft Auto 5, and the cut-down price of Samson probably helped too. Whether or not that will be enough to support the game long term remains to be seen, but Sundberg is adamant that "Samson is here to stay and we are not going anywhere."

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

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