Samson

SAMSON was provided by Liquid Swords for review. Thank you!

Of all the trailers for upcoming games that I consistently see, none of them excited me as much as Samson. It felt like the game just appealed to me, with its gorgeous graphics, action-packed gameplay, and seemingly unique direction. And knowing it was being made by ex-Just Cause developers, I had my hopes high. However, I think I had them a little too high, because what I was met with was a frustrating mess that I found hard to enjoy.

I was going into this, hoping for the gameplay to take center stage, bringing forth intense action, both with hand-to-hand combat and with cars. While there are a few moments where it seems to work okay, I mostly found myself annoyed. The two main gameplay elements that we will play around with the most are the hand-to-hand combat and vehicle-related jobs like car chases, races, and takedowns. But in each of these two elements, there are some major issues that keep it from being fun.

With hand-to-hand combat, there were more times than I could count that my dodging or parrying just did not work. Lots of times, especially when fighting multiple enemies, it will not know who to target, and animations can break. He can also be futile when multiple enemies throw punches at the same time, and the parrying window is a little too small.

On top of that, the controls and movement just feel awkward. Swinging punches may never land, the dodging distance isn’t far enough, and moving around just doesn’t work well. And with how often animations broke, I sometimes couldn’t even tell if I punched an enemy. I would run up to a person I needed to attack and start a heavy attack, but they wouldn’t flinch at all; sometimes, they would just stand there or immediately attack me back. This led to my death more times than I could count, and it was infuriating.

Now, there were moments where I actually did enjoy the combat in Samson. Fighting enemies one-on-one can be fun when the animations aren’t breaking, and I love using objects to smack them across the face and see spit fly from their mouths when I punch them. On top of that, being able to throw weapons was another nice touch that made me want to seek them out and use them more often. So, despite the issues here and there, there is some fun peeking through, but it’s like finding a needle in a haystack.

Jobs that require using our car are a little less frustrating, but still have a good chunk of issues. Handling the cars could feel slippery at times, making it feel like I was driving on ice rather than a road, and it was very easy for my car to get damaged beyond immediate repair. Luckily, we can break in and steal other cars if that happens, but by the time we get to it, the job could either fail or you could get run over by the other cars that will not stop, even if you’re in the middle of the road.

On top of that, just trying to attack others using the car's moveset was a chore. Each time I tried to use moves like side ramming, my car would go in the opposite direction of where the enemy car was, no matter what direction I looked. The only way I was actually able to complete those missions was by regularly using my nitrous boost and slamming them with the front of my car, which felt like it defeated the purpose of having these moves to begin with.

And trying to get away from the cops or gangs, while we are wanted, was equally frustrating. It felt like it would take too long to get them off my back, and every time I was very close, they would come out of nowhere to start the timer all over again. Paired with the icy handling, it was just difficult overall.

This is all wrapped together by a semi-roguelike system where we will level up, get perks, and grow stronger as we consistently have to make a specific amount of money each day. This system disappointed me a little bit as well, as I was expecting a little bit more customizability when it comes to how we focus on our stats. Instead, when we level up, we level up one of four stats, which gives us static perks each time we do. This means we may have to go through and get some perks. We don’t necessarily care for, like taking significantly less damage while holding $0, just to get to perks that are much more appealing.

Upgrading these four trees also increases different stats, whether it’s health, power, or adrenaline. This does help us in the long run, but it also forces us to upgrade different trees, specifically to get the stats up that we want, and I just wish the system were more freeform. There are collectibles that we can find that will give us experience and give us some extras, like more action points to do more jobs before the day ends, or extra nitrous boost for cars, and there are some side-quest-ish stories we can find around the world. They are nice bonuses to have to complement the otherwise frustrating gameplay.

The structure of the gameplay reminds me of a roguelike. Each day, we have a specific amount of ability points, or AP. We will use this AP to take on different jobs, accumulating money and experience. We have to make a certain amount of money each day to pay off our debts, and if we die during the game, we lose all the money we have. So, every day we take on multiple jobs, get experience for permanent upgrades, and if we die, we basically have to start over from zero.

I don’t mind the structure as much, but the way we get stronger just doesn’t feel impactful enough. While we have our upgrade trees and perks, we also get a little buff throughout the three tiers of each day. I called this little because I almost never felt the impact of them. Recover a little health after each enemy dies? I have a perk for that. Get a little defense boost so I can survive a little longer? Try going up against five enemies at once. Can my car cause more damage to other cars in jobs? Let’s see if I can land any of the attacks my car has. It’s a nice thought, but it almost feels negligible when actually playing.

However, we do have a gorgeous world to explore. There’s something about Tyndalston that’s just stunning. The gritty world, the reflections in the water, it all looks cinematic in a way. It reminds me a lot of how I felt about driving around Los Santos in GTA 5 for the first time. It was nice to just explore and take in the sights, and I felt the same thing here.

And as for the story, it’s an interesting take, but it was never a motivation to keep playing. We go back to our hometown of Tyndalston after a job in St. Louis landed us in jail. Now, we have to do jobs across the town to pay off our debts each day and bring our sister home. There are some little story bits throughout, but this is the overarching plot of Samson.

SAMSON - Steam Deck Performance

While I was hoping Samson would be playable on the Steam Deck with some compromises and downgrades, I can’t say it is. The game is rough on the Deck, almost never getting to 30 FPS on the lowest possible settings. Walking around was manageable, but trying to drive or fight was a nightmare. Even still, if I pushed myself hard enough through the consistent drops and stutters, I could still play. It just isn't enjoyable.

And turning on in-game frame generation only made things worse. It would still stay below 30 FPS, with some times going to 35 FPS, but the amount of stuttering and input lag was insane. The ghosting of models when driving or running around was clear as day. It arguably only made everything worse.

However, I will admit that using lossless scaling frame generation was a step up. At 2X, it feels significantly smoother and almost makes the game playable in my eyes. But the input lag was still noticeable, and there were still times when the game would stutter badly when driving. So while it does seem to improve framerate smoothness, the cost is still going to make it hard to play the game on the Deck, especially when model pop-in is an issue, and cars can appear out of nowhere.

結論

Samson is the game I really wanted to enjoy, but all of the bugs and awkward controls led to too many frustrating moments. When the combat works, it can be fun, but it’s rare for this to happen, whether it be walking around or in a car. The world itself is gorgeous, and I can sense an interesting story here, but it was hard to find myself excited to keep playing, and find out when it was so frustrating to just complete one job.

I would also say this is not a game to enjoy on the Steam Deck. Lossless scaling makes it a little bit more bearable, but the core issues that it has still remain and can’t be fixed with frame generation.

このレビューはPC版に基づいています。

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