Keiran McEwen
Keiran McEwenAs the Sweet Transvestite sang, “And when you’re a professional pirate…” Set in the golden age of piracy (minus the bay of the internet), Flint: Treasure of Oblivion plays as a prequel to Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson’s seminal work and character, Captain James Flint. Though the marketing lacks major Treasure Island or The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys notes, the pirate-based CRPG plunders from the adventures of buccaneers and the titular character’s eventual fortune. Stylistically, some of that isn’t bad, but I’ll be lying like a certain one-legged thief if I said Flint: Treasure of Oblivion challenges The Muppets, Monkey Island, or Treasure Planet for its adaptation crown.
For one, you play as the Captain and his wannabe Billy Connolly stand in early on, mostly in a set of scenes about as interesting or exciting as some other reference to another adaptation of Treasure Island. The truth is, I should have gotten this review done back in December, but I didn’t. Savage Level’s Flint: Treasure of Oblivion isn’t bad, but it also isn’t very interesting from a story perspective or gameplay-wise either. The first two hints of gameplay do exactly what games should never do: Order you to do something, then take control away leaving the objective it suggested incomplete.
Played out in a comic book art style, the story of piracy sees Flint and Bones thrown in prison to be told of some fancy treasure. Stylistically I’d like to say that I enjoy the comic book panels, but it does become very tiring once its text box/bubble-only storytelling also wants to be period-appropriate, something I’ve bemoaned previously as a dyslexic. Sailing from trope to trope, what little ideas Flint: Treasure of Oblivion has, it saves them for fights which can sometimes feel like more than a hassle to deal with.
Beyond the presentation that falls flatter than a blind puppet trying to find your first mate, the gameplay is…decent. That right there is the problem with Flint: Treasure of Oblivion, it either does what it is best at just well enough to be considered fine, and what you don’t personally like about those things is probably done so much better by something else you played several years ago. Releasing a CRPG in the wake of Larian’s successes such as Divinity Original Sin and Baldur’s Gate 3 means you’ll get unfairly compared, for good or bad.
Flint and his conventionally attractive Hemsworth boyfriend do as all pirates do in an extremely dull tale of piracy, break out of jail for downloading “LinkinParkHybridTheory.exe.” The two assemble a crew of dullards that are about as characterized as the filthy brown rag that Flint’s quartermaster uses to clean dishes. If you can’t tell, I’m not particularly a fan of what is supposed to be the plot. Though there is an attempt to make the presentation unique and interesting, the story it is trying to tell and the characters it uses to do so inspire about as much get-up-and-go as Andy Griffith does, and he’s dead.
Instead, the focus is more on the gameplay, which is certainly serviceable if you can get past the apathy(?) that Savage Level seems to have for new players. Like most CRPGs, Flint: Treasure of Oblivion is based on table-top RPG dice mechanics with a hexagonal grid, which should be simple. With load screens only giving you the ever-wonderful “Please read the instructions carefully to make the most of the game and improve your experience” tip. Sure thing hun, and when I’m done with the year 1995 I might be able to understand half of the gameplay.
The issues range from failure on dice rolls feeling random, to glyphs on effect roll dice looking like they fell out of your dad’s self-published picture book reprint of the Kama Sutra. You can read the tutorials and even read through all the rules on the main menu, but you’ll still struggle. In battle, each attack is determined by a dice roll, but are you told what number you need to get for success? Kind of, but really no. It is on a small piece of UI that no one is actively looking for. The same can be said of everything else you roll for, too bad Savage Level didn’t roll for UI/UX design.
The truth is, I want to like Flint: Treasure of Oblivion, I think retellings of the Treasure Island story are great. Be it Jackie Cooper or Kermit the Frog, Bobby Driscoll to David Hyde Pierce. Sadly whoever voices Flint and Bones in their limited-voiced scenes and the entire game itself, don’t feel immersive. It doesn’t feel as rich of a world, characters, and gameplay to dive into. The most interesting part of Flint is the “Booty” system. No, this isn’t an 18th-century Grindr, it is about splitting the treasure found along the way.
You split the treasure between units to effectively level them up, meaning their progression isn’t tied to their use. Outside of Billy and Flint, everyone else is practically cannon fodder for the extremely annoying combat dice rolls. Being able to split the treasure and upgrade the units should be easier than taking someone out 50 times into battles that feel as strong or consistent as a wafer dipped in tea. However, this “Booty” is also used to buy items from the Galley. Before anyone climbs up me, yes I know that’s the kitchen, moan at Savage Level instead.
Flint: Treasure of Oblivion feels like an idea down at the pub first, then a game and story second. With hints of something interesting hidden underneath, I wanted to like Flint more than I did. I honestly wanted to hold it aloft like we all do with the likes of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag and even Sid Meier’s Pirates! However, even two months on from launch, the ironed-out experience still feels somewhat directionless at times. It almost feels like it doesn’t know what it is doing to give you said direction. The very best part is combat, but this quickly becomes tiresome or dull thanks to the tremendous amount of luck required.
Ultimately, you know what I think of Flint: Treasure of Oblivion and have since the first paragraph. I am (sadly) disinterested in it and more in favor of the other adaptations that exceed its source material. Setting sail on the big blue wet thing might be fun for a short while, but the plot that seems set on throwing everything clichéd at you puts you back in place with a bland world, bland beats, and combat that you suffer more than enjoy towards the end. Despite the delays, I somewhat wonder what the original plan and pre-delay release looked like.
A PC review copy of Flint: Treasure of Oblivion was provided by Microids for this review.
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47 Flint: Treasure of Oblivion
$24.99
Pros
- The "Booty" system is unique enough.
- Combat is interesting for a while.
- An attempt an a unique presentation.
Cons
- The open-world feels like busy work to elongate the run-time.
- The story may have one and a half full-characters.
- A lack of direction or something to push you any which way.
