Gunpowder soulslike Flintlock delayed into 2024

Developer A44 has delayed Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn to a 2024 launch date, which means you'll have to wait until next year to make some flintlock devices and use them to blow up the gods and their undead army in a soulslike open world. That's a delay of a year from the previous release date of "early 2023" on Steam, Epic Games Store, and Game Pass.

Debuting at last year's not-E3 celebration and complete with a PC Gaming Show trailer, Flintlock's distinctive style got a lot of attention. It's an action RPG about fighting hordes of undead monsters with an axe, black powder weapons, and tinkering little gadgets, all aided by the mystic powers of a weird little fox spirit who you probably can't trust. It's set in a world where the gods, angered by mankind's invention of gunpowder, open a portal to the afterlife and let a bunch of undead through to wipe us all out. Classic god stuff, really.

Flintlock will be the second game from A44, who developed 2018 souls-game tirbute Ashen. At the time, PC Gamer's Joe Donnelly called that one "A thoughtful, engrossing Soulslike that's not shy about its influences" in our review.

Speaking with the developers last year, PC gamer got a look into the fantastical world behind Flintlock. Its developers researched the Napoleonic period and used that in their work, but also enriched its fantasy element by looking at ancient Mesopotamian mythology.

We also spoke with them last September, when a gameplay reveal trailer showed a Flintlock that really looks like something between God of War 2018 and Dark Souls.

"Flintlock blends theatrical, twirling attacks and grand cinematics with strategic fights that require spacial awareness and trial-and-error to nail. The team has come a long way since its predecessor Ashen—I watch as protagonist Nor and her furry companion Enki scramble across platforms scattered across pretty environments, a blend of the medieval and magical. Nor brandishes her axe, swinging with weighty force, weaving in her gun attack as she whips it off her back to shoot the stumbling enemy. It looks like it flows lovely, and A44 says that the way you go about tackling each enemy matters. Getting an axe kill will net you bullets for your gun, which you can then use to kill baddies for extra armor," said Mollie Taylor.

If you're interested in a fast-paced open-world Soulslike with difficulty options and guns, put that on your list to look out for in 2024.

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.