Samson

Samson may come stocked with an impressively detailed sandbox, but it’s totally impossible to recommend in its current state.

Liquid Swords' debut title, Samson: A Tyndalston Story, has the potential to one day be an incredibly strong double-A experience. At a bargain price of $25 and with strong foundations, even in its broken state, I can see through to the vision of what the game could be and how much fun it is when it's all running smoothly. But at launch, that's simply not the case, and $25 for anything is still a rip-off if you're just buying something that's broken to begin with. One day, there will be more than a few good reasons to recommend you go out and buy Samson: A Tyndalston Story for yourself. But not on launch day.

Samson: A Tyndalson Story is a broken, boring, charmless mess of a game that needed either more time in the oven or a stronger vision.

Samson is built with some excellent bones; its gameplay loop is fun and engaging and its gritty story is good and can be knocked out in 10-12 hours.

Samson is a game about how different things are. It has strong ideas, an interesting atmosphere, and a clear goal. But it doesn't work because of poor technique, excessive repetition, and a lack of an ending. It looks like this project needed more time to reach its full potential.

Samson: A Tyndalston Story was clearly pushed to release in a raw state. We rather got a stub that resembles a piece of the first island from GTA IV.

Despite the lack of optimization and official Brazilian Portuguese localization, and the fact that the game feels like it should have been released in Early Access, we must acknowledge — just as the studio admitted its mistakes — that they are being quick with fixes and actively listening to community feedback.

Samson is, quite frankly, a missed opportunity, especially since there aren’t a lot of titles tackling similar settings and genres recently. The overall presentation is thematic and appropriate, and also has a core gameplay loop that you can see develop into something better in the near future. However, its numerous bugs, gameplay design flaws, and weak narrative anchor it hard, keeping it from becoming a great experience.

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In my review of Samson: A Tyndalston Story, I discuss how technical issues and repetitive gameplay mechanics undermine the game, despite its strong atmosphere and interesting concepts.