Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn's Rifts Kill Two Birds With One Stone

Summary

Despite being almost 13 years old now, many Soulslikes still follow the formula of the firstDark Soulsvery closely, borrowing heavily from its environments, enemy types, combat mechanics, and boss design. One core feature ofDark Soulsthat many Soulslikes have tried and failed to capture is itsinterconnected level design, where many of its key areas are joined together by a series of looping pathways and shortcuts.Flintlock: The Siege of Dawntakes this interconnected level design and puts its own unique spin on it.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawnfeatures a sort of semi-open world design in which players are dropped into a larger hub area and given several different paths to explore, many of which loop back around and connect to the central area, opening up a shortcut for streamlined exploration in the future. Many of these shortcuts appear in the form of Rifts, purple triangles in the sky that the player can teleport to. WhileFlintlock’s Rifts are shortcuts first and foremost, there’s a bit more to them, resulting in them being one of the game’s biggest highlights.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn Tag Page Cover Art

Rifts Are a Major Highlight of Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn

Flintlock’s Rifts Act as Versatile Shortcuts

As mentioned up top,Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn’s Riftsare shortcuts first and foremost. When players make their way through one ofFlintlock’s many underground caverns, ascending towers, or vast ravines, they’ll occasionally be able to spot a standing totem with a skull placed on top. Interacting with this skull activates a series of Rifts in the sky that the player can instantly teleport to. These Rifts will often form a path back to the start of the area, thus unlocking a shortcut for the player should they spawn back at the beginning, or need a faster way to traverse the area.

But the first big trick up these Rifts' sleeves is that players have a surprisingly high level of freedom in how they choose to exit them. Players can freely move the camera while inside a Rift, and can either press the jump button to launch out of the Rift and gain height, or press the dodge button to exit the Rift and descend slowly. Moving the left stick will also see the playerexit the Riftin that specific direction. With these extra tools, players can traverse certain areas of the map much more efficiently.

Flintlock’s Rifts Encourage Vertical Exploration and Show Off Slick Animations

These shortcuts go hand-in-hand withFlintlock: The Siege of Dawn’s vertical level designin some areas, as players can launch out of a Rift, gain height, and quickly make their way over to an elevated part of the environment they couldn’t reach before. A good example of this is the walled city at the end ofFlintlock’s Three Peaks area, where players can use the floating Rifts to gain access to scaffolding that can’t be reached from ground level. Players are usually rewarded for their vertical exploration as well, with some elevated positions containing loot-filled chests.

One of the strongest facets ofFlintlock: The Siege of Dawnis the game’s animations. From brutal finishers to adorableidle animations for Enki and Nor, a lot of time has clearly gone intoFlintlock’s animations, and they’re on full display when the player teleports to a Rift and leaps out of one at full speed.