Bound By Flame

I've got into this game with low expectations under the impression of reports about garbage combat and overall bad quality-and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, by the RPG standards the game isn't long and it's narrative is jarring at places - sometimes you get the feeling like there is a bunch of lines (or pages) of dialog or story development missing also the consumable system and skills could be expanded as they seem rather bare-bones, companions are basic and kinda standard RPG tropes (cold b*tch, naive nubile, strong guy, snarkster, etc.) Why the above average rating then, you ask? Well, because the game is just plain and simple fun! The dialogues are B-movie rate hammy, yet surprisingly lacking on cheese or cliche. Setting is cool - the idea of conquering necromancers brought to it's inevitable conclusion: You can fight them but even if the battle can be won, it's net victory for the guys who can just raise all the dead as their army - the angle not seen in fantasy often. Main character is, as was said, hammy but entertainingly so and you can actually see the change in his lines if he do embrace the Daemon possessing him. Combat system is its own thing though. I've seen a lot of people complaining about it and I can see the why - the whole point behind the combat here revolves around the idea of not being hit - you have parry or dodge that acts as your cancel - it will cancel you from any move immediately and you can follow up with the counter right away.. the trick here is to accept the way the combat is designed, combine the cancels, counters and movement with skills and stacking the interrupt stat to avoid hits. The second you start taking hits the fight is over - you cannot tank, hp is only there to give you a bit of leeway when you screw up. IF you can accept those rules, combat becomes much more palatable. Overall - solid if average game. I add one star because I've found it really enjoyable. Also didn't see any serious technical issues.

MY original Steam review: "After finishing all Spiders RPGs up to Bound by Flame I must say, this is their best work I have played so far and they are all underrated in my opinion. The games do lack some polish and variety and are on the short side when compared to AAA hallmarks like Mass Effect or The Witcher but they have their own charm, great atmosphere and mature writing. Combat in Bound by Flame was brutal at the beginning. I played on normal (Hawk) and died during the tutorial and often and repeatedly during the first half of the game. But as your power grows and you figure out how to go about combat more cleverly things actually become a tad too easy towards the end. The penultimate boss in the game was even a real pushover who hardly even touched me. All in all a very satisfying experience that I would rate as a 7.5." Took me 18 hours to finish and I played as Thief with some Fire support, so it's not true, that you can only play one class (never ever listen to people just claiming things like that). As a Spider RPG it's actually surpassed by Technomancer in all aspects except for atmosphere. The village tune from the first act is still one of my favorite musical pieces in a game. I often lingered there much longer than I had to, to listen to the music.

I don't really understand why this game has such a low score, it deserves a lot more. Fights are really great and rewarding, I recommend starting already from higher difficulties, such as "buffalo", fights are harder from there but much more fun. Also death isn't frustrating at all! Auto game saves are planned in such a great way and so often that all you need is just fight the last fight you loose. It reminded me of Hotline Miami in that area, great thinking of dev team here. Story is very inspired by GoT, but it also reminds me of Berserk anime, the feeling of being one of bunch of mercenaries, a kind of family, like Band of the Falcon. It creates great atmosphere. Basically I recognizes a lot of inspiration from other games too such as Enclave or Sudeki, and writing inspiration I mean only positive feeling. The game does that in great way, and make me feel that developers also enjoyed and like those games, and wanted to revitalize the genre. The story is decent overall, have some fun moments, loose approach to the topic, sometimes a little parody of great game moments, like deliberately not caring at all of main hero use demon power for the first time :) Crafting is also fun, and not over complicated. Overall it's great Action RPG game. I regret that I bought it only when it was on sale, because of the low score. The game and it's makers deserve more.

Spiders is a company not lacking in ambition but sometimes lacking in programming polish. I've loved all their games from Mars War Logs to Greedfall and I'm also a staunch fan of a similar studio Piranha Bytes who made the Gothic series. Both game companies have difficult but rewarding games, expansive and unique lore, immersive detail, and fully voice acted casts. Bound by Flame feels like if Spiders had tried to make a Piranha Bytes style game down the gritty (sometimes goofily so) dialogue laden with harsh language, the cobbled-together jury-rig fantasy look where nobody is a knight in shining armor but usually all mercenaries in stained cloaks and mismatching mail. Combat is much more fluid and less dependent on timing as it might be in Piranha Bytes. Some enemies are so powerful you are expected to have jacked up your skills and improved your equipment before you can be expected to beat them. Luckily auto saves happen at the beginning of nearly every encounter, NPCS don't die but are knocked unconscious until the last enemy of an encounter is defeated, there is no durability mechanic (wail away), you can slow time in the selection menu like in War Logs to use powerful spells and bombs or direct companions...it's all very much in favor of the player but never a pushover. The map is GREAT! Shows all the paths immediately, can be superimposed on the screen, and quest markers are not only indicated but NPCS are highlighted who are related to the quest. You're never at a loss for things to do and you're seldom lost in general. The flip side of this is you CANNOT JUMP. It's a pain, but it does make for easy level transitions where you have to climb up a cliff to leave a map or drop down an elevation. The missing star is do to the generic and kind of empty story. It's almost so bad it's good, but the voice acting is decent anyway and there's lots of lore even if it sounds cliche. Not a bad action RPG! Just a few hiccups.