Bound by Flame Reviews
Bound By Flames is a fun and very competent RPG whose pros clearly overshadow its cons. It's not perfect, it's not from a big budget studio, isn't 100+ hours, and it doesn't say Scrolls, Age, or Souls on the box, but any fan of the genre should give it a legit shot -- I think they'll be pleasantly surprised as I was.
In reality, there isn't much to say about Bound By Flame. It's not a horrendous travesty that all action RPG players should avoid, and similarly it's not a stellar blockbuster that all Dark Souls addicts should pick up. It just feels very mediocre and generic. Nothing stands out about the game and nothing really holds it down aside from its graphics at points. It's a simple fantasy action RPG that won't replace any of the big names out there, but will keep you amused for 10 hours if you have some money to burn.
The entire war never appears and most consequences are forgotten. If that doesn't sound fun to you, then don't get it. Yes it did satisfy that a-bit-less-hard-than-Dark Souls-please RPG itch while I played it, but Bound By Flame is not a game I'll be returning to. Shame. Make the corridors a bit wider next time please.
Bound by Flame by all accounts ends up being a rather mediocre experience. There are various systems and mechanics that work brilliantly, but are sadly overshadowed by a largely forgettable story and a flawed combat system that ends up testing your patience rather than testing your mettle.
Bound By Flame had potential, its excellent crafting system and skill trees are a good basis for any RPG, but the unbalanced combat system doesn't do a good job of exploiting them. The characters and story are hard to care for when most characters lack any emotion and expletives are used in every other sentence. If you are desperate for an RPG to play in your wait for The Witcher 3, then Bound By Flame could satisfy your needs for a short period of time. Bound By Flame doesn't bring anything new to the RPG genre, nor does it improve on any existing elements. A short play-time combined with an uninteresting story and unbalanced combat makes Bound By Flame tough to recommend, it frankly just isn't a good game.
Bound by Flame is a game that many will undoubtedly gain a huge amount of enjoyment from. Shortcomings of bad character interactions and weak contributions from NPCs are something that's easy to look past on.
The ideas are great, but some are too complex, tightly packed and don't compliment one another. It's the simple ideas that have really stood out and the fact that you share your body with an inner-demon, but the general vibe of the game felt half-assed. It's another game that needed a second look-over before heading to market.
There are some solid mechanics here that are marred by some significant issues, preventing the game from becoming a classic.
[W]hile Bound by Flame has heart, it ends up being a forgettable dull experience.
Whatever caused it, our save was irrevocably corrupted and any chance of playing Bound By Flames beyond our review went down the pan with it. Not that this should be the death knell for your purchase decision too, you probably won't encounter the same game-breaking problem and maybe you haven't experienced the worlds of Westeros, Tamriel and the Northern Kingdoms. Good for you. Not only are you more likely to enjoy all the talking between every fight but there are four seasons of compelling HBO drama and several weeks of exhaustive, back to back playtime across two chart-topping video game franchises, once you're done.
The game isn't bad, it's just not great, and I was expecting a little bit more than a generic western fantasy RPG with competent combat from the studio that brought us the tantalising Of Orcs and Men.
Given the price of Bound by Flame, I believe that it is a little overpriced and tries to be a triple A title that unfortunately doesn't add anything new to this genre. From a gaming perspective it works but it needed some more game testing and probably a revamped skill system that makes you feel out of your depth. Nonetheless, I've seen far worse Western RPG's and thankfully Bound by Flame ticks most boxes.
A sad fact of life it may be, but go into Bound By Flame with low impressions and you're probably not going to come away disappointed. Those hoping for the appropriate stop-gap until The Elder Scrolls VI though will be left wanting. Bound By Flame is relatively harmless fantasy by numbers that is difficult to recommend beyond a budget-priced pickup, or if you're in the utmost doldrums waiting for a big release.
It sums up Bound by Flame well that although you'll be deciding which end of the moral spectrum to play throughout, you're still presented with the same options by the end of the game. This is a badly planned game that clearly suffered from time, management or technical issues during development and is best avoided.
Though Bound By Flame is an interesting game, it felt lacking. A little more could have made this game one of the best.
Bound by Flame won't set the world on fire, but it's decent fun if you enjoy linear, dialog-heavy
Bound by Flame is playable, but it lacks anything compelling to keep you invested. When you aren't dealing with poorly balanced design you are yawning at its dull world and uninspired RPG mechanics. Bound by Flame is more akin to Spiders previous efforts rather than the many better action-RPG titles they attempted to borrow from.
In the end, I called Bound by Flame a "side-quest" because RPG aficionados could play this game to pass the time but it's not an essential experience for fans of the genre.
Bound By Flame defiantly has potential to work, but due to having so many problems the game ends up not reaching that full potential… well it doesn't really come close at all. The crafting system and level up system showed the game had promise as well as something going for it, but once you get deep into the game you start to learn what went wrong. There is still some fun to be had in this game, so if you are a fan of RPG's maybe wait until the price comes down to try this game as I can't recommend a full retail purchase unfortunately.
So much of Bound by Flame induces boredom or irritation that it seemed the best recourse to seek out a style of play that facilitated, if not outright enjoyment, at least an absence of hostility. Well, better that an aggravating game permit you to play around its points of aggravation than to force you to suffer them in earnest. In the case of Bound by Flame, I merrily sheared away until nothing remained.