Samson Review

A rough, interesting open-world game with a noir story and tough fighting and driving.

Samson is developed by Liquid Swords, a studio founded by Christofer Sundberg, one of the key figures behind Avalanche Studios. You should know that name because Avalanche made games like Mad Max and Just Cause, known for their crazy chaos and "emergent" gameplay systems.

When a developer with that background starts a new company, people naturally have high hopes for it. Though Samson is not a sequel, it is a lot like those earlier games, especially in how it focuses on systems-driven gameplay and making grimy worlds. However, Liquid Swords doesn't try to be as big or as interesting as Just Cause was.

It wants to be a smaller, more focused experience that emphasizes crime drama and survival skills over unnecessary elements. The game appears to be an intentional departure from the extreme open-world style that currently dominates the genre. Samson doesn't have a giant map with many side quests.

Instead, it only has a small, compact urban environment. It is meant to feel like older games that didn't care as much about size as they did about mood, gameplay, and speed. You can see this way of thinking about design as soon as you start to play. It's clear that the goal is to make something easy, where stress and decision-making are more important than visual appeal.

At its core, Samson tells you a sad and true story.

You play as Samson McCrae, a man who is going back to a city that doesn't feel good or hopeful anymore. The story is about debt, feeling hopeless, and doing your duty. Samson's sister was used as security in a bad deal. He needs to pay off dangerous people who owe him more and more money to keep her safe.

Right away, the stakes don't feel very high because of how things are set up. You are not here to save the world. You only need to stay alive and be responsible in a city that is designed to look more dangerous. There are many dark elements in the story. The city itself feels like a character who is always cold, heavy, and doesn't care.

People talk on the phone, during game interactions, and sometimes during cutscenes. Even though the main story may seem familiar, it's the mood and tone that set it apart. The style of writing doesn't always come up with new ideas, but it does a good job of making you feel scared and worried about Samson's adventure.

You are not looking for stardom; you are simply trying to stay alive. The way you play Samson is based on every day's loop. There are different parts to each day in the game, and you only have a certain number of actions based on spending on tasks. Different kinds of missions are all over the map to accomplish.

But the amazing part is that you can always choose which one you want to finish. By gaining control over risk, energy, and your time, you have to decide how to spend them wisely. There are different levels of difficulty and rewards for each task. Some missions are simpler, but they pay less.

This method adds a level of strategy that is really interesting.

You are always thinking ahead, weighing your choices, and managing the resources you have. Every night, a payment is due, which adds to the stress. Things get worse if you don't meet it. You feel like you need to act quickly all the time, which keeps you moving forward. It's one of the best ideas in the game, and it makes even easy tasks more interesting.

But the number of tasks doesn't quite match up with how good this system is. There are four types of tasks that most people do: fights, moves, car chases, and a mix of these. At first, these seem interesting, but after a while, they start to feel like hard work. The main tasks don't change much, even if they take place in different places or with small changes.

As the game goes on, More of this repetition makes it stand out, and it starts to weaken the strategy layer that the action point system is trying to build. There are no guns used at all during the fighting, which is a big change from the game in this genre. To defeat enemies, you can use light and heavy attacks, dodges, and parry techniques.

You can also grab and use broken pipes, bricks, and bats as weapons for a short period of time. A power system also lets you "power up," which means you can do more damage. This setup should give you a lot of choices. It's not always the same in real life. Combat can be fun when it's going well.

When you make a hard hit, throw an enemy into something, or do a finisher, it can feel strong.

But these situations don't come up very often. You have to press buttons too quickly, and the interactions aren't accurate or quick enough to keep people interested over time. One major issue is with the controls and input. The lock-on method doesn't always work, the camera can feel oppressive, and animations don't move smoothly.

Sometimes enemies act in strange ways, like becoming too aggressive or too quiet. It's really hard to trust the gameplay fully because of these flaws, which is a problem for a game that needs close-quarters action. There are also issues with controlling crowds and stun guns. When you're surrounded, it's easy to feel stressed and have little time to recover.

This method makes it harder, but not in a way that seems fair or skill-based. Most of the time, it feels like you are fighting the system instead of getting good at it. The second most important part of the game is driving. Samson's main car is a muscle car that focuses on weight and speed.

It has features like drifting, nitrous boosts, and the ability to turn off the engine to hide from the cops. There is a clear effort to make driving feel stable and planned. Still, the execution isn't even, just like in a battle. It's not always easy to feel like you're in control, and the steering can feel slow.

Different collisions can stop you at different times.

Sometimes small hits are enough to stop you, and other times bigger hits don't seem to do much. This lack of consistency is annoying, especially when a chase is underway. When you hit your opponents in a car fight, the same problems happen. Even though the plan is really amazing, it doesn't feel as good as it should because there isn't enough direction and control.

Because of these mechanical flaws, chases often lose their excitement, changing what should be exciting sequences into awkward meetings. Samson's progression is based on experience points (XP) and skills. You gain experience by completing missions, fighting other players, and exploring the world.

You get skill points that you can spend on different areas as you level up. Some of these improvements include better health, less serious damage, and useful extras. The method is pretty simple, but it works. It gives you the impression that you're progressing and allows you to make minor adjustments to your routine.

It can be very helpful to learn new things, especially if you want to stay alive. Still, it doesn't really change how you play the game. There are no major changes to the game's rules, and the upgrades feel more like improvements than changes. The graphics in Samson are neither fantastic nor poor. On the one hand, the game looks very much like itself.

The city is really mesmerizing, has a good vibe, and fits together well.

If you miss the lighting at night, it's over because the lighting sets the scene. Neon lights, wet streets, and busy city scenes all make the setting feel real and calm. On the other hand, technical problems are very easy to spot. Visual glitches happen a lot more than you would expect, animations can look a bit stiff and fragile, and backgrounds don't always have enough texture.

The game is built on Unreal Engine 5, and while it uses some of its strengths, it also shows where it needs improvement. One of the best things about the game is the sound creation. The music fits the noir mood, using tense, atmospheric pieces to make the experience feel more real. Some background sounds, such as sirens, city noise, and people talking, make the scene more interesting.

We can't really predict whose sound that is. Voice acting is especially good; it brings the characters to life, making the story more interesting. Even though it has flaws, Samson manages to make scenes that stick with you. Sometimes, when the task, the chase, or the fight all go well together, you can see what the game could have been like if it had been given more care.

These times don't happen often enough, but when they do, they stand out. In the end, 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.