| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Title | Flint: Treasure of Oblivion |
| Release Date | December 17th, 2024 |
| Platforms | PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch |
| Publisher | Microids |
| Developer | Savage Level |
| Technetbook Rating | |
|---|---|
| Rating Score | 4.5 |
| Stars | ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ |
Pros
- Engaging story
- Charming main character
- Great comic book-styled story presentation
- Solid turn-based combat foundation...
Cons
- ... that is heavily impacted by horrendous interface, controls, and poor tutorials that make the experience frustrating more often than not
- Severe lack of quality of life features
- Average visuals
- Short length
While a pirate theme is perfect for games, titles that allow players to sail the high seas are surprisingly rare. Flint: Treasure of Oblivion caught attention with its setting, story, tactical gameplay, and tabletop RPG elements, such as visible die rolls. Unfortunately, the game fails to deliver on many fronts.
The foundation of a solid tactical role-playing game is present, but numerous issues prevent the game from being anything more than an average, and often frustrating experience.
Story and Presentation
The story is one of the best features, largely due to the engaging protagonist, Captain James Flint, a legendary pirate. After surviving a shipwreck, he is imprisoned but manages to escape in search of treasure. The plot, while straightforward, is engaging, and Captain Flint's personality makes the story amusing.
The game uses gorgeous comic book panels to present the story, giving it a visual novel feel that suits the story and setting extremely well.
Gameplay Issues
While the tactical turn-based combat appears solid on the surface, it suffers from many problems:
- Convoluted interface requiring too many clicks.
- Poor battlefield visual design.
- Poorly explained morale, skill, and equipment systems.
- Combat feels dominated by random number generation (RNG).
- Stiff animations and barely audible sound effects.
- Convoluted character leveling system.
Exploration is similarly flawed, suffering from confusing level design, an unhelpful map system, and a camera that can't be rotated.
Control Issues
Controls are a major source of frustration, requiring players to switch between controller and keyboard/mouse for optimal performance. Using a controller during combat is especially frustrating. Mouse and keyboard controls work better, but are still not ideal.
Performance
The game performs decently, though graphics options are limited. On a high-end PC, the game ran at an average of 80 FPS at 4K resolution with high settings, suggesting it will run well on most systems at lower settings.
Flint: Treasure of Oblivion has the potential for a great tactical role-playing game but needed more development time. As it stands, it's an average, often frustrating experience, barely salvaged by the charming protagonist and comic book-style presentation.
