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Name of the app you are reviewing: Bound By Flame
Bound by Flame is a fantasy-themed action role-playing game that was released on 9 May 2014. Bound by Flame puts the player in the role of a victim of demonic possession, where it is necessary to choose between the evil powers that are offered or rejecting them in favor of developing heroic talents.
Review:
Bound by Flame is a mess, it's a mess with high minded ideas, but a mess nonetheless. By the end the game comes to a close, it becomes clear that there is a wide variety between the experience you just had and the vision that inspired it. Bound by Flame is a fantasy RPG game about choice, it presents you with narrative decisions now and then that affect faction allegiances and spawn conflicts, most of which can only be solved through swordplay, the star us a mercenary named Vulcan, he/she if you choose a female avatar finds himself sharing his brain with a growling demon, Vulcan's mind becomes rather overcrowded as a result, but at least the demon grants him the ability to conjure fire. Bound by Flame most intriguing choices are those that see you decide whether to bend to the whims or assert your humanity, the more you side with the demon's advice the more you take on demonic traits, as i face the final battle I had four sets of curled horns growing from my blackened head and my voice had taken on a diabolical rumble, the consequences of these decisions aren't just cosmetic, growing horns for example means you can't wear helmets, though you do gain enhanced magic power regeneration abilities by way of compensation, there are other trade-offs as well, but mutating into a fiery fiend is nonetheless a delectable experience. There are choices to be made in Bound by Flame story that has nothing to do with the demon within but the game's poor dialogue and bland acting aren't apt to make you care about anyone's fate but your own.
Characters are introduced one after another and many of them are available as battle companions, they have tales to tell if you ask them but bare-bones writing communicates only the essential information without flushing out the people sharing it, over time narrative problems compound so greatly that you can no longer take anything seriously, transition from gameplay to cut scenes are jarring with characters repositioned instantly, the tone seesaws wildly with your conversation partners cracking jokes at the oddest moments and Vulcan suddenly acting like a jerk for no apparent reason, when the final hours asked me to make a sacrifice i made the decision arbitrarily because none of this insanity mattered to me, your companions aren't just boring, they're also useless in battle, often falling in a matter of seconds, combat is Bound by Flame biggest problem, that the fighting is initially pleasing, you can switch between between various stances that let you use a formidable two-handed weapon, wield a pair of of daggers or sneak around and take on dead enemies by surprise, you can also toss fire balls and infuse your weapons with flames thanks to your demon friend, Vulcan's muscular swings give combat a nice sense of heft and the game skill tree lets you customize your fighting style in sensible ways. Bound by Flame then proceeds to ruin it's promising combat with a series of choices that suck out all the fun, small areas are overpopulated with ice spirits; lurching archers and other enemies with ridiculously large health bars, throw into the mix of companions you can't revive in the middle of battle; an unreliable target lock and incoming attacks that always cause interrupts or knock backs and a camera that can always frame the action and you rarely find a good fighting rhythm, combat then becomes a matter of exploiting defects, you circle around the enemy for over a minute until your health replenishes, you run away from battle so that your companion will come back to life and you try your best not lead enemies from their aggravatingly small leash ranges lest they return to their old positions and regain all their health.
Would you recommend this to other users? By RPG standards Bound by Flame isn't a very long or expansive game, if you don't consider the battles you must repeat around a dozen hours or so. Also there's no world to explore unless you consider a few medium sized levels made of narrow hallways to be a world. Bound by Flame has a lot of ideas but never gives them room to grow.
Rating (1-5):
Bound by Flame is a fantasy-themed action role-playing game that was released on 9 May 2014. Bound by Flame puts the player in the role of a victim of demonic possession, where it is necessary to choose between the evil powers that are offered or rejecting them in favor of developing heroic talents.
Review:
Bound by Flame is a mess, it's a mess with high minded ideas, but a mess nonetheless. By the end the game comes to a close, it becomes clear that there is a wide variety between the experience you just had and the vision that inspired it. Bound by Flame is a fantasy RPG game about choice, it presents you with narrative decisions now and then that affect faction allegiances and spawn conflicts, most of which can only be solved through swordplay, the star us a mercenary named Vulcan, he/she if you choose a female avatar finds himself sharing his brain with a growling demon, Vulcan's mind becomes rather overcrowded as a result, but at least the demon grants him the ability to conjure fire. Bound by Flame most intriguing choices are those that see you decide whether to bend to the whims or assert your humanity, the more you side with the demon's advice the more you take on demonic traits, as i face the final battle I had four sets of curled horns growing from my blackened head and my voice had taken on a diabolical rumble, the consequences of these decisions aren't just cosmetic, growing horns for example means you can't wear helmets, though you do gain enhanced magic power regeneration abilities by way of compensation, there are other trade-offs as well, but mutating into a fiery fiend is nonetheless a delectable experience. There are choices to be made in Bound by Flame story that has nothing to do with the demon within but the game's poor dialogue and bland acting aren't apt to make you care about anyone's fate but your own.
Characters are introduced one after another and many of them are available as battle companions, they have tales to tell if you ask them but bare-bones writing communicates only the essential information without flushing out the people sharing it, over time narrative problems compound so greatly that you can no longer take anything seriously, transition from gameplay to cut scenes are jarring with characters repositioned instantly, the tone seesaws wildly with your conversation partners cracking jokes at the oddest moments and Vulcan suddenly acting like a jerk for no apparent reason, when the final hours asked me to make a sacrifice i made the decision arbitrarily because none of this insanity mattered to me, your companions aren't just boring, they're also useless in battle, often falling in a matter of seconds, combat is Bound by Flame biggest problem, that the fighting is initially pleasing, you can switch between between various stances that let you use a formidable two-handed weapon, wield a pair of of daggers or sneak around and take on dead enemies by surprise, you can also toss fire balls and infuse your weapons with flames thanks to your demon friend, Vulcan's muscular swings give combat a nice sense of heft and the game skill tree lets you customize your fighting style in sensible ways. Bound by Flame then proceeds to ruin it's promising combat with a series of choices that suck out all the fun, small areas are overpopulated with ice spirits; lurching archers and other enemies with ridiculously large health bars, throw into the mix of companions you can't revive in the middle of battle; an unreliable target lock and incoming attacks that always cause interrupts or knock backs and a camera that can always frame the action and you rarely find a good fighting rhythm, combat then becomes a matter of exploiting defects, you circle around the enemy for over a minute until your health replenishes, you run away from battle so that your companion will come back to life and you try your best not lead enemies from their aggravatingly small leash ranges lest they return to their old positions and regain all their health.
Would you recommend this to other users? By RPG standards Bound by Flame isn't a very long or expansive game, if you don't consider the battles you must repeat around a dozen hours or so. Also there's no world to explore unless you consider a few medium sized levels made of narrow hallways to be a world. Bound by Flame has a lot of ideas but never gives them room to grow.
Rating (1-5):
