Bound by Flame Reviews
Bound By Flame would be an immensely likable game, were it not for just how slipshod it ultimately feels. Its individual components are well crafted, but when brought together, the result is something that just isn't quite right.
Bound by Flame looks like a budget RPG contender, and there are some nice ideas in the combat system and the Bioware-like treatment of the side-characters. Sadly, there's just too much about it that's generic, unpolished, badly animated, poorly implemented or uninspired. If you must have a fantasy RPG to play on PS4 then this might do, but there will be better around the corner, and this really isn't an easy game to love.
A cold experience
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.
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.
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.
The fantasy RPG is more than a little crowded, and breaking into that genre is likely to be a difficult task. With the help of Focus Home Interactive, the marketing campaign behind 'Bound by Flame' raised more than a few eyebrows, including my own. Everything about the game had me interested and I was more than a little excited to occupy my time with this new adventure in between some of the bigger AAA titles still to release. Not without its shortcomings, 'Bound by Flame' is still an ambitious title for developer Spiders. It sets an interesting, albeit familiar, tone, and delivers an enjoyable and addictive combat system. Unfortunately, this being a grand adventure, the developers should have realized the importance a well-acted character can have on the final product. Had the game been voiced by more qualified actors 'Bound by Flame' could have become a major sleeper title for 2014. Instead, these poor performances have left an unfavorable impression. It's worth visiting for the combat mechanics, but staying for the duration may be a difficult task.
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 won't set the world on fire, but it's decent fun if you enjoy linear, dialog-heavy
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.
Bound By Flame sounded promising every time we saw it... but so do most games. What we ended up with instead is an RPG trying to be as great as its inspiration but never coming close. Poor combat, poor story, and poor acting, all serve to make this "epic tale" one you'll want to skip. Do not buy.
Admire Spiders for their ambition, but as with its prior efforts this is again a case of reaching too far and spreading too thin. The result is a game that feels incomplete despite its comparatively short length for the genre.
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.
Simply by staggering across the finish line first, Bound By Flame may seem to be an attractive proposition for PS4 RPG fans, but don't be fooled. With its shonky cut-scenes, its outdoor sound effects that play indoors and its linear maps, this is in no way a current-gen experience. It's a budget offering at a premium price - and a poor one at that.
Bound by Flame is a generic mess
Bound by Flame is a rickety role-playing game that bites off far more than it can chew.
Bound By Flame is a number of good ideas poorly crafted into a final product. The story itself is rather generic, with poor dialog and voice acting preventing you from getting emotionally invested in the world. The core combat is good, but once it meets with the larger game, it begins to break down. Even an excellent crafting system can't save Bound By Flame from being a budget RPG. If you can find it for $15-20, it might be worth a go for action-RPG fanatics.
With its awful characters, inconsistent voice acting and combat hampered by problematic enemies, what little there is to enjoy is whittled away. It's something to be tasted when absolutely starved for RPGs and could provide enough sword and sorcery shenanigans to tide one over until something more appetizing comes along, but it's unlikely to prove fulfilling.
Bound by Flame is a generic Western RPG that is steeped in good intentions but plagued by poor execution. It gives the feeling that whatever budget the developer had was spent on the game's abstracts instead of the tangible mechanics that are necessary to make it playable.
[W]hile Bound by Flame has heart, it ends up being a forgettable dull experience.