Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Let Samson From the Just Cause Creator Slip Under Your Radar
It looks like the tormented old brawlers out to settle a score in 1990s action movie fashion are making a comeback. At The Game Awards 2025, we were introduced to No Law, with a Don Frye-looking protagonist, and now we have Samson: A Tyndalston Story, another rough and violent urban tale.
If you were lucky enough to be around when Don LaFontaine was still doing his iconic movie trailer voice for pretty much everything out there, then simply imagine him describing Samson something like this: “In the city that never forgives, he owed too much money to the wrong people.
They tried to settle the score and kidnapped his sister. With every passing hour, his debt grows larger. But they messed with the wrong person. Now, he’s a man on a mission. To drive, ram, drift, smash, and outrun everyone on his tail to bring his family home safe.
Time is running out. Every. Second. Counts. From the legendary creator of Just Cause. Play as Samson. A fight-first, ask-questions-never seasoned enforcer with nothing to gain and everything to lose. Fists and metal will clash soon, on a PC near you.”
Photo: Liquid Swords
All kidding aside, Samson really looks like a great, fun time, perfect to tide us over if GTA VI gets delayed for a third time, which wouldn’t be out of the question if you’ve heard the latest chatter on the subject.
So what should we expect from the game? Well, first of all, game designer Alex Williams, who is in charge of the driving experience, said Samson takes inspiration from hit movies like Ronin and Heat, two spectacular films and timeless gems that action fans should not miss.
He even mentioned Die Hard’s John McClane as another great reference. Then we learned that some of the developers are veterans who worked on the excellent Mad Max 2015 game and handled the car combat gameplay mechanics.
We’re not only expecting exciting car chases, but a full-on weaponized driving combat system involving ramming, drifting, smashing, and even outsmarting the people who are after you.
Photo: Liquid Swords
The town of Tyndalston offers an open-world district experience where you will encounter bad guys, factions, and all sorts of shady characters. You will be scouring alleys, rooftops, and other urban locations. The 25+ upgrades from the game’s skill tree at your disposal will help you adapt to a violent environment and fight back.
The centerpiece of it all stems from driving, and not all vehicles feel the same. You will get to drive various classes, from typical civilian cars to modified racing variants, highly tuned rallycross versions, and even bigger rides with heavy-duty engines. Vans are also in Samson, and while they’re slower, they do pack more of a punch when you ram into whoever is chasing you.
The developers say they put a lot of work into the driving DNA, which should make the player feel great while pushing cars past their limits. Countersteering is a good example of their custom handling mechanics, meant to offer more control and finesse when needed.
Similar to Carmageddon: Rogue Shift, vehicle mass is also an important aspect of driving. The vehicles are made from different parts, and each one can break down individually. For example, tires can blow out, and wheels can be damaged, severely messing with your grip and steering.
Photo: Liquid Swords
Not to mention that if a wheel decides to “divorce” your car, you’d better hope you’ve put on your seat belt, as rolling physics have quite a kick. Fortunately, this goes both ways, as you will try your best to destroy your opponents by smashing into their cars as if they owed you money, and not the other way around.
Aside from the bad guys, you should also be on the lookout for the Tyndalston Police Department, as they do not mess around either. The police are meant to act as a reaction mechanic to your shenanigans. So the more havoc and mayhem you wreak, the more often you’ll hear and see the blue and red sirens.
You’re certainly familiar with police interference involving roadblocks, pursuit vehicles, and helicopters. Apparently, there will be plenty of those in the game. Overall, Samson: A Tyndalston Story sure sounds like a great, gritty experience from what the developers are telling us so far.
All of this came to be back in 2020, when Christofer Sundberg, former Avalanche Studios co-founder and manager for over 10 years, left his Just Cause days behind to found his newest venture, Liquid Swords, a company aiming for “zero-nonsense video game development.”
Photo: Liquid Swords
After seeing what it means for a company to grow too large and too full of noise, he wanted to make something smaller. “Our kitchen is deliberately small to ensure that we have just the right amount of cooks, and the best ones,” says the official Liquid Swords website. Another key description is, “We’ve gotten rid of crunch, useless meetings, and unnecessary stakeholders. Basically, all the nonsense.”
If things go as intended while upholding those kinds of standards, the Samson development methodology should be a sight to behold, and the game should come out as a focused, well-polished experience.
The kicker is that the Steam FAQ page says the game is aiming for an early 2026 release date, its main story will last about 10 hours, and it will cost just $24.99.
Not to draw comparisons, but MindsEye, from famous ex-Rockstar Games producer Leslie Benzies, was also supposed to be a genre-defying adventure. As it turned out, it was unfortunately far from that and launched in a very messy state, which led to a flop. Let’s hope the Liquid Swords developers have a much more fortunate outcome and that Samson does not suffer the same fate as MindsEye.
Jews are worried about Zohran Mamdani. Here’s why they shouldn’t be
Mamdani is ready to handle the challenges of the city — and build lasting partnerships with its Jewish community
- Copy to clipboard
- Share on Facebook
- Share on X
- Share on Bluesky
- Share on Reddit
- Share on Email
- Print Article
- Republish Articl
- Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate to be New York City’s mayor, participates in a debate on Oct. 22. Photo by Hiroko Masuike/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
By Victor KovnerOctober 23, 2025
As New York City’s mayoral election moves ahead, there appear to be three major issues that trouble many of my friends within the Jewish community about Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate and frontrunner.
Will Mamdani take pains to appropriately protect the city’s Jewish community during this period of heightened antisemitism, they ask? Should his views on the Middle East disqualify him from the support of Jewish voters? And is he sufficiently experienced to serve as mayor of the largest and most complex city in the nation?
As a one-time city official deeply involved in the city’s Jewish community, I think each of those questions is valid — and each easily answerable, in Mamdani’s favor.
FREE MORNING NEWSLETTER
Sign up for Forwarding the News
Get the Forward’s essential morning briefing bringing you trusted, nonpartisan news and analysis, curated by Senior Writer Benyamin Cohen.Email
By submitting, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.
Concerns about antisemitism
There are understandable fears within the Jewish community about our safety at a time of rising antisemitism. To that, I say: It’s hard to imagine a stronger program of protection against hate than that which Mamdani has outlined.
Related
Mamdani has proposed a 800% increase for funding hate crime prevention — a comprehensive investment that should reassure those of us who are most alarmed. Antisemitism “is a real crisis that we have to tackle, and one that I’m committed to doing so through increased funding for actually preventing hate crimes across the city,” Mamdani told NPR this summer, adding “my commitment is to protect Jewish New Yorkers and that I will live up to that commitment through my actions.”
Compare that to the plans put forward by Mamdani’s opponents, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo — who is running as an independent, after Mamdani defeated him in the Democratic primary — and Curtis Sliwa, a Republican. Cuomo has promised to prioritize fighting antisemitism, but has focused on forms of antisemitism more associated with the political left, in a fashion that leaves open the question of whether he’s prepared to address the often-more-violent threats of right-wing antisemitism. And Sliwa, who has a record of offensive statements about Jews, appears to be less interested in having the city directly involved in Jewish safety. “I, unlike any of the candidates, have said Jews must protect themselves,” he said in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “If you depend strictly on gentiles, history is replete with instances where you’re going to be horribly disappointed.”
Notably, Mamdani’s proposals appear to be resonating with Jewish voters: Despite concerns about his positions when it comes to the Middle East, a new poll suggests his support among Jewish New Yorkers is effectively equivalent to Cuomo’s.
The Middle East
Jewish New Yorkers are not single-issue voters living in fear. We are looking for a mayor who can build a coalition to improve our already great city.
As for the Middle East, it is true that Mamdani has been harshly critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government. What’s also true: Most American Jews agree with him. According to a recent Washington Post poll, a majority of American Jews believe Netanyahu’s government has overseen war crimes in Gaza, and almost 40% believe Israel has committed genocide.
In that context, Mamdani seems like a candidate much more aligned with Jewish perspectives on Israel than Cuomo, who joined one of Netanyahu’s legal defense teams pro bono. In the weeks leading up to the current ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, Cuomo expressed some concern about the shocking events in Gaza — but continued to broadly align himself with Netanyahu’s talking points. While his position might be reassuring to the majority of American Jews who feel a close attachment to Israel, it doesn’t suggest that he’s ready or able to handle the nuances of today’s changing environment — and changing Jewish perspectives.
I am a founding member of J Street, a Zionist, pro-peace organization that supports a two-state solution and opposes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. I differ with some of Mamdani’s views about the future for Israelis and Palestinians, including his failure to vocally support a two-state solution.
But one doesn’t have to agree with all of his views about the Middle East to conclude that he is the best candidate for mayor. As Mamdani himself said in a recent appearance, “We’re not looking for a litmus test that we feel the same way we do on every single issue, and that includes Israel and Palestine.”
“There may be a Jewish New Yorker who will not see themselves in me because of a disagreement we have on that question,” he added, “but I want to make sure they still see themselves in the city.”
The issue of experience
I served as corporation counsel, the city’s chief legal officer, under former Mayor David N. Dinkins, which means I have some experience with the challenges facing any new administration. Upon taking office, I found that with the assistance of experienced managers in the city’s civil service, I could bring myself up to date quickly. That leads me to believe that if Mamdani is elected as mayor, he will find that, with the right help, learning the ins and outs of the city’s many agencies will be strenuous but doable.
Mamdani has been taking significant steps toward crafting a transition team that should comfort any New Yorkers concerned about his youth and relative inexperience. (It’s worth remembering that Mamdani is already well acquainted with how complicated it can be to work within a government, with his six years’ experience as a New York Assemblyman from Queens.) According to public reports, the transition efforts have already included meetings with plenty of experienced public servants, including Dan Doctoroff, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s former deputy mayor for economic development; Janette Sadik-Kahn, Bloomberg’s former commissioner of transportation; and Alicia Glen, who served as deputy mayor for housing and economic development under former Mayor Bill De Blasio. Doctoroff, for example, has been quoted saying, “I will help him in any way possible.”
What this shows me: Mamdani knows he’s going to need a crack team to be a successful mayor. True leadership isn’t about being personally able to take on every challenge; it’s about knowing how to assemble and run a team that has that ability.
Notably, Bloomberg — to my view the most successful mayor we have had in this century — had no governmental experience and little familiarity with the complexity of the city’s public administration before taking office.
Yet through the selection of an outstanding group of municipal leaders and public servants, he was able to assemble a first-rate administration. He led the city’s amazing and effective efforts to recover quickly from 9/11, in part by attracting outstanding and often non-political experts to serve as senior members of his administration.
In contrast, De Blasio, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and current Mayor Eric Adams each came into the role with many years of governmental experience. Yet the record of each was, shall we say, unsuccessful. The Adams administration is known for serious allegations of corruption at the highest levels. The De Blasio administration, after a promising start, deteriorated, as the mayor was too often distracted by other political ambitions, and proved prone to confusion and dispiriting inefficiency. The Giuliani administration was marred by racial insensitivity and defense of unacceptable police misconduct.
Why should we have less hope for Mamdani than we did for Bloomberg? And why should we expect that, in light of the ineffective recent mayoralties, a more traditional candidate would be more effective?
Mamdani has told those with whom he is consulting that he admired many of the accomplishments of the Bloomberg administration — a strong sign that he’s noticed the most important lesson of Bloomberg’s mayoralty. With the aid of experienced and well-qualified city officials, such as former Comptroller Brad Lander, and with the active support of experienced public officials like Rep. Jerry Nadler, Assemblyman Micah Lasher and Gov. Kathy Hochul, there is every reason to hope his administration will be thoughtful about hiring experienced managers, and crafting a new generation of dedicated New Yorkers to lead us into the future.
Related
- NYC voters say Mamdani best addressed the Israel-Palestinian conflict, poll shows
- After Mamdani and Gaza, are Democrats turning against Israel?
Victor A. Kovner, a First Amendment lawyer for more than five decades, served as Corporation Counsel for the City of New York under Mayor David N. Dinkins. He served on the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct for 14 years, concluding as its Chair. He also served as Chair of the Judiciary Committee of the City Bar Association.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward. Discover more perspectives in Opinion. To contact Opinion authors, email opinion@forward.com.
