Developer Spiders is a small studio that isn’t lacking ambition, after what was considered
a major disappointment with Mars War Logs, they’ve tried yet again to craft a title
whose quality is equal to its ambition with their new fantasy action RPG; Bound By Flame.
Like War Logs it ticks all the boxes of big triple A RPGs and certainly looks the part.
Does it belong in the hall of heroes with other top shelf action RPGs or should it be
tossed into the bonfire?
Set in the fantasy kingdom of Vertiel, a region besieged by a massive undead army that’s
invading from the north. A group of mages known as the Red Scribes think they’ve found
a way to combat this threat and are fast at work performing a ritual. You assume the role
of Vulcan, a member of the Freeborn Blades, a mercenary group that has been hired to protect
the Red Scribes while they conduct their research. Things are quickly interrupted as a Deadwalker
army attacks their position and amidst the carnage, something goes wrong with the ritual
resulting in Vulcan becoming possessed by a Fire Demon. The Demon talks to you throughout
the game, offering advice or seeking to manipulate Vulcan; ultimately playing a part in the game’s
moral choices as listening to the Demon can make your character appear more demonic, bolstering
magical prowess at the expense of your character’s well-being or you can choose to ignore the
Demon and preserve Vulcan’s humanity. Regardless of your decision, it’s clear that Vulcan
is the only one able to stand up to the Ice Lords, a group of warmongering necromancers
that control the vast undead armies.
Upon starting the game, you’re greeted with a brief character creation screen which only
gives you a few very limited options in terms of designing your character before being awkwardly
thrust into an awful tutorial section. This tutorial simply acts to highlight all of the
flaws of Bound by Flame along with constant interruptions explaining the game’s various
mechanics. You’ll immediately notice a lack of pacing, awkward dialogue and voice acting
as well as an unmatched feeling of linearity. This leads to a very poor first impression,
however gritting your teeth and pushing through this period of misery has its rewards as the
game shows signs of competency later on.
After completing the tutorial, the half-baked writing immediately improves giving rise to
an interesting narrative with surprisingly strong character development. Similar to The
Witcher 2 and other titles, you’re faced with moral decisions that can have an effect
on the game however these changes are fairly minor comparatively but still add some elements
of re-playability. The decisions aren’t cleverly thought out or morally ambiguous
like The Witcher 2, instead there’s generally a clear good and evil answer. This still did
well to hold my interest and watching Vulcan gradually lose his humanity in favor of becoming
more demonic and powerful was a welcomed addition to the game.
Along with Vulcan, there are several companions that accompany him on his journey. These characters
have been greatly improved from Mars War Logs, each having their own developed story however
their proficiency in combat remains the same, often dying very quickly and doing very little
to aid Vulcan. The option to romance these characters also exists depending on which
gender you made Vulcan however, like War Logs, there is little development between characters
much less chemistry making romance seem like it was only added to cover all of the features
offered by superior RPGs like Mass Effect and Dragon Age.
Not content to simply borrow the moral choices featured in The Witcher 2, the combat is more
or less identical, with two different primary melee attacks along with traps and magic.
Parrying and dodging also plays a vital role. The combat while simple is quite satisfying
and requires a bit of skill and timing to master. While nowhere near on the level of
Dark Souls, it’s still quite solid for an RPG. The RPG elements are surprisingly deep
as well, offering three different talent trees along with an in-depth crafting system. There’s
a warrior stance that has Vulcan don a 2 hand sword which boosts his parrying and defensive
abilities while his ranger stance equips 2 daggers, drastically increasing his speed
and stealth capabilities. The third talent tree is directly related to the Demon inside
of him, which consists of boosting his magical prowess and fire abilities. Playing on the
normal hawk difficulty will provide a reasonable challenge and despite being simple, the combat
is definitely the highlight of the game. It isn’t without flaw though as parrying or
dodging an attack perfectly will result in Vulcan performing a counter-attack which can
sometimes be a detriment to dodging or running away in general. The animations while fluid
for the most part could have been better for the dodging, as it’s not always consistent
with enemy attacks. Performing a dodge will result in Vulcan jumping backwards instead
of to the side, and will still somehow allow him to avoid projectiles. Despite this, the
combat is still satisfying and I never felt bored throughout its brief campaign.
The soundtrack is quite unusual, focusing on a lot of vocal chants mixed with percussion.
It still fits the game well and adds to the overall experience. It’s little surprise
that the soundtrack is composed by Olivier Derivière, a man who specializes in unusual
video game scores with his most recent work being Remember Me and Assassin’s Creed IV
Freedom Cry. The rest of the audio is hit or miss though, particularly the voice acting.
Some characters play the part well, while others are abysmal. It’s hard to tell whether
it’s the actor’s fault or just the writing in general as the dialogue can be laughably
bad at times. The upside to the dialogue is that it can be hilarious in a campy B movie
way and will no doubt earn this game a cult following. It’s inconsistent in general,
particularly the tutorial which almost made me stop playing the game entirely while at
other times, I found the narrative, setting, and characters to be engaging. This inconsistency
is even apparent in Vulcan’s personality as he can sometimes act like a jerk with no
rhyme or reasoning behind it, demonic influence aside. It leads me to believe that Spiders
suffers from having one or two incompetent writers or maybe it’s just a case of poor
translating, especially when one considers their past abomination Mars War Logs. It’s
a shame really and can sometimes tarnish the otherwise compelling narrative. If this wasn’t
enough, the audio can glitch out at times, often causing characters to repeat the same
line over and over again.
The visuals and environments are well done. It’s just a shame that the game is extremely
linear as the many sidequests are usually confined to a small area, leaving very little
room for exploration. There’s also the odd graphical glitch, such as disappearing textures
and pop-in. Despite the graphical overhaul, the facial animations are on-par with Mars
War Logs as characters will simply move their lips while giving a blank expressionless stare.
Borrowing from The Witcher again, the game tries to separate itself into acts. Upon arriving
at a new location, Vulcan will be given a host of sidequests to complete while simultaneously
progressing the main story until he completes the area and moves on. Unfortunately, the
game is rather short for an action RPG, running around 15 hours if you complete all of the
sidequests. The poor writing rears its ugly head once more before the game's credits roll,
as there’s quite a bit of buildup, and without spoiling anything, the game ends rather abruptly
when there easily could have been room for another 10-20 hours of content. The moral
choices add re-playability but the overall content pales in comparison to games like
Dark Souls, The Witcher, or Skyrim.
Ultimately, Bound By Flame is greater than the sum of its parts and certainly an improvement
over Mars War Logs as it features a solid narrative, refined combat system and deep
RPG elements. It’s a step in the right direction, although once again a bit too ambitious a
project for Spiders to handle. Although it has many flaws, it is still an enjoyable experience
but let’s just hope they hire some better writers and dream up game play mechanics that
distinguish themselves from the competition instead of emulating the RPG market's most
beloved titles.