Developed by Savage Level and published by Microids, Flint: Treasure of Oblivion is a comic book-style pirate adventure game with a bit of a feel of Baldur’s Gate 3 about it. Proclaiming to use the power of the unreal engine 5 it’s time to gather your hearties and set out to find a mysterious treasure.
You step into the role of Captain James Flint, a pirate with ambition to be famous and an eye for treasure. He and first mate Billy Bones have to tackle some difficult situations and gather a crew to help fulfil Captain Flint’s desire for a great treasure. But there are some twists and turns which are very unexpected.

It visually impresses with its appealing environments, from lush jungles to intricate underground caves. Although there is a mix of urban and green areas some of the maps feel a bit direct. They look impressive but each small path leads to either a dead end, an obstruction or people blocking the way which leaves you with only one correct path to follow. Many areas also include hidden items or specific actions. These actions come in the form of platform jumps or climbs or specific challenges in which a dice roll value needs to be equalled or exceeded to proceed.
Although there is no voice acting and most of the dialogue is spoken through speech boxes – comic style – it does a good job of setting the scene and developing the characters. When the cutscenes happen and the story elements kick in you are treated to some drawn scenes with comic-style dialogue which is a nice change and forces you to use your imagination to what you think the characters sound like.

The gameplay is split between the exploration phase and the battle phase. In exploration, you get to navigate semi-linear areas to look for items lying around which will aid you in battle. There are also objectives to complete before the battle phase is initiated and these can be to find certain items or extra crew members. There is no real guidance on where to find these things so exploration is the only way to progress. There are also partially hidden action moments like a platforming jump or a section to climb up on in which you have to stand on or near the right point to trigger. This does break things up from the battles and some of the objectives are optional although it seems silly to not try and complete them whilst you are exploring.

The battle phase is where all the focus and details of the game are placed. But for me, it feels very DnD heavy like Baldur’s Gate 3 which has a variety of dice rolls to complete actions. But the complexity is very much visible whereas Baldur’s Gate 3 simplified things as best as they could. The UI in the battle phases are also a bit clumsy and could have been made clearer with a bit more refinement. It is important to set up consumables or weapons beforehand but it is not simple to know what weapon benefits each person and who would get the most out of each consumable. Switching between each of your characters isn’t straightforward and you have to press a button to switch between attack and movement. When you do complete an action like an attack it says you have to roll over a certain number to make the attack hit. I may have misread the instructions but I don’t fully understand some of the dice rolls as some of the symbols mean my attack lands and another one meant my weapon broke. Some characters also have certain abilities which are vital in some battles to gain the upper hand but it’s knowing how and when you get to use them. It does recommend you fully run through the instructions and tutorial to understand the mechanics but it’s very easy to get lost in the weeds of information. When I came to sharing the loot which is how you update your crew, I was even more lost. It could just be my lack of comprehension but I think just too many elements were over complicated.
Thankfully you are not too punished if you do fail a battle as you can just retry it and prepare a little better. But that is the only replay value there is. The game is approximately 5-10 hours long depending on how much you wish to explore but unless you really want to try out different members of the crew, I am not sure you would look to play through a second time.
Conclusion
Flint: Treasure of Oblivion is an interesting turn-based pirate adventure, to say the least. The storyline is interesting even if it does go a bit supernatural. The comic book-style dialogue is wonderfully drawn and well-written. I know turn-based combat is hard to keep fresh and interesting but I think this game went a bit too complex with it. Maybe with a bit more on-screen hand it would make more sense but I found it too easy to get lost with the dice roll meanings and the upgrade configuration.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.