Only 31% of critics recommend it
Samson: A Tyndalston Story has a 54 Top Critic Average on OpenCritic, and only 31% of critics recommend it. This is a review roundup of published critic and user scores. GearChamber hasn’t played Samson, and the 54 at the top of this page is OpenCritic’s average, not our own score.
Scores
| Outlet | Score | Takeaway |
|---|---|---|
| GameRant (Nick Rodriguez) | 3/10 | “A broken, boring, charmless mess” |
| IGN (Luke Reilly) | 4/10 | “Impossible to recommend in its current state” |
| Everyeye.it | 5/10 | Hard to find merits across about 20 hours |
| Wccftech (David Carcasole) | 5.5/10 | Strong foundations, broken at launch |
| GamingTrend (David Burdette) | 65/100 | Good idea that doesn’t flow into the gameplay |
| OpenCritic aggregate | 54 | 31% of critics recommend |
Metacritic was lower still. TheGamer, syndicated on OpenCritic, reported a 48 that made Samson the third-lowest-scoring game of 2026 at the time, behind Code Violet (29) and Tokyo Scramble (40).
A good idea buried in bugs
Critics like the hook. Kotaku’s Zack Zwiezen describes Samson as a “Grand Theft Auto IV-esque roguelike” in which each morning you pick randomly generated jobs to pay off a $100,000 debt, and if you fail without enough AP to retry, you lose your money for the day. He calls it “a genuinely cool way to mix some roguelike elements into this GTA-like experience.”
Then the problems arrive. “The game’s biggest problem is its melee combat,” Kotaku writes. “There are no guns to be found. No grenades to throw. No sneaking missions and stealth kills.” He also found himself repeating “the same missions over and over” after a few hours.
Official Samson screenshot of a street fight. Melee is the only way to fight, and critics call it the game’s weakest part. Image: Liquid Swords, via Steam.
Samson may come stocked with an impressively detailed sandbox, but it’s totally impossible to recommend in its current state.
Luke Reilly, IGN
Wccftech‘s David Carcasole is the most sympathetic critic, seeing “the potential to one day be an incredibly strong double-A experience” at $25, “even in its broken state.” GameMAG says it “was clearly pushed to release in a raw state,” and GameBlast says it “feels like it should have been released in Early Access.”
Players are kinder, and later reviews more so
Steam user reviews sit at Mixed, with 1,995 positive and 1,593 negative when checked on October 15, 2026. Some later reviews, listed on OpenCritic, are warmer. Pure Dead Gaming gave it an 8 in September, calling it “a journey of redemption” in “how far the game has come since its PC launch.” Those late scores haven’t moved the launch consensus.
Wait. At $24.99 on Steam, the price isn’t the problem; the launch reviews are. Liquid Swords has published a roadmap, including console versions, so a re-review after the next major patch is the date to watch.
