Ship-wrecked
I didn’t know it going in, but Flint: Treasures of Oblivion is actually a prequel to the Robert Louis Stevenson novel; Treasure Island. The game has players take on the role of Captain Flint as he double-crosses and robs his way through the golden age of piracy in the 17th century. Real ones will recall that I am a big fan of piracy games and ship combat, so I was excited to check this one out. But some confusing systems and stereotypical, stale pirate shenanigans; this wasn’t the treasure I was hoping for.
Developer Savage Level has packed this game to the brim with mechanics and craziness but at its core; Flint is a strategy/RPG game. I think this game is probably best described as the most ‘anti-Ken’ game ever. Truly, the odd mix of card collecting, dice roles AND turn-based combat just make dis tew much. Let’s break it down, the card collecting is how players will level up their crews’ abilities, dice rolling is for combat; kind of like in D&D or BG3 (which the latter is what I think the dev was hoping to evoke).
MSRP: $24.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, PC
Price I’d Pay: $14.99
But it all just feels muddled and terribly confusing, which making matters worse is the fact that the tutorial isn’t useful. I know how to move a camera and a character, how about you explain to me how these cards can help my crew, or how I can reach Billy Bones in the opening battle tutorial.
The overall controls in Flint: Treasures of Oblivion aren’t the greatest either. I was playing on the Series X, but everything felt very finicky to use. I stumbled my way through battles and encounters, even as I progressed the game never fully explained crucial systems; which just made my time feel overly random. Which is the exact opposite of what you want when playing a game that requires strategy.
Graphically Flint is just ‘aight’, there is nothing special about the games looks. Which makes it so odd that I had so many frame dips while playing; this game could have used some more time at sea before returning to port. Also, the font felt small at least on console; that could be because I am an old man gamer at this point, but I had to do a lot of squinting. One thing that all the squinting in the world isn’t going to help is trying to figure out where to go in this game to progress the story. Oh my lawd, this game is simply terrible at directing players on where to go, so expect to do some wondering around the levels.
I just want to play a great pirate game; I feel like nothing has been able to top the experience of Ubisoft’s 2013 Assassins Creed: Black Flag. Even their own Skull and Bones pales in comparison. Flint: Treasure of Oblivion has an interesting concept by exploring Captain Flint from the Treasure Island novel. But the execution here makes it hard to recommend; ranging from minor issues and frame drops to confusing game elements and a lot of pointless wandering around the maps make this one feel like it should have just remained lost at sea.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.