Bound by Flame Review

Bound by Flame offers much more variety when going on the offensive. There are two different melee attacks which depend on the selected fighting stance, as well as a counter-attack if the block/dodge is timed right. There are also three different uses for pyromancer magic, which are granted after merging with the fire demon. This magic allows the character to shoot fireballs, enchant weapons, or fire off a surrounding blast of flame. These attacks are upgraded through skill trees every time you level up. You can try for a well rounded character, but will likely find yourself held back as there is not enough experience to upgrade all of your attacks, so the game pushes you to hone-in on a play-style which works for you. The skills tree is an effective way of leveling up, but it lacks balance. Some skills felt like they regressed after leveling them up, becoming worthless, like a spread shot for your fireball which nerfs its damage. Some sections of the skill actually are worthless, like the stealth section which at best lets you take out one enemy. The progression is usually confined to amping up your ability to interrupt attacks, attack faster, and do more damage. This vanilla system doesn’t add any variety or flavor to the game, it just means you are blindly pushing ahead.

A couple attacks can’t be upgraded by the skill tree, these are your crossbow and traps. As they can’t be upgraded through experience - although you can purchase improved crossbows - these weapons sometimes are forgotten as there is a lack of any real reminder they are there aside from a quick tutorial in the beginning. Even when you do remember them, the crossbow and traps are inconsistent. The crossbow will miss a target if it doesn’t hold still; traps won’t always stun an enemy. There is a lot of variety in what Bound by Flame offers, but these aspects of the combat feel poorly thought out.

After vanquishing your enemies, loot can be gathered from their bodies. This is usually in the form of tainted blood, raw metal, or bone - although the rare drop could feature a new weapon. These materials can be used to craft upgrades to your weapons, ammo for your crossbow, or items you will need such as potions and traps. A far cry from crafting your own weapons and creating custom gear. Custom weapons and armor is something Bound by Flame could use as the game hardly provides much variety in armaments. Each weapon in the game has its own name, which would be cool if there were more of them. In my time playing I picked up a total of 4 daggers, one of which I got off of a loot drop and the others I had to buy. There’s a little more variety to the two-handed weapons, but it feels Spiders is checking off a feature on a list, rather than creating something that gives players a chance to customize their experience. There’s a crafting system, loot drops, and new equipment for you, but there is little-to-no depth to any of these features.

The fantasy setting might draw you in, but it won’t likely hold you. The world lacks development, it’s often hard to track where you are in relation to where you started. The game tries to shift locales to keep the pace moving, but the last two sections are so alike it hardly feels like you’ve gone anywhere. There are elves and humans, they don’t seem to like each other but there is little reason as to why. There are mages no one trusts, but I am not sure why that is either. You might be able to learn more from talking to others and doing some in-game research, but all of it so poorly delivered you are never interested in the political climate of the world.

The whole product is delivered in so-so visuals. While the cutscenes are ugly, some of the environmental work looks okay - barring some flat textures. It isn’t definitively next-gen (I played the game on the PS4) but it looks alright. The character models are pretty, but few people are going to call Bound by Flame beautiful. The level design hinders the art as the world is confined to a series of corridors leading to open areas, making the environments feel small and contained. At least it runs smoothly. The loading screens are rare and not overly long. I also experienced no crashes or frame-rate issues while playing. The game isn’t stunning, but at least it runs well.

Those who were hoping Bound by Flame could be another meaty fantasy-RPG will be sorely disappointed. If you love all things elfish and wizardry you might be able to turn the difficulty to easy, turn your brain off, and slash your way through, but in doing so you are left with a bunch of mediocre storytelling which fails to be interesting. Bound by Flame desperately tries to follow a formula and come out the other side with something to help fit within the circle of fantasy classics, but the execution is too lackluster. It is impossible to know if Spiders Games will return to its fantasy game-making, but their unimpressive titles are starting to become a trend they can’t seem to buck.