Bound By Flame – Initial Impressions

Bound By Flame slipped under the radar of many. As it hopes to ignite the RPG genre on the PlayStation 4, the game has a lot to live up to. From the initial few chapters it’s safe to say it doesn’t set the bar high.

The world of Bound By Flame is on the brink of destruction. The evil Ice Lords are ravaging the lands with an army of undead. Slowly but surely the world is falling into an endless ice age, with only a pocket of survivors left to resist the cold.

You play as a mercenary named Vulcan who, after a failed ritual, now posses demonic powers. With your new flame wielding abilities and enchanted weapons only you possess the power needed to stop the Ice Lords. It’s an exciting premise but one that ultimately falls short due to the poor narrative.

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Bound By Flame doesn’t get off to the best of starts – it’s certainly not the prettiest of games the PlayStation 4 has to offer (even if the screenshots prove otherwise). Although subtle at first, the general style of the game world is very Borderlands-esque, with a vibrant palette and heavily outlined textures. A style which many gamers will no doubt enjoy, but one which really isn’t to my personal liking.

The character models and animations aren’t much better either. The main character frequently slips and slides on the spot like a cartoon character during cut scenes, and the lip syncing is poor. Hardly game breaking flaws but minor inconveniences nonetheless.

The voice acting is wooden, making it extremely difficult for you to connect with the characters. What’s more is that despite choosing a name for your character at the very start of the game every character you meet decides to ignore this and call you Vulcan anyway. This frustrates me more than it should.

Some of the characters also seem to suffer from Tourette’s syndrome. Whilst cursing can be a vital part of many scripts, in Bound By Flame it’s completely out of touch – expect random insults being hurled during calm conversations. Combined with the poor voice acting you will have a hard time taking character interactions and the overall story arc seriously.

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Thankfully, Bound By Flame significantly improves when it comes to the role-playing elements of the game. The combat can be split into three styles: you can either use two-handed swords and axes to deal slow but heavy hitting blows to your enemies, or engage in fast paced combat with dual wielding daggers that also offer a stealthy approach, and then both of these play styles can be combined with the demonic flame wielding powers. At any point you can switch between each combat style, as not all enemies can be defeated with ease by the same combat style.

Similarly to Dark Souls, Bound By Flame uses a target lock-on system which gives you more precision when it comes to parrying and firing projectiles. However, when there are a lot of enemies on screen it can be difficult to switch between foes, and this causes some commotion with the camera angle. Whilst the combat may be nothing revolutionary it’s sure to be enjoyable and challenging, especially the boss battles.

Vulcan can also level-up his abilities. Again this is split into three lineages. Skill points can be used to upgrade weapon damage, mania usage and health restoration, which you can assign either into the Warrior, Ranger or Pyromancer category. Crafting is also a key component of the game. Looting fallen enemies and exploration rewards you with a variety of materials which can be used to craft health potions, bombs and weapon upgrades. It’s an extensive yet simple system and one that can be used instantaneously, even during battle. This ability can literally be a life saver in situations where you find yourself in dire need of a health potion during a fight.

Bound By Flame will hardly set the RPG genre alight. The poor narrative and wooden character dialogue will leave you feeling a little cold, but you’ll no doubt find yourself warming to the flame wielding powers and simple crafting system.

10 Comments

  1. I’d really like to see some reviews of it. As helpful as this article was, I can’t help but feel it’s not very good. I watched some streams of people playing it and wasn’t impressed.
    I’m tempted by it just to give me something else to play but the release day review embargo makes me highly suspicious.
    I think if it was a £15 psn game I’d get it. Not for full price though.
    Thanks for the helpful write up, I’ll wait for now info.

    • Stupid auto correct! More info not now info!

  2. Poor narrative and dialogue means I’ll be skipping this one, that sort of thing makes a huge difference to me. Hopefully games such as the new Dragon Age and The Witcher will get that right. I’m feeling optimistic they’ll put a lot more effort in there. Game play is important but it’s not everything in a game like this, they need to look at the package as a whole.

  3. I watched some videos on the tube last night, i’m out.

  4. I can’t believe Videogamer only have this a 2/10. It doesn’t sound as bad as that on this sight. I know their not the best reviewers but 2 wow.

    • From what I’ve played so far it’s by no means a 2/10. That just seems unnecessarily harsh.

      • So it’s a good game? Dragon dogma good or skyrim good. (Dragon dogma being average & skyrim being awesome)

      • From what I’ve seen/read it’s essentially The Witcher if you mixed it with Demon’s Souls and sprinkled it with Kingdoms of Amalur and then dipped it all in petrol, set fire to it, put it out by peeing on it then smothering it in dung. That is pretty much it from what I have read. I may be overstating how good it is though.

  5. Well what can I say I pre-ordered this game on the strength of the story and trailer. I am about 2 hours in now and yes I must say its not the best game I have ever played but its just plain beautiful in places.
    I would give this game a 7.5/10
    The game grows on you the fight mechanics are just right although the difficulty level on normal is a little high if you run out of health potions.
    The crafting is solid and engaging with some knew approaches to powering up weapons.
    Now this is the first of its kind on a next gen console so expectations are going to be high I understand that but if you want a good RPG with a solid story I could not recommend this more.

    • Totally agreed. I was thinking 7.5 is about right. I’ve been playing it for most of this weekend and while it lacks polish it definitely worth playing. I might even give mars war logs a try after this.

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