Lucas
Versantvoort / October 4, 2014
It’s quite
impressive what the people at Spiders have achieved with such a limited budget.
While Bound By Flame is by no means
flawless, it’s important to take a step back and consider the successes despite
the meager budget and compare that to what companies with tons of cash produce.
It’s interesting that this game is more of an actual RPG than games like Final Fantasy XIII could ever hope to be.
You know what they say: when it comes to budgets, size isn’t everything…
You’re a mercenary. The world’s been
slowly disintegrating under the advancing horde of what we can safely assume
are zombies and other monsters. While defending a group of priests who claim to
know a way to stop them, you accidentally become possessed by a demon…whoops. The
demon won’t take control of you right away. You have to let him. While you
adventure forth with your fellow mercenaries, you have to decide how to
interact with the demon. According to the demon, accepting his influence is the
only way to successfully stop the horde, but perhaps allowing a demon to take
over your body isn’t such a good idea. Along the way, you’ll meet various
characters whom you can talk to (though conversation options aren’t as expansive
as I’d have liked) all the while making decisions that will effect what
direction the story takes, who lives, who dies, etc.
 |
| Your friendly neighbourhood demon... |
One of the things I really liked was the whole
demon possession aspect of the story. While the rest of the story feels pretty
familiar, the possession aspect is a cool variation on the choice systems so
often found in games. This demon will comment on what you say and do. Certain
key choices you make will influence how much the demon will take hold of you
which results in your appearance changing (à la Fable), different dialogue and game endings. The main theme thus
seems to be rejecting the evil option, the option that at times seems like it’s
your only chance at success. Of course, because it’s a game, you know there’s
an upside to always rejecting the demon’s influence. It’s like the Paragon
options in Mass Effect. Even if
Renegade seems more useful, you will never run out of options even when
Paragoning. Even though the demon claims to make you stronger if you allow him
to take hold of you, you don’t really gain that much besides some fire skills. If anything it makes you
more susceptible to Ice damage which you’ll be bombarded with in the game’s
second half. It’s probably the whole point, but it’s better to reject the demon…
Combat is also exciting and tense, that is if
you’re not constantly dying on higher difficulties and by higher difficulties I
mean all difficulty settings. If you’re
a stealthy knife-wielding badass (like me), then timing is everything. You can
initiate stealth (upon which the screen changes to black-and-white) and sneak
behind an enemy and attack its weak point for massive damage. With every class,
timing is crucial. Spamming the attack button will do nothing but get you
killed. You have to get used to the little signs that suggest an enemy will
attack in a split second after which you can block and attack, dodge and attack
or riposte, immediately counter the enemy. Whereas classes in Mass Effect 3 didn’t feel distinctive,
every class in Bound By Flame brings
with it its own unique play style.
The score is also noteworthy. Composed by Olivier
Derivière (Alone in the Dark (2008)
and Remember Me), he actively avoids
falling into RPG soundtrack clichés and instead creates unique soundscapes. Like
the game world itself, his music is otherworldly and haunting while stile
making use of returning elements like ‘tribal’ vocals and aggressive percussion
to avoid making the score feel like a jumbled mess.
The game is definitely without its faults. For
one, the game is way too short. It has something akin to a three-act structure
that is just too short. You can’t help but feel like there’s so much lore and
so much more to do than what the game offers you. There’s nothing more
saddening than the feeling of wanting to progress the story and spend time with
the characters, etc. only to realize you’re getting close to the end. Visually,
the game alternates between beautiful to look at and kinda meh. While the
environments look detailed and impressive, other things like the hair on Edwen
looks about as appealing as a pixelated cobweb. The same goes for the voice
acting. While characters like the male Demon, Edwen, Randhal and Blackfrost are
nicely voiced (Blackfrost being hilarious in a pompous way), others like the
female main character fail to impressive.
I remember thinking, ‘wow, this game
reminds me of The Witcher 2’ and it’s
not hard to see why. They both have the same plot structure, their combat
styles are rather similar and the locations you visit are also similar. There’s
a prologue with a siege-like battle, then you go to the woods and marshes and
visit a crappy town. Afterwards you go to a mountainous area after which you
enter the final location. It’s important to remember though that Bound By Flame has its own unique assets
like its weapon and armor customization system. You can customize every piece
of armor and every weapon which not only drastically changes its appearance,
but also its stats.
Though, I don’t think it’s worth the
full asking price, it’s definitely worth picking up at some point. When even
with a budget that pales compared to those of giants like Mass Effect and Final Fantasy
XIII, you still manage to make a game that is more RPG than those games,
you know you’re doing something right.
Images:
http://www.capsulecomputers.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Bound-By-Flame-Screenshot-01-600x298.png
http://www.lightninggamingnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Bound-by-Flame-crafting-system-screenshots-and-info-5.jpg
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