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You see, Samson is a deeply flawed game \u2013 not so much rough around the edges, but rather rocky to its core. It is glitchy and repetitive and janky\u2026 so much so that I don\u2019t know if the engine turn-off trick is a genuine feature that\u2019s a little bit broken or simply a bug in the police\u2019s AI routines. Liquid Swords\u2019 founder and creative director, Christofer Sundberg, has admitted that Samson was released in a \u201cflawed\u201d state, and that the most game-breaking problems are \u201cunacceptable\u201d. And while I\u2019m not here to champion games being released to the paying public in a broken state, I can\u2019t deny that in this specific circumstance, a bug \u2013 if indeed it is a bug \u2013 created a remarkable moment that made me pleased this awkward urban open world made it to the finish line (which it very nearly didn\u2019t). <\/p>\n
Not everything that\u2019s interesting about Samson is rooted in what may or may not be technical difficulties, though. After ditching his Impala in a parking garage, Drive\u2019s protagonist gets back behind the wheel of his own car for the rest of the film: a 1973 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu so gorgeous that Gosling now keeps it as part of his own personal collection. Its sleek lines and primer grey bodywork are as much a part of Gosling\u2019s character as his scorpion jacket. Liquid Swords has taken a similar approach with Samson, who drives a stocky, roaring \u201870s muscle car that conveys McCray\u2019s blunt criminal persona. Its heavy body, aftermarket roll cage, and nitrous oxide system make it the very best choice for chases, escapes, and high-speed takedowns \u2013 crime movie staples that form the vast majority of the work that Samson finds himself caught up in. If you need further convincing of its getaway credentials, the control scheme features a dedicated downshift button, immediately dropping the car into a lower gear to redline the revs and gain that sudden boost of torque that\u2019s mandatory in any cinematic chase sequence. <\/p>\n
While Samson is undeniably influenced by GTA and other old-school urban crime hits like Driver, it plays very differently. As my colleague Jim Trinca has already pointed out, Samson uses a modified roguelite approach \u2013 each day you\u2019re allocated six action points to spend on unlocking various jobs, and when you\u2019ve spent all six, you head back to bed and wake up to a brand new day and a new batch of action points. Every time you exit your apartment to take on the new day, your car is waiting for you. Such a set-up means you\u2019re naturally driving Samson\u2019s personal vehicle by default. It makes it your<\/em> car. Just like Gosling had his Chevy in Drive. Like Steve McQueen had his Mustang in Bullitt. Like Mel Gibson had his Falcon GT Coupe in Mad Max. <\/p>\n That last one\u2019s perhaps more important to Samson than you may initially realise. Among Liquid Swords\u2019 team members are several staff who worked on Avalanche\u2019s Mad Max game, including the aforementioned Sundberg, plus designer Alex Williams and programmer Josef Sundberg. In terms of games that truly forge a bond between you and your car, few are better than Mad Max, and so it\u2019s perhaps only natural that Samson is able to give you a genuine sense of ownership over your trusty getaway machine. <\/p>\n But car ownership is about more than just pride. It\u2019s also about responsibility and financial risk. And that\u2019s surprisingly central to your day-to-day existence in the city of Tyndalston. Damaging your car runs up eye-watering repair bills \u2013 it\u2019s just over a grand for a complete fix, which is quite the squeeze when you\u2019re being rinsed $3,000 every single day by rival criminals who have taken your sister hostage, and jobs often only net you just enough to cover those daily repayments. Failing a mission can wipe out any profit you were set to earn, and landing in the hospital cleans out your entire wallet. Visiting the garage for repairs, then, is not just a steep investment, but a risky one \u2013 is the mechanic\u2019s fee better put towards clearing your debt? It’s a question you\u2019ll find yourself asking over and over, considering your line of work involves almost constant reckless driving and purposely ramming into other cars. There\u2019s always a busted axle or cracked manifold to patch up. And if it\u2019s not that, it\u2019s refilling tyres or refuelling the boost-enabling nitrous oxide. Crime ain\u2019t cheap. <\/p>\n It\u2019s here where any regular GTA clone would say: Why bother? What\u2019s the point in maintaining a personal vehicle when you can just pull any random driver out of their car and steal their wheels? But Samson\u2019s no regular GTA clone. For starters, you can\u2019t hijack moving traffic, only cars that have been parked and are unoccupied \u2013 almost certainly an unfortunate outcome of the game\u2019s troubled development. That means having to sprint around the block in search of stationary vehicles, which does put a minor dent in the game\u2019s pacing. And when you do find something to steal, the vehicle variety is miniscule and, quite frankly, boring \u2013 an endless fleet of budget sedans occasionally punctuated by the odd minivan and knock-off BMW. Samson\u2019s own ride is the only car in the entire game that has any personality. Furthermore, it\u2019s the only thing that\u2019s truly suited to the job; the majority of the city\u2019s motors are sluggish tin foil boxes that just can\u2019t do crime as well as your tank-like piece of \u201870s metal muscle. And so you simply have to find a way to foot the bill.<\/p>\n This weird approach to open world traffic manufactures an unusual bond between you and the car. After a few in-game days, I began to take corners more carefully. I was more cautious on the accelerator. I judged my ramming attacks with more precision, always aiming for the wheels to maximise my impact and minimise damage taken. I took care of the car, and in exchange, the car took care of me. Its NOS canisters, upgraded thanks to smashing up hundreds of local voting advertisements (yeah, this is definitely a PS3\/360-era style video game), would propel me to victory in any chase. Its rollcage would brush off the worst dents. Its colossal, wide front end would shunt rival drivers into oncoming traffic. There was really no other option. This was my 1973 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu. And while it really had no chance of making me feel as cool as Ryan Gosling in Drive, for a few hours, I got a fraction closer.<\/p>\n Matt Purslow is IGN’s Executive Editor of Features. <\/em><\/p>\n
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