Samson Reviews
Samson: A Tyndalson Story is a broken, boring, charmless mess of a game that needed either more time in the oven or a stronger vision.
It's truly difficult to find any merits in Samson, given the roughly 20 hours it takes to complete it in its entirety (beyond the 8 hours of main missions, that is).
Review in Italian | Read full review
Samson: A Tyndalston Story has a good idea behind it, but at present, it doesn't flow together with the gameplay. Combined with a story that only makes the vaguest of sense, I struggled to enjoy myself outside of breaking noses and forcing drivers off the road. There's something here, but more digging will be necessary to uncover it.
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SAMSON is an exciting and unique take on its genre, standing out from Grand Theft Auto or Saints Row and delivering a gritty experience inspired by crime-action dramas. While fun to play, some systems could have been handled better, small bugs and performance issues are present, and I found myself wanting more story baked into the side-mission content, where small dialogue or contextual additions or extra environmental storytelling could have gone a long way. However, at the incredibly generous asking price, SAMSON overdelivers, providing a Triple-A experience for a fraction of the cost.
Samson tells the story of a down-on-his-luck man burdened with debt, whose sister has been taken hostage. It aims to be an open-world action-driving noir, but the world is too small, the action feels clumsy, the driving is awkward—leaving only the noir behind.
Review in Korean | Read full review
This title’s biggest strengths are probably the city’s atmosphere and the interesting day-management system. But, to be fair overall, Samson didn’t turn out very well. The combat, which constitutes the main core of gameplay, is undermined by repetitive animations and really strange enemy behaviour. Driving may actually be fun… if, of course, you are actually able to find any car nearby. A lot of technical issues drag the game down. It was simply released far too early. If the reviews haven’t discouraged you and you still want to try Samson out, at least wait for some patches. At the moment, it’s not really worth your time.
Samson reminds me of the days when games didn’t need a hundred map icons to be worth playing. It’s a punchy AA brawler that swaps out massive maps for a focused story about paying back a gang before your sister pays the price. The bugs are a headache right now, but the heavy-hitting action and the vibe of Tyndalston kept me interested. It’s an honest, short-distance run for anyone tired of bloated blockbusters.
Samson is ultimately a janky but endearing experience, with the foundation of something genuinely compelling. Beneath the rough edges lies a strong core and a likeable cast, but the lack of polish and unreliable combat hold it back at every turn. It’s easy to see what the developers were going for, but in its current state, it’s hard to fully recommend.
Samson is an awful game packed with poor gameplay at every avenue. There is almost no fun to be had here unless you just want to gawk at how miserable everything is. It’s honestly impressive to me just how badly nearly every aspect of this game was flubbed, and I deeply regret the time I spent with it. If you enjoy absolute trainwrecks, you may get some laughs out of it, but anyone with any standard for game quality will want to steer very clear of it. Hopefully, your steering is more functional than the game’s.
Samson has a solid foundation and several interesting ideas, but an uninspiring combat system and several glitches quickly drag this adventure down.
At $24.99 (which is a great price to be fair), it's a solid deal if you're desperate for something GTA-lite. Just go in knowing that Samson never fully delivers on its own potential, and given how promising that potential is, that's the most frustrating thing about it.
Samson: A Tyndalston Story harkens back to the late-'90s and early-'00s in terms of atmosphere and story beats. Which is great, aside from feeling a little overly grimdark. I just wish it played a little more like something from 2026.
Samson: A Tyndalston Story fails to make the most of its setup. A mix of poor combat and repetition pulls down what could have been an interesting tale of redemption and revenge.