Bound by Flame Reviews
The game appears to be a product of magical thinking, as if throwing together watered-down tropes from games like The Witcher might somehow yield a finished product.
An embarrassment on all fronts.
A Frankenstein's monster of other people's ideas, that if not for the sleazy script would be laughable in its desperation to include every fantasy cliché imaginable.
Ultimately, the game has an interesting premise and selling points that on the face of things are worthy of attention, but the scope aimed for is such that the resources and timescales devoted to it sadly had no hope in achieving.
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.
Bound By Flame wears its inspirations on its sleeve, and its chest, and its legs, borrowing cues from pretty much every ARPG around. Its an earnest attempt by Spiders, as are most of their games, but the elements here feel slapdash and dishevelled. At best, Bound By Flame might offer a spot of B-movie-esque filler while you wait for Dragon Age and The Witcher III. At worst, it's a clunky, hot mess of a game with an over-inflated price and little to offer of any distinction.
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.
[W]hile Bound by Flame has heart, it ends up being a forgettable dull experience.
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.
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 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.
Bound by Flame is a rickety role-playing game that bites off far more than it can chew.
Bound by Flame is a generic mess
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 won't set the world on fire, but it's decent fun if you enjoy linear, dialog-heavy
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.