Samson: A Tyndalston Story Review. What's Wrong with the "GTA Killer" from the Creators of Just Cause and Mad Max

Samson: A Tyndalston Story is a new game from the developers of Just Cause and Mad Max, which, for some inexplicable reason, the audience dubbed the next "GTA killer." In reality, though, this couldn't be further from the truth. First and foremost, this is a conceptual project whose idea sounded interesting on paper. However, the game was released in such a raw and unfinished state that all the efforts of the game designers went down the drain. Samson is not the worst game in the world, nor is it an outright scam like MindsEye, where hundreds of millions of dollars simply vanished. Rather, it's an unfinished slice or a beta version of a potentially decent project that Liquid Swords, for some unknown reason, decided to put on shelves, fully aware that it would receive negative reviews. In this review, we'll try to explain why Samson could have been a good game and why its creators are unlikely to fix it, even with the promised patches.

The plot of Samson begins with a failed robbery, after which the main character, Samson, ends up behind bars and local bigwigs want him dead. Samson's sister makes a deal with the mafia to get her brother out of prison, and in exchange for this "improvised" rescue, he now owes them $100,000. The problem is, Samson has never seen that kind of money, and now he'll have to work non-stop to pay off this sudden debt. On top of that, the gangsters have taken his sister hostage to ensure he works diligently and makes daily minimum payments.

In most games with a crime story, we encounter the classic trope where the protagonist slowly but surely rises from rock bottom to become a big shot. Samson, on the other hand, immediately tells you: you're at the bottom, and your goal for the rest of the playthrough is simply not to sink any lower. But let's not get ahead of ourselves with mounting debts, debt collectors, and goons breaking down doors and fingers — that's part of the gameplay itself. The story campaign is not really about that. And honestly, that's the most unexpected twist we didn't see coming from Samson, because paying off the debt simply ends with a phone call — no cutscenes, no stats screen detailing the hardships you went through to pay it off. If you're looking for a project with a well-developed open world, check out our list: The Best Open-World Games for Low-End PCs and Laptops in 2026.

The main story of Samson is a standard B-movie about gangsters. It starts with a sudden attack on a bar where Samson is hanging out with friends. After that, the protagonist starts looking for the attackers and then the people who hired them. In short, it's a classic revenge story. The first half of the campaign is downright boring, with tons of poorly written dialogue and short missions. However, by the second half, Samson unexpectedly turns into a social satire — with Russian cultists, a deep state, mockery of the poor, and outright brutality happening in the mansions of the rich.

Most players who decided to try Samson probably never made it to the second act, simply because the first one is too boring and generic. And we completely understand them, as we ourselves considered dropping the main story and focusing only on paying off the debt. The missions in the campaign are no different from the rest of the routine that falls on your shoulders. Plus, completing them consumes action points (which we'll discuss in the next section), and it's often more profitable to spend those points on another side job with a decent salary.

It's worth noting that we're not urging you to push through the story campaign just for the sake of a "hidden gem" in the second act. It's just obvious that the developers put more effort and care into this part of the story. Here you'll find unique locations, unusual situations, and even more or less scripted missions. But by industry standards, it's still too weak. And the main campaign, which is detached from the initial setup and core concept, kills any sense of involvement from the start.

Samson's gameplay structure revolves around constantly earning money and gradually paying off your debt. Every day, you wake up with a certain number of action points, which you need to spend on side gigs. The more difficult and better paid the job, the more points it costs. Action points are your main and most important resource, and you need to keep a close eye on them, because you can't complete all available missions on the map in one go, and you still need to earn enough for the daily minimum payment. Simply put, if you accidentally fail a mission that costs three or more points, odds are you'll be woken up not by your alarm clock the next morning, but by a debt collector's fist.

Additional complications in paying off the debt come from game mechanics that punish the player for any mistake or failure. If you fail a mission, you can replay it by spending another action point, but if you die by accident, fall into water, or get arrested by the police, all of Samson's savings are wiped out. Not just a portion, as in GTA and similar games, but absolutely everything. Just imagine: you save up extra money to cover the next day's payment and take on a story mission, only to die unexpectedly and realize you don't have enough action points left to make the daily payment.

As for what happens if you don't pay your debt, we mentioned it earlier. At first, goons will wait for you by your car and try to beat the money out of you. Then they'll break down your apartment door and hit you with heavy objects. After that, they'll start chasing you in cars, blocking your way, and doing everything possible to make you stop playing Samson like it's GTA and start working. Unfortunately, we didn't check what happens if you completely refuse to pay off the loan, but considering the mafia is holding the protagonist's sister hostage, we doubt it ends well. If you want to play something more similar to Rockstar games, we've prepared a list of the best mobile games like GTA for Android and iOS.

The core gameplay of Samson is more reminiscent of the Driver series than GTA-like projects. There's no huge city with complex systems or realistic world simulation. You're limited to a tiny, albeit meticulously detailed, district, which serves more as a backdrop for short missions. As for entertainment in the "mini-city" (besides your main job), there's only collecting items, removing political billboards, and sightseeing. By the way, you have to do these things, since these pseudo-activities affect your action points and the amount of nitrous in your car.

Yes, you can cause chaos like in GTA, and the local police will even chase you, blocking roads or sending helicopters after you depending on your crime level. But in 2026, in an indie project with basic functionality reminiscent of GTA 2, it’s unlikely anyone will want to do that. On top of that, only the cops have firearms, and you can’t do much against them with your bare hands. That’s exactly why the game feels more like Driver, where law enforcement was more of a fun chase element and an added challenge in missions.

Just like in Driver, cars in Samson aren’t just for fun — they’re money-making tools you need to maintain and take care of. And it’s genuinely nice that the protagonist gets a real American muscle car, which sounds awesome and really feels like the king of the road. It accelerates slowly and handles poorly in turns, but it gives you a sense of safety and raw power. Sure, you can steal any other parked foreign car (you can’t carjack moving vehicles by throwing out the driver), but none of the city cars can compare to your main ride. If you want to drive different cars and not be limited to just one Mustang, be sure to check out our list of the best racing games for low-end PCs and laptops in 2026.

The driving system itself is pure Driv3r, with satisfying physics and detailed car deformation. At first, handling the cars is unusual and even difficult, but after a couple of hours you get used to their quirks. The problem is, the car missions are a collection of the most clichéd game design tropes in the industry. All those cool chase scenes with explosions and ramming that the developers showed in trailers turn out to be the dullest, most repetitive missions, where you just have to hit enemy cars as they follow the same route over and over. Plus, enemy vehicles don’t take damage from collisions they cause themselves, and sometimes when you try to ram them, your car takes massive damage while the enemy doesn’t even lose a bit of paint. Worst of all, you’ll have to repair your own Ford Mustang with the money you earned from completing these “tedious” missions.

Repairing your car in a game where money is always in short supply is a real headache. You have to drive carefully and avoid unnecessary accidents. In missions where you have to ram enemy vehicles, we constantly wrecked our Mustang before completing all objectives, so with shaking hands we’d look for any parked car just to finish the quest and not fail. Sometimes, we even had to steal five or six cars, since only your Mustang can withstand any real collision damage.

Other car missions aren’t any more original: timed street races, car theft and delivery, and courier jobs. Occasionally, there were some interesting missions — like a recreation of the opening scene from the movie “Drive,” where you have to deliver a couple of people to safety after a jewelry store robbery. But such missions are rare, which is a major downside for a project where completing missions is the main goal.

The racing segment makes up about 50% of all Samson’s gameplay. The rest is a beat 'em up in the spirit of Sifu, but clumsy, raw, and unfinished. On paper, fights were supposed to represent realistic street brawls using bottles, stones, and the environment, but in practice, it’s just mashing attack buttons with the occasional dodge.

The player has access to several types of strikes, parries, grabs, finishers, and the ability to use melee weapons, which you can throw at an enemy’s head for extra impact. It’s a decent arsenal for a beat 'em up, but actually using it is extremely difficult due to the rough combat system. Animations are jerky, timing doesn’t work properly, enemies get stuck in the environment, controls are unresponsive, and hit impact is inconsistent — in short, it feels unfinished even by beta standards.

Despite all its clunkiness, Samson’s combat system has potential that could be realized through patches and improvements. In the first few hours, we were frustrated with the fighting and couldn’t understand how to play such a janky game, but after getting the hang of it and giving up on parries and grabs, we managed to catch the vibe the developers were aiming for. In an ideal scenario, you burst into a crowd, land crushing blows, grab a nearby stone and throw it at an enemy, run up and finish him off with a special animation, then grab another foe and toss him into a drinks fridge... In every encounter, you can play out different combat scenarios if you want, but you have to do it yourself, since the game itself doesn’t really encourage stylish fighting.

For completing missions and collecting items, you earn experience points, which can be used to upgrade your character. You can unlock perks like keeping some of your money after failing, or dealing more damage with vehicles. Overall, progression in Samson is useful and significantly simplifies the gameplay, letting you complete harder missions without risking everything if you fail. At the start of each day, you also get a special perk that gives a random bonus for part of the day. For example, you might get an extra percentage of reward for car-based missions.

In short, Samson is just a game about fighting and driving that has nothing in common with GTA or similar projects. It’s a highly niche project with a clear idea and interesting concept, but it’s poorly executed due to a limited budget and a tiny development team. You could endlessly criticize it for bad animations, bugs, optimization issues, and lack of content, but the core concept isn’t bad. We’re unlikely to see a new Driver from Ubisoft, so this is at least some kind of alternative to the cult series. At the very least, we saw potential in Samson and would like Liquid Swords to bring the game to a playable state.

Samson is built on Unreal Engine 5 and actually looks quite good, especially by indie standards. The city is detailed and memorable. Because the developers didn’t try to make it huge and stuck to a small map, they had enough time to fill it out properly. Every street, house, and filthy backyard is handcrafted. It’s genuinely enjoyable just to drive around and check out the sights. Plus, this isn’t just another generic, prosperous town like you see in so many open-world games, but a real American dump—the kind directors in the ‘80s loved to show in their films. Graffiti, trash, abandoned boiler rooms, spit-covered entrances, broken basketball courts — literally every stereotype of a rough city, like Detroit from RoboCop. Of course, Samson won't make it onto the list of the most beautiful games of the year, but it looks no worse than the projects featured in our Top 10 Most Beautiful New Releases That Impress With Their Realism.

The main character’s model is done pretty well, but the same can’t be said for other story characters. Textures and detail are on the level of GTA 4, if not worse. Pedestrians repeat way too often, and the local car fleet consists of maybe a dozen vehicles, if not fewer. When it comes to asset variety, Samson is really lacking. It’s clear the budget went into decorating the city, not filling it with content.

Animations in Samson aren’t the worst by indie standards. Cars deform realistically and handle decently on the road. Combat scenes also have a nice variety of animations, but due to poor technical foundations and lack of polish, all the animators’ efforts were in vain. The developers need to finish the dynamic animation system so the fights stop being so jerky.

The soundtrack in Samson is just as uneven as the game itself. There are tracks that work great for the atmosphere and set the tone for missions. But there are also some outright weak tracks that don’t fit either the fights or the races.

The technical side is where Samson has the most problems, and these are the main reasons for its poor ratings and reviews. The game is simply unfinished. Something like this just shouldn’t be released. It lags terribly on any settings. Stuttering and hitching happen on all possible configurations. The only way to get acceptable FPS is with frame generation enabled. In all other cases, the game will always lag, no matter what hardware you have. Playing with this kind of performance is just uncomfortable.

Samson is full of bugs. Listing even most of what we encountered would take two or even three huge paragraphs. The game has the full bouquet of possible errors: jerky animations, falling through the map, T-poses, completely broken collision, non-working quests, buggy scripts — in short, everything that can ruin the gameplay.

Samson: A Tyndalston Story is an unfinished, raw concept that tells the player in plain terms what financial debt is and why you should avoid it in real life. The game is most similar to the Driver series, where you spend most of your time doing missions behind the wheel of your trusty Mustang, and only occasionally get out to beat up another bandit who decided to rob a pharmacy. It’s not the worst game in the world, as some claim, and it’s definitely not another GTA clone. It’s just a project that wasn’t brought to completion, and will probably disappear from the news cycle quickly. Which is a shame — there aren’t enough games that teach financial literacy and poke fun at the consumer generation. We hope Liquid Swords releases all the promised patches, brings the project to a playable state, and reveals its true potential.