Samson Review – A Janky but Endearing Adventure

I have a soft spot for GTA clones, especially at a time when most open-world games are sprawling, hundred-hour adventures packed with endless content and places to explore. That is fine, but GTA clones offered a nice middle ground where you could enjoy a focused story with a set of missions, and the open world served more as a backdrop than the main appeal. Samson is one of those games, something you can finish in a weekend without much reason to return.

Here are my thoughts on Samson and why I still managed to enjoy an otherwise undercooked, janky experience that clearly needed more time to fully realize its vision.

Heart’s in the Right Place

Samson’s immediate narrative hook of paying back a debt after a job goes wrong is believable, doesn’t take long to establish, and provides consistent stakes. It’s a simple crime story with plenty of fun twists and turns, not too dissimilar to a watchable crime drama that isn’t overly complex or profound in its writing. It doesn’t try too hard, which works in its favor, and Samson is a likeable character, especially because of his relationship with his sister Oonagh, who volunteers to serve as collateral for the bosses he has to pay back.

On paper, Samson has a lot of great ideas for a condensed open world. You need to pay back a set amount every day, gradually chipping away at the total by choosing between different jobs using action points. Higher-paying jobs are riskier and often take more points, so finding the right balance becomes key.

Once the day ends, you pay back what you can and start fresh. You can also take on main missions alongside these daily activities, and structurally, it’s an approachable system that offers consistent variety thanks to a wide range of jobs. It almost feels like the developers pulled from every mission type seen in other GTA clones to create a crime simulation buffet.

That all sounds great, but in execution, nearly every aspect of Samson feels rough and underdeveloped. Combat in particular, and I hate to say it, is abysmal. Enemies flail around the screen and struggle to stay in place, sometimes teleporting between positions. Attacks seem to come out of nowhere, and you will occasionally perform finishers on thin air because animations fail to trigger properly. Some enemies simply stand idle and do nothing. While hits carry some weight, they never feel satisfying because enemy reactions are so inconsistent. It’s an unreliable system that should have seen far more refinement before release.

Beyond combat, the technical issues don’t help either. NPCs sometimes moonwalk to their destinations, car collisions can leave interiors floating midair, and when you break into a vehicle, shattered glass often remains suspended in place. These are the kinds of bugs that can usually be patched over time, but in its current state, Samson feels undeniably unfinished. Performance on PC is also disappointing, with frequent stuttering and random frame rate drops, especially during time-of-day transitions. At times, it almost feels like the game expects you to rely on frame generation.

When, through some miracle, everything works as intended, there is genuine fun to be found in these daily crimes. There’s a constant risk and reward dynamic, since retrying a failed job costs action points. The job selection loop kept me engaged, even as the bugs and weak combat system repeatedly got in the way.

Driving, on the other hand, is surprisingly enjoyable and noticeably more polished than most other aspects. Vehicles can take significant damage during chases and takedowns, which means you will need to earn enough to repair them or settle for a random car that usually performs worse. Tyndalston is gritty and beautifully rendered, with a strong sense of atmosphere that makes it feel lived in rather than empty. There’s a nice amount of visual variety across its environments, and the attention to detail helps each area feel distinct. Even when other systems fall short, the world remains one of the game’s more consistent strengths, serving as a convincing backdrop for its crime-driven structure.

I can usually laugh off bugs and enjoy the chaos they bring, but here, a core system like combat is so unreliable that it actively pulls you out of the experience. I found myself deliberately avoiding jobs that involved direct combat, which says a lot about its current state. At least the game doesn’t include guns, which likely would have made things even messier.

Verdict

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.