I see myself coming back to Flinthook for a while to come. Like many other Tribute games, it is tightly designed; nothing feels extra, nothing feels stark. I love mashing packs open. I love unlocking relics. I absolutely hate getting hit in this game, and I love that about it. If you’re wondering whether you might like Flinthook or not, take this test: Do you like video games? (Y/N).
With excellent gameplay mechanics, natural controls and an addictive roguelike experience, Flinthook is the best Tribute Games product to date. It offer us a good equilibrium between challenge, progression and fun.
A challenging platform game with roguelike elements.
The gameplay is great, with the feeling of making a bit of progress with each loss. The graphics and animations are superb, and the music is great.
This game is a lot of fun, it is pretty much a rogue-lite but without so much randomization dictating your current playthrough. I almost beat the first boss (as well as the first three stages) without any upgrades. However, with upgrades it made the process a lot easier while also adding more enemies and changing the overall stages a good bit. I HIGHLY recommend this on the Switch but it can be good fun where ever you end up picking it up.
Colorful, cheerful and fun, Flinthook is not only a joy to look at, but above all also a blast to play. Too bad for its uncompromising difficulty and its poor balancing, that prevent this roguelike-platformer from becoming the next cult classic on the indie scene.
Grappling around each room and deftly making split-second moves still makes me feel nimble in a way other platformers don’t, and the feeling of finally defeating a boss after several failed runs is a reward worth chasing, even if you can’t pursue it for too long.
It’s an odd complaint, but Flinthook really does feel like a high-calibre platformer trapped within the confines of a popular genre. It’s a blast to play and I don’t even mind just how punishing it can get at times, but the interest wains as soon as death occurred. It took me straight out of the zone when playing and when the game doesn’t have much to it beyond the gameplay, it’s a bit of a downer. The foundations are there, but really the curtains don’t match the décor.
What Flinthook does do well is keep the variety of enemies, rooms, and environments strong from start to finish, and, generally speaking, the difficulty curve is reasonable. There’s always the risk that random elements means a game will take massive momentary spikes in difficulty when you get unlucky and the algorithms work against you. Flinthook avoids that, and progress through the game does feel good, but it struggles to be compelling.
Clearly the people reviewing this are trolling. I wouldn't give the game a 10 myself, but it is a solid 8.5. If you like rougelike games that have a sense of progression like Rogue Legacy (as opposed to Enter the Gungeon) while also incorporating some excellent platforming, that's oozing with charm, this game is for you. Tribute games nails it with their newest release.
The game is fast paced, fun and addictive but the only problem for me is the lack of more control schemes. A two analogs controls where you move with one and aim with the other would be perfect.
There are several factors that damn Flinthook from being a great game. In this review I will being comparing it another Rogue-like platformer, "Rogues Legacy" to show why Flinthook falls short.
1. A huge lack of variety.
- In Rogues legacy there was a great amount of variety. You had 5 armor slots, 5 ruin slots, a dozen classes, and small addition traits that changed game play in small to large ways. Traits ranged from your character being a midget (which aloud your character to go through secret passages) to simply your character being ****. (This doesn't change game play, buts its funny they included it.)
In Flinthook, you always play as Flinthook. Every. Single. Time. The only variety in your character is the card slots. This is a poor system were cards are very slowly dished out to you, and the amount you can equip is very limited.
2. Progression
-Rogue Legacy had a great sense of progression and a good game play cycle. You pick your character, you run into the dungeon, you get as much gold as possible, you die, pick a new character, you get as many upgrades as you can, and go back into the dungeon. You always feel motivate to keep playing. Even when you fail horribly, you get to keep a fraction of the gold after every run (After you get the bargain upgrade) so its like getting a head start on every other run.
In Flinthook, you loose all your gold after every run. The only thing you get to keep is green coins you earn after you complete every area you go through, But the green coins are slowly dished out like the cards and the coins are dished out so slowly it feels like you never go anywhere.
Flinthook even fails with its bosses. In Rogues Legacy, you can beat the bosses easier because you can lock down the castle by sacrificing 30% of your gold the next run, so you can keep teleporting to the boss over and over till you win. In Flint hook you have to go through 4-6 areas, complete those areas, finally get to challenge the boss with little health. When you DO die you cant go straight back to challenge the boss. You have to go through all those areas all over again. So you can never learn the bosses attack patterns, and you have to win solely on will and luck.
Now Flinthook is not completely terrible. It has a very strong art style. The music is very catchy and fits well with the theme of the game.
Also the movement in Flinthook is great. Its fun to use the grappling hook, the wall jumping is solid, the jumping is floaty, but it gets the job done.
Would I recommend Flinthook? Ehh. Defiantly not before Rogues Legacy, because that game has better game play, more charm, and has more variety. But Flinthook isn't a game you should outright ignore.
6.5/10 Above Average
There's some good rogue elements here at first, but lost its luster quickly for me when I realized the progression wasn't really getting me anywhere. It just takes so long to unlock enough slots to add any sort of customization.
Also, it's hard to pinpoint it, but something just feels off with the gameplay. The background and foreground really blend together and make it difficult to properly identify hazards and exits. Aiming and moving all with the left stick doesn't help matters. The time slowing mechanic has potential, but it's not really utilized in any interesting ways. I can see others enjoying this, but did not hold my attention beyond the 1st boss.
SummaryAssume the role of space captain Flinthook. Armed with your mighty hookshot, your uncanny slow-motion powers, and your trusty blasma pistol, plunder and fight your way through an infinite variety of randomly-assembled spaceships for treasure, loot, and fame. [Xbox.com]