It is always exciting to see bold AA titles among the sea of somewhat underwhelming AAA games. However, despite the promising ideas these former titles may have, they sometimes don’t pay off because they’re rushed out the door instead of being given more time to cook. Unfortunately, that is the case of Samson. On the surface, it is a game with excellent ideas, a great atmosphere, and an interesting gameplay loop. But a plethora of glitches, performance issues, and underwhelming combat bring down what could have been a memorable action experience.
A City of Broken Dreams
Samson puts you in the indebted shoes of the titular protagonist, with one goal only: to pay a debt before the bad guys do something to your sister. In terms of the plot, it starts a bit clichéd but establishes a solid foundation for Samson’s goals and motivations, which can be summed up as paying off debtors and preventing them from hurting his sister.
Now, as someone who’s been following the trailers and the game’s development cycle and was expecting the plot to be alluring from the first minute, I got my first spoonful of disappointment here. While I don’t mind action cliches, there’s nothing worth mentioning about the overarching narrative. It is as predictable as you can imagine, and the poorly animated cutscenes with inconsistent lip sync and awkward character movement make the whole story crash and burn before it even takes off.
Even the parts that were supposed to be shocking end up being disappointing because, at that moment, you’ve already seen that the storytelling quality has hit rock bottom. It is a shame, really, as one thing I can praise is the voice-acting quality for each character. Despite the forced and cheesy lines the actors say, they deliver them with that anger, desperation, and even nostalgia for the city that attempts to draw you into the game. Then again, this is a perfect example of how a poorly-written plot can drag down a promising setting.
Another missed opportunity here was Tyndalston, because despite my many complaints about the story, Liquid Swords did a superb job of designing the city and actually creating an immersive setting. Often, games featuring a city to explore tend to fall flat because their locations are forgettable. Take Bloodlines 2, for instance. I can’t remember a single thing worth mentioning from that game’s map. However, I can remember some streets, buildings, and locations from Tyndalston. The atmosphere, art style, direction, and visuals are top-notch, and that’s worth praising.
Samson, in terms of its world-building and storytelling, feels as inconsistent as it can be. On the one hand, you have a dull and, at times, predictable narrative. On the other hand, an almost flawlessly designed city that, despite being on the smaller end of videogame maps, is extremely memorable. It is tragic because Samson, as a whole, could be described as a game with a lot of potential, but it ended up being another title with several missed opportunities. Unfortunately, that translates to its gameplay features, too.
Strong Loop, Weak Punches
Since you’ll be paying debts, Samson throws you into this daily loop of completing jobs of all kinds, from beatdowns to races, and even taking down vehicles with your trusty muscle car. Completing a job requires action points, with some jobs taking from two to three APs. Initially, you earn 6 points throughout the day, so you need to plan your time and missions accordingly. Failing a mission doesn’t just let you restart it; instead, you use an action point to retry it, thus shortening your time to do more jobs.
Of course, there’s also the looming threat of debt collectors, since Samson has a daily quota to meet. You start by paying $3,000 daily, and need to check which jobs pay better so you can pay your everyday debt. However, there are also expenses, such as Samson’s vehicle running out of nitro or needing repairs, which can be quite expensive. And if that wasn’t enough, getting knocked out means losing all your money, unless you have a few perks to mitigate some of the losses.
The truth is that this gameplay loop is amazing. At first, I didn’t find it particularly challenging, until I got into a fight that was more than I could handle at the time. Naturally, I lost all my money, and my car was about to be totaled. So, I had to start from scratch and plan my days to find jobs that would let me pay off the 3K I owed while also fixing my vehicle. At times, it got so challenging that I had to go out there looking for fights, hoping for enemies to drop a stack of cash to barely reach my daily quota.
Samson does an excellent job of making you feel the pressure of owning money and then trying to survive on just a couple of bucks a day. But as I said before, there were so many glitches and underwhelming combat mechanics that whatever promising loop Samson had ended up feeling stressful and tedious at times.
For combat, it aims to look and feel impactful, but it ends up being an awkward waltz of pushes, floaty punches, and parries that have almost no impact in an encounter. This was a huge disappointment for me, as this was the one feature I was most looking forward to. After I saw the trailers, I thought there would be some sort of depth to it, but all fights boil down to “spam the light attack until you beat an enemy with a finisher.” I didn’t see any combos, special skills, or anything to keep fights fresh after the third mission. Not even the so-called weapons did anything to make fighting stand out more.
Glitches don’t help either, as enemies ended up freezing when I was fighting them or just moving erratically around the map when I hit them. Yes, it made way for some glitch-infused laughs, but I would have rather have a polished combat system than enemies break-dancing on the floor after I knocked them out.
Driving and vehicular combat, on the other hand, are solid. I liked how smooth driving felt. Don’t expect GTA-level driving, though. Still, it was pretty good, and even some vehicular combat jobs were extremely fun, as there were several ways to destroy enemy vehicles. A couple even reminded me of some old-school Burnout takedowns.
On top of those core aspects, you also have several collectibles to find, with each offering substantial yet grindy rewards, such as more APs, so you can do more missions a day, more Adrenaline for Samson, and so on. There’s also a skill upgrade system, which I think was serviceable enough, with some nice perks, such as restoring HP with each successful takedown or keeping some of your cash after being defeated.
One last thing I appreciated was the environmental storytelling aspects and side missions. At some points, I located clues leading me to hidden drug stashes, and I was able to destroy them for some extra cash. In some other scenarios, I would help people around the city and eventually learned more about the harsh life of Tyndalston. Then again, these were just a few standout moments among a dozen underwhelming features.
Missed Opportunities
Samson is another title brimming with potential, excellent ideas, superb voice acting, and an enthralling atmosphere, but it falls flat due to glitches, performance issues, and a predictable narrative. As someone who was excited to experience everything Tyndalston had to offer, I leave like Samson after a day of failing to pay debts: broken, beaten, and scarred.
Yet, it isn’t the end of it, as Samson already has solid foundations, and with some much-needed polish and a couple of updates, it could become the promised action-adventure game we all wanted. But as it stands, it might be better to wait until the studio fixes some pressing issues, since this debt-paying adventure might feel janky and underwhelming for some.
Samson (PC Reviewed)
Samson has a solid foundation and several interesting ideas, but an uninspiring combat system and several glitches quickly drag this adventure down.
Pros
- Excellent atmosphere
- An engaging gameplay loop
Cons
- Several immersion-breaking glitches
- An underwhelming narrative
- Frustrating and uninspiring combat
