Bound By Flame
Main game
2.62 average rating based on 156 ratings
- Developers
- Spiders
- Publishers
- Focus Entertainment
- Platforms
- PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
- Genres
- Adventure, Role-playing (RPG)
- Themes
- Action, Fantasy
- Steam
- View on Steam
Release Dates
User Stats
How Long Is Bound By Flame?
Krauzer's review of Bound By Flame
This title tries to present itself as a gritty, choice-driven RPG, but the first few hours make it hard to stick with. The combat is clumsy and frustrating right from the start, with sluggish controls and awkward mechanics that make even simple encounters feel like a struggle. Instead of learning curves or rewarding fights, the game delivers battles that feel more like a test of patience than skill.
The story, while hinting at an interesting conflict between humanity and demonic influence, doesn’t manage to grab attention early on. The dialogue feels flat, and the characters come across as uninteresting, making it difficult to care about what’s happening. The voice acting and stiff presentation only add to the sense that the world lacks energy or personality.
After a few hours, it becomes clear that the rough combat, uninspired storytelling, and dull pacing overshadow any potential the game might have had. For many, it’s the kind of RPG that’s easier to set aside than to push through, especially when the opening hours do so little to encourage you to keep going.
Even the progression systems, which should provide a sense of growth and customization, feel underwhelming, skill upgrades and crafting options are …
This title tries to present itself as a gritty, choice-driven RPG, but the first few hours make it hard to stick with. The combat is clumsy and frustrating right from the start, with sluggish controls and awkward mechanics that make even simple encounters feel like a struggle. Instead of learning curves or rewarding fights, the game delivers battles that feel more like a test of patience than skill.
The story, while hinting at an interesting conflict between humanity and demonic influence, doesn’t manage to grab attention early on. The dialogue feels flat, and the characters come across as uninteresting, making it difficult to care about what’s happening. The voice acting and stiff presentation only add to the sense that the world lacks energy or personality.
After a few hours, it becomes clear that the rough combat, uninspired storytelling, and dull pacing overshadow any potential the game might have had. For many, it’s the kind of RPG that’s easier to set aside than to push through, especially when the opening hours do so little to encourage you to keep going.
Even the progression systems, which should provide a sense of growth and customization, feel underwhelming, skill upgrades and crafting options are present, but they lack the depth and impact needed to meaningfully change how the game plays. The moral choice system, centered around embracing or resisting the demon within, sounds compelling on paper, yet in practice it rarely creates moments with real emotional or gameplay weight. As a result, what could have been a dark, morally complex RPG ends up feeling like a missed opportunity.
Not bad
This review is for the PC (Microsoft Windows) version
Game is similar to other Spider RPGs. Good idea for story. But story could be better, if developers had bigger budget. Game is somewhat short. Too short, to develope characters and visit all potentially interesting locations. Some characters are rather silly. There are still unexplained things at the end of the game. Some locations you must visit many times and enemies are respawning. Other things could be better too. Still I liked it, developers tried the best they could and the game have a soul. What I did not liked, was the last boss. Most of the game was easy for me in buffalo difficulty. I made solid warrior built, till that had not need for traps and use of crossbow and I did not developed related skills. I had not very big stacks of bolts, traps and healing potions. Because it was not needed for all game, till now. And developers for such a relatively easy game made very hard last boss, which was especially hard for my built. Fighting with him was more like long game of luck and attrition. Try for 15 minutes, one unlucky or wrong move, restart. Some tries was close to winning, but I …
Read MoreGame is similar to other Spider RPGs. Good idea for story. But story could be better, if developers had bigger budget. Game is somewhat short. Too short, to develope characters and visit all potentially interesting locations. Some characters are rather silly. There are still unexplained things at the end of the game. Some locations you must visit many times and enemies are respawning. Other things could be better too. Still I liked it, developers tried the best they could and the game have a soul. What I did not liked, was the last boss. Most of the game was easy for me in buffalo difficulty. I made solid warrior built, till that had not need for traps and use of crossbow and I did not developed related skills. I had not very big stacks of bolts, traps and healing potions. Because it was not needed for all game, till now. And developers for such a relatively easy game made very hard last boss, which was especially hard for my built. Fighting with him was more like long game of luck and attrition. Try for 15 minutes, one unlucky or wrong move, restart. Some tries was close to winning, but I had no patience (I tried for about 5 hours) and changed it to hawk difficulty. Still needed some tries, but won eventually. Almost all fight on melee. So it is possible, only harder. :) If bosses like that had been in game before, I had prepared for this encounter, but it took me by surprise.
Read Less
Avoid!
Painfully bad. I would recommend not buying or playing this unless you are into mental selfharm.
Beat on the third difficulty (equivalent of hard) during free trial of xbox game pass. I focused on being a warrior and using the 2 handed sword with great emphasis on blocking (called parrying but functions more like hiding behind a shield). I focused my skill points into the passives in the warrior tree with most important being able to parry from the side and rear. I skipped the warcry capstone skill and I think I also skipped the improvements to the area attack.
I also put quite a few skill points into magic to make my guy a hybrid fighter/mage. Burning weapon was my most used spell and I sometimes used the flame shield to reduce damage. I found the basic damage firebolt to be quite useful, especially during boss fights. I ended up going for the capstone skill though this was nearly at the end of the game and I did not find it useful at all.
I put some points in the ranger tree because there were some enemies that were better fought as a ranger than warrior and I did use stealth to try and ambush an enemy before switching back to warrior. I got the …
Beat on the third difficulty (equivalent of hard) during free trial of xbox game pass. I focused on being a warrior and using the 2 handed sword with great emphasis on blocking (called parrying but functions more like hiding behind a shield). I focused my skill points into the passives in the warrior tree with most important being able to parry from the side and rear. I skipped the warcry capstone skill and I think I also skipped the improvements to the area attack.
I also put quite a few skill points into magic to make my guy a hybrid fighter/mage. Burning weapon was my most used spell and I sometimes used the flame shield to reduce damage. I found the basic damage firebolt to be quite useful, especially during boss fights. I ended up going for the capstone skill though this was nearly at the end of the game and I did not find it useful at all.
I put some points in the ranger tree because there were some enemies that were better fought as a ranger than warrior and I did use stealth to try and ambush an enemy before switching back to warrior. I got the basic damage boost for daggers and increased movement speed while parrying, the latter of which I think was a waste of points because I mistakenly thought it applied to the warrior.
A lot of my battles early on were turtling behind my sword and trying to time counters or normal attacks between enemy attacks. With more levels and skills the combat became easier and was more about using flaming weapons for a more offensive style of combat with tactical parries. I only had trouble with the final boss. Throughout the game I had neglected the crossbow and traps and I had to read a guide to find out they were necessary to beat the final boss. So I had to craft as many as I could and hope that was enough because there was no merchant to buy supplies at the end (a serious flaw). I did not like the final boss fight at all.
I took the “good” path through the game by helping others and suppressing the demon. I tried out all ranged companions and found them all useful, though Sybil with her healing was overall best. I wanted to romance her but I messed it up somehow; I think I missed a sidequest. I do not remember what gear I chose to use, but I believe I focused on defense with armor, speed and damage with the sword, and raw damage per second with daggers. I did not like the slower, harder hitting 2 handed weapons.
I enjoyed the game and would buy it to play again on the hardest difficulty, despite the overall roughness of the game. Hoping for the price to go lower than $5 because this game has an extremely low priority since I already beat it.
7/10
Admittedly I don't get enough chances to play as I would like, so it takes me longer to get through games. But thus far I'm thoroughly enjoying this one. it's more like a traditional rpg to me with a heavy reliance on decision-making and building on skill trees. So far, so good. I'm also enjoying the cut-scenes. The character dialogue is great and the soundtrack is particularly awesome.