I really dislike this game, it is simply not finished. The combat breaks when running over 30 FPS due to enemy reaction time, lack of staggers, and clenches; audio bugs related to surround sound and repair kit success also appear to have ties to the framerate. In the main quest "Cold Steel, Hot Blood," I had to use a mod to re-enable the console commands to get past an infinite loading screen. The main quests "Night Raid" and "Needle in a Haystack" lie to the player to get the player to go through the scripted events the devs wanted, instead of allowing player freedom, like in the best quest in the game, "The Hunt Begins." The final cutscene before the epilogue plays the incorrect subtitles. I had 2 or 3 crashes to desktop. The all but one of the perks that I looked at related to the survival mechanics simply work to nullify their effects, which brings into question why the mechanics are even in the game. I'm generally in the school of thought that limited saves isn't great, but thats much more subjective. The combat is almost turn-based: the game will drop your inputs when an attack is incoming that is a "green shield" attack, unless you make the "proper" response to parry. As a german HEMA practitioner, this is bollocks. It is completely valid to take a quick strike to the opponent while they're winding up, but the devs wanted you to interact with their well-crafted animations of dodging or receiving a repost. Superficially, the combat looks like HEMA, but plays nothing like a real swordfight feels. The combos are almost useless, as any combos more than 3 strikes long will get interupted 100% of the time, and shorter ones are often interupted. The story's pacing crawls to a halt periodically after the 2nd act low point, interupting the finale with unfunny and irritating interuptions to the primary main quest objectives, and is very cutscene heavy as it goes on. Other than that, its a neat game. Stop playing after "Baptism of Fire," and you'll have a great time!
I really enjoy Shadow of Chernobyl, and I'm looking forward to playing Call of Pripyat and Heart of Chornobyl, but this game sucked. The moment to moment gameplay can be fun, exploring the Zone, getting into tactical shootouts, and hunting for artifacts, but this game wants to troll you. Opening to the second area? Suppressing machine gun fire that almost insta-kills you. Being careful in an investigation sequence? The game takes control away from you to let yourself be stupidly flash banged and your equipment stolen. Clear out a bandit area? They respawn, what do you mean my faction should take over that base? This game is just undercooked and troll-y.
The writing in this game is fantastic. W3 was my entry to the series, then I read the books and am now playing through the games. W1 has a fantastic plot and good characters, but isn't as moving as some of the moments in W3. My biggest issue with the game is the combat. Real-time with pause combat was always bad and I will die on that hill, and taking a combat engine designed for that system, then manipulating it to appear like an action game led to taking damage without the enemy making an animation, overlapping status effects (knocked down and doing a dodge at the same time), and an overall unenjoyable experience. I played the game on hard to make sure I stayed engaged, but if you are new to the series and wanting to try this game out, play it on whatever difficulty will keep you interested and do all of the story content that you can until the gameplay enrages you.
I typically really enjoy lower-middle market european games, but Bound by Flame is unacceptable to be available for purchase. The engine is fundamentally broken, with loading screens taking several seconds on a powerful 2023 PC, the "High" texture quality causes severe graphical issues where the world disappears and shadows slide around the game as you turn, and the shaders for certain UI elements do not work properly without mods on AMD systems. The punishing difficulty is not acceptable for the significant amount of input lag, input storage, and inaccurate hitboxes. The leveling is interesting and each new skill and perk point feels very impactful, but the writing, presentation, and moment to moment combat feel bad 90% of the game. I am currently on the final boss and unsure if it is worth the time to learn it so that I can tell my brain "I never have to touch this game again." If you're wanting an older Spiders game, I recommend Mars: War Logs over Bound by Flame.
I am still new to classic CRPGs, so chapters 7-10 felt quite fun to play, as it felt much easier than BG. However, as the game went on, the story got worse and it become more and more aparent that the developers didn't want the player to make a choice, as the response for dialog options often remains identical. I had some fun with this game, but it was greatly tarnished by the final 3 chapters. There is also the issue that as the game progresses, it gets more and more linear, which didn't work very well for me at as, as I would be expected to go through a combat gauntlet without the possibility to resurrect my party members for upwards of an hour.
Let me get the initial praise out of the way: the game is gorgeous, the soundtrack is pretty nifty, and the art direction is impecable. That's the end of the strict praise. The use of real-world psychology is very commendable, but it causes harm to the messaging when set in a fantastic universe such as this. It is often unclear whether the voices are in Senua's head, memories the audience is getting to see to apply context to the current situation, or magical visuals that are really taking place. This makes it unclear what the exact message the game is trying to get across, which might be the point, but clairity is much more important than the ambiguous "artistic merit." Here comes the criticism. The combat and responsiveness are pretty lacking. Many times throughout, the game will throw several enemies at you in a tight space with you, while the combat is designed for one on one encounters. The primary issue with this is that you can get easily stunlocked if you are either wedged into a corner by two enemies, or if the dodge button decides it doesn't want to register for some reason. This happened to me in about 40% of the combat encounters, which is a significant portion of the players time. Focus will also either snap wildly, spinning you in circles, or it will not snap, leading to you being hit from the side or dodging in the wrong direction, taking damage anyway. Overall, I despise this game. While the graphics are incredible, the gameplay, story, and moral messaging are all great in concept, but fall flat on their face. What makes me hate this game is its theme. Unless I misunderstood it, it is an incredbily simple concept told condescendingly to the player as if it were a profound discovery. A pretentious fart that wasted 6.5 hours of my time.
