Last year was money for titles that bucked the $60 to $70 pricing trend, but Liquid Swords’ Samson: A Tyndalston Story is aiming for even lower at $25. It promises an experience that “truly punches above its price,” and based on the latest development diary, which focuses on combat on foot and in vehicles, we’re inclined to agree.
As Samson, who’s returned to the city of Tyndalston indebted to some rough customers, players won’t be controlling a “soldier” or “martial arts master,” as principal programmer Strati Zerbinis describes him. Rather, he’s a tough guy who’s having to improvise more often than not when against the odds.
“You’re going to get ganged up on. They’re going to try to get behind you. They’re going to charge in on all sides. You’ve got to keep moving. Keep swinging, you know, maybe fight a little dirty. Fair fights are for chumps, right?”
It’s a fascinating proposition backed by the fact that the entire city is your weapon. “You can walk into a nice, clean room and totally wreck the place. The world is not just an arena in which you have a fight. The world is part of the fight.
“You can use everything you break. You can take broken things and make them into weapons. You can knock stuff over onto people. Debris can get in enemies’ way. Heavy stuff can fall and kill people. Like it’s crazy. We really want you to be able to use the city to really, really hurt your enemies.”
That approach carries over to vehicles as well, especially when you have to take out enemies that are speeding away. All it takes is a little nudge with Samson’s Magnum Opus (a nice little nod to Mad Max, which studio founder Christofer Sundberg previously worked on) and you can send another car careening into a pole.
“It’s the relative momentum of the two cars, like how fast the car is, how much mass they have, that dictates the damage done,” says senior design Alex Williams. Cars also have many different parts that can be damaged in the process.
“I don’t want to feel like a car just dies. Cars don’t die. They’re made up of lots of different parts. We have a parts system – there are tires, wheels, the engine – these can all degrade. The player will feel the consequences of how those parts are damaged.”
Of course, there are plenty of other uses for vehicles, like acting as a getaway vehicle during a heist or delivering items. Standard open-world activities, despite Samson not being a fully open world. Regardless, having that freedom and mixing things up on your terms, whether it’s with fisticuffs or behind the wheel, looks enticing.
Samson launches in early 2026 for PC, with console versions due later.
