Bueno,por fin he terminado el juego asi que procedo a su analisis;

En primer lugar,el juego es bastante distinto a lo visto en sus trailers y material promocional,siendo un producto bastante inferior a lo que se nos pueda hacer pensar.
Localizaciones escasas,repetitivas y lineales,enemigos que se repiten hasta la saciedad(debe de haber 5 tipos de enemigo en el juego,mas los "jefes") lo cual termina por hacerlo muy pesado.

La trama prometia pero se queda en un quiero y no puedo y sin toma de decisiones real,ya que estas no tienen un cambio gradual en el juego,son "si o no" e independientes una de otra,por lo que podemos ser buenos unas veces y malos otras y dara lo mismo.
La historia no esta bien hilada,basicamente desde el prologo sabemos el objetivo y el resto de submisiones que hacemos no tienen mucha "gracia" y consisten siempre en lo msimo, ir a X punto a buscar/matar algo y ademas tiene un final muy abrupto(una de las elecciones finales hace que no veamos ni epilogo).

Y ,finalmente,se ve muy(pero muchisimo) lacrado por su sistema de combate que,pretendiendo ser dificil,lo cual no es malo pero,solo consigue ser pesado,tosco y soporifero.Tenemos 2 ataques(de los cuales uno no he utilizado nunca por su inutilidad) y posibilidad de cubrirnos o esquivar(esto solo en el modo "picaro").
Las ramas de habilidades no aportan nada interesante salvo un par de excepciones y la progresion en el juego es inapreciable ya que los enemigos en cada zona son mas fuertes proporcionalmente al Lv que tengamos por lo que siempre tardaremos bastante en los combates(y moriremos bastante por algunos fallos con las guardias,esquives y golpes que nos tiran al suelo dejandonos indefensos mas tiempo del debido).

Mencion especial a los NPC que nos acompañan en ocasiones,son lo mas inutil que he visto en ningun juego.No importa que les ordenes(tienen de 2 a 4 opciones) no son mas que "tanques" que reciben ataques sin parar(no van a esquivar nunca) y mueren en pocos segundos,aunque claro,los enemigos tampoco destacan por su inteligencia y se dedicaran unicamente a perseguirnos y atacar(algunos jefes llegan incluso a spamear ataques con lo que no puedes hacer nada hasta que decidan parar).

*Mencion re-especial a la batalla final,descompensadisima con el resto del juego,hay un salto de dificultad tremendo del anterior jefe a este y no se puede salir de la zona por lo que si no tenemos pociones ,equipo,Lv y materiales adecuados puede que terminemos teniendo que reempezar el juego o volver a un punto de guardado anterios(si lo tenemos).

En definitiva,huid del juego si os piden mas de 5 euros,por menos,si no teneis otras opciones,os servira para pasar el rato pero no espereis mucho de el.

La mejor definición es: un action rpg con síndrome de superioridad.
A ver,en ningún caso es un mal juego,pero es un querer y no poder continuo.Su mayor enemigos es el mismo,promete continuamente una historia super épica que no siendo mala,pues lo dicho,no es lo que esperas despues de las expectativas que te crea el propio juego.Este aire de superioridad como podemos adivinar no lo solo hace que seamos mas críticos con la historia,si no con el resto del juego.

El mayor defecto del juego,el "por que" lo hace peor de lo que podía ser es:por que en mi opinión han tratado hacer un triple A,sin el dinero que requiere y sin tener el talento necesario para cubrir una carencia de presupuesto y que no se notase.

En su lado positivo hay que decir que el juego se ve muy trabajado (bajo las limitaciones que ya dije claro) y que los diálogos (spoiler) protagonista con el demonio que lleva dentro,son lo mejor de la historia (fin spoiler).
Hay personajes que nos quedarán en el recuerdo,curioso siendo este un titulo peor que otros de su genero,tiene personajes mas carismáticos en general.

El diseño de personajes es algo desigual,siendo los monstruos los mejor resueltos y mejor diseñados,los humanos se ven menos trabajados y sobre todo el pelo esta muy mal acabado.
Los mapas son muy pasilleros y poco inspirados,cumplen sin mas.

En lo que se refiere a la jugabilidad en general: me ha gustado bastante el sistema de combate,profundo pero simple a la vez,y la variedad de habilidades que podemos aprender;también resaltaría la gran variedad de armaduras,armas y objetos que tiene este titulo,sin llegar a ser enorme,es una cantidad mas que razonable.
Mi nota:7

Es corto y copia de otros muchos juegos...Pero: Tienes que darle una oportunidad. En ocasiones es extremadamente difícil. Pero una vez que le pillas el sistema de combate, que es de lo mejorcito, lo dixfrutas cantidad. Muy rejugable si quieres tomar distintas decisiones en el juego y enterarte mas de la trama que, para mì, es de lo mas interesante. Algunos aspectos del juego me recuerdan a Dragón Age salvando las distancias

No puedo decir que el juego me haya decepcionado, pero si diré que esperaba mas, mucho mas de el.
Es entretenido si, pero es grotesco a veces como te moves, como actúas, parece sobre actuada cada acción que esas es exagerado.
Voy a darle una nueva oportunidad, pero no puedo recomendarlo por sus costo y por que el juego quedo a medio camino entre lo que pretendía, y lo que lanzaron es un juego mal terminado, mal optimizado, con muy poca claridad en las ideas de como encarar un combate, tenes variedad de armas, skill y formas de encarar la lucha, pero siempre caeras en el mismo estilo ya que es muy complicado el encadenar golpes, hechizos y demas opciones de los menus de lucha, todo esto destruyo todo el potencial del titulo y a eso sumemosle un costo altísimo.

Sir Faulty's Scorecard

Personal Rating: "Worth purchasing"
Traditional Rating: 7.5 out of 10
Genre: Action Role Playing Game

The Demon Within

Bound by Flame, the new action role playing game from Spiders (the same people that gave us Orcs and Men and Mars: War Logs) is clearly a game made on a tight budget and you can see, feel and hear it as you play the game. It's messy, clichéd and incredibly rough around the edges but after playing it for a few hours you can immediately see that for all Spiders faults this is a company that passionately loves what it does putting what resources it has to rather good use and that is part of the charm of playing a Spiders game. If you are looking for a AAA quality role playing game made on an over-inflated budget with the promise of an open world (with ironically very little to actually do) then it's probably best you look elsewhere but if you are a gamer who isn't so easily blinded by the strobe-light of the big publishing houses hype-train, enjoy a tighter more focused experience then I would encourage you to give Bound by Flame a go. You may, as I was, be in for a rather pleasant surprise.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=343035020
Taking on the role of a mercenary in a land that is ravished by seven power hungry and greedy Ice-Lords who command an army of the undead (you will only ever encounter one of them throughout the entire game), Bound by Flame plays out pretty much like a fantasy-lite version of Mass Effect with consequence and effect. Possessed by a flame demon it is up to you, the player, to harness the power of the demon and control it for the good of what is left of mankind or let the demon harness you in its own pursuit for world domination.

From a story telling point there isn't much new here on display that we haven't seen already in countless fantasy games, books or movies so in effect you won't really be playing Bound by Flame for its strong narrative. Characters aren't particularly well fleshed out and simply exist to fill in the genres staple trope of healer, witch, ranger and knight (of which you get the chance to toggle between as companions during your adventure through the lands of Vertiel). While the game may be lacking in characterization it certainly makes up for it with its zany and often offbeat sense of humor. Most of the people you engage with in the world will often say the most inane and ludicrous things which had me laughing out loud on more than one occasion. This was something I was not really expecting, particularly from an RPG where you are once again cast in the shoes as eternal savior.

The game also falters somewhat by recycling many of the enemies you encounter repeatedly only ever introducing one or two new enemies into the mix the further you explore. I can't really fault the game on this though given the limited budget the developers were probably working within. Some parts of the game also look incredibly rushed and I have a feeling this was probably due to getting the game out onto the new consoles as quickly as possible since both the PS4 and XBONE are still severely lacking in quality first party titles so a sale here should reap far more rewards than releasing when each new consoles product backlog is booming. With that being said though, Bound by Flame does look rather good in some of its incredibly limited environments.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=340055068
Where Bound by Flame does shine is with its incredibly fast, fluid and responsive combat. Combat in Bound by Flame moves at a frantic clip and is a joy to play as you switch in and out of play styles (dual-wielding, warrior and pyromancer). It does take some time getting used to though which has the effect of making the earlier part of the game a difficult slog as you settle into a style that suits you best but once you master its intricacies and you learn when to parry and when to strike an enemy the game becomes incredibly fun to play. As you level up you are also given the choice to plow points into one of three skill trees that makes the game a little more easier depending on the route you choose.

I chose to invest most of my points into the ranger (expert) and pyromancer skill tree which made the game seem remarkably easier than it intitally was upon booting it up for the first time. Bound by Flame, whilst no where near Dark Souls level of difficulty, can at times be incredibly challenging and you will need to be constantly aware of the enemies surrounding you else you will get cornered and hammered to death within seconds. Some of Bound by Flames enemies are brutal and hit particularly hard and I found the ranger's doge ability to be a lifesaver during these intense sequences. You can also craft your own supplies and augment your weaponry and armour with items that give you stat boosts plus add certain magical types of resistance.

During combat you will often be accompanied by one of the companions mentioned above and you are given the ability to enter into a tactical menu (which slows the entire game down) while you issue orders to your sidekick during battle. This is not Dragon Age: Origins however, so don't go in expecting as intricate a system as that classic. I found that generally getting each companion to block most incoming attacks directed at them worked wonders in keeping them alive during battle so that they provided more aid than hinderance. Thankfully Bound by Flame allows you to save your progress at any given point so you will never feel like you are replaying swathes of the game just to advance. If I have a gripe here it's that companions can't really die and even if they fall in battle once the fight is over they wil be back up and running as if nothing had happend before. This was a slight disappointment as I was hoping that their losses in battle would result in their deaths which in turn would have some sort of impact on the game world and its storyline but alas this was not the case.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=339439208

Conclusion

Bound by Flame is now my sleeper hit of 2014. I can whole-heartily say that I loved most of every minute of it (even with all of its flaws) and had I paid heed to all the negative criticism the game got I would have probably denied myself the pleasures of its rustic charm. While certainly no classic its definitely a game I can recommend to anyone who loves a challenging aRPG diversion and is the perfect title to tide you over until the next big RPG hitters arrives in the form of Dragon Age: Inquistion and The Witcher 3.

So, I'll start out by saying there is no way this game is worth the £29,99 price tag that it has currently - at most it should be £20 and even that could be said to be pushing it.

The graphics look pretty good to be honest, yes you may need quite a beefy rig to play them on full, but they are well worth it. The actual game play represents a classic Action Game, consisting all of the usuals, heavy attacks, blocks, swipe attacks, as well as your magic abilities. The combt system can feel a little clunky to begin with, but once you work out the timings on when to block and parry attacks, it's OK.

I would say the mainstory is a little short for the price tag. I finished the game in just under fourteen hours. I would highly recommend you finish the majority of the side missions as to get a few levels advantage over the story, as some of the end bosses are quite challenging.

That being said, the bosses in Bound by Flame have a very Dark Souls'esk feel to them. You have to work out the best stratergy to take them down, often resulting in a number of failed attempts before it finally clicks.

All in all, this is a pretty good game, but I would wait until sale season starts before you pick it up since it is certainly not worth the full price tag.

I generally hate it when people reduce a work in any medium down to what it bears the most obvious similarities to. It strikes me as doing a disservice to the work, and more to the point, as being critically lazy. The problem when discussing something like Bound by Flame, then, is that you really can’t get around doing so, because it is very deliberately meant to be a low-priced spin on Dragon Age. It’s got enough of its own merits that it comes off as a homage or a work by fans rather than a deliberate case of follow-the-leader, with a surprisingly funny script, although it completely loses focus as you move into the third chapter, and a combat engine that has some genuinely interesting ideas built into it. The problem is that it’s not quite done yet, although there’s enough here that a theoretical sequel could be something special.

The player in Bound by Flame is Vulcan, a build-your-own hero in the Bioware tradition who has given up his or her previous life to serve as a demolitions specialist in a mercenary company called the Freeborn Blades. The Blades, as the game starts, are one of the only surviving organized groups in the world of Vertiel, which is currently under siege by an army of undead led by the Lords of Ice. Most nations have fallen, with the elves left as the last civilization standing, and all the Lords have to do is bat cleanup.

The Blades are hired to provide security for another organization, the Red Scribes, as they conduct a ritual that’s meant to provide some last chance at survival, if not victory. Vulcan’s in the wrong place at the wrong time as the ritual concludes and ends up as the unwitting host of a previously-unknown entity: a demon with powers over flame.

The central ethical issue in Bound by Flame is how much free rein you’re going to give the demon. The more power you get from it, the more it changes Vulcan’s body; soon your skin darkens to black, you sprout horns, and you end up with parts of your body constantly on fire. If you side with the surviving humans and try to save as many of them as you can along the way, you deny the demon. If you listen to its advice and ignore all other concerns in the name of gaining enough power to challenge the Lords directly, you give the demon what it wants.

The demon’s abilities represent one of three skill trees that are available to you. The Warrior tree uses a single two-handed sword and focuses on damage resistance, sheer power, and delivering massive damage with a few slow swings. The Ranger tree combines stealth and rapid attacks into a sort of swashbuckler option, sacrificing damage resistance in favor of dodges and counterattacks. Finally, the Pyromancer tree provides you with a hundred and one ways to set undead on fire.

You can switch between the three skill trees at will and improve each one point by point every time you level up. Each has an ultimate ability that’s unlocked when you invest at least 24 points into it, and heavy investment in a single tree makes the game a very different experience. In practice, you’re going to be a Warrior or Ranger with occasional points spent in Pyromancer, and both approaches are intuitive and reasonably fun with a little practice. The enemies telegraph their attacks far enough in advance that you can figure out ways to deal with them, and you have a number of alternate options like explosive traps and a crossbow that you can use to help even the odds.

If anything, the skill trees are too top-heavy. If you try to spread your points around, the early areas will prove difficult. You really want to improve Burning Weapon as fast as you can, because even standard enemies tend to have tons of health, and whatever you can do to whittle them down is worth doing.

In fact, one of the major criticisms I have of Bound by Flame is its difficulty. The combat system feels pretty good once you get used to it, but any enemy with the ability to knock you down can easily kill you, and there won’t be much you can do about it. Some kind of rapid recovery or roll would go a long way towards removing the frustration.

You can have a companion NPC with you for most of the game, but they’re usually not a factor aside from absorbing a few stray hits; enemies usually mob your companion straight away and kill him or her, then turn to you once they’re done. You have to work around that tendency for companions to be worth a damn. They all seem to have a death wish, and it’s rare that they survive even a simple fight.

In short, Bound by Flame feels like it’s harder than it needs to be. Standard enemies are tough enough to kill you in a few lucky hits, bosses can send you flying or corner you with little difficulty, and it’s rare that a death feels fair. Combined with the script losing cohesion at around the halfway point, Bound by Flame has an unfinished, generally unpolished feel that sometimes makes it a frustrating game to play.

It’s entertaining enough despite its faults that it’s worth checking out. If Spiders gets the chance to put together a sequel, with a more cohesive story and another pass or two on the combat system, this could be the start of a fun series.


Be sure to check out Nerd House Gaming for more reviews!

I have played through twice but both times on easy setting. I bought this game initally because of the opportunity it gives to play as female and the rpg character customisation and development is something I really enjoy. I also was hoping the story and romances would be good too.
The charcter creation is basic, barely ok. Also I would recommend you not bother to change the name because Vulcan is the only name you get called in the game. I didnt bother changing my name in the second playthrough. I rather liked being called by name rather than 'friend, boss, hero or other generic title'
I think the story was ok, definitely a few plotholes. The first part is very complete and well done and the last two chapters rushed and with bits missing. There was a lot of death in this game, I didnt like that my character ended up killing another main character who I wouldnt choose to kill under any circumstances.
I liked the combat, I was glad I could mix it up a lot. I missed fast travel back to camp but I suspect that was never implented as the game would end up being really short. So going to and fro and fighting the same respawning enemies felt a little bit of a cheap way to level. (I got the feeling a large chunk of the story and game was cut out)
I am glad I got the choice of endings and some other choices throughout the game (didnt like the 'heroic' choice option) but can live with it.
I think the crafting and armour upgrades was well done. I liked the interface and the maps. I loved Mathras, his character was the star of the show. Randval was also well acted, and Sybil and that nasty sorceror lady. Female hero's voice and acting wasnt so good, not sure about male.
I would give this game a 7/10 as I enjoyed it enough to play it through twice.

This game is ok, teetering towards bad. The game has few redeeming qualitie. The combat system is rather boring and repetitive with there only being about 10, including bosses, enemy types all of which function rather similarly to each other with big "get out of the way" tells. When it manages to execute itself well, it feels moderately rewarding and is nice to look at, however there are a fair number of wonky hit boxes, awkward animations, and the staggerable archers that can shoot arrows behind them. The plot is rather uninteresting and full of that sort of cliche edginess to it with awkward vulgarity and do this or I will beat your skull in lines of dialogue. The characters are at times enjoyable, but for the most part lack any sort of depth or development, and your companions contributions to the battlefield little more than a distracting meatshield for a few seconds before them dying a brutal death and laying on the ground for the next 5 minutes of boss combat.
All in all I would rate this game at 2-2.5/5. If you can get it cheap, it has enough charm to stomach a play through, but with the entire game, with the majority of side content completed, taking around 15 hours to complete, it certainly is not worth it's $40 price tag.

This has got to be one of the most annoying games I've played in years.

It starts off all right, but as I moved through the story I ghot more and more frustated by the minut.

ok anyway, good and bad things about the game.

GOOD

- the combat is more skill based than other games
- the combat can actually be challenging at times, that's a good thing
- the animations are smooth and so is the gameplay
- the loot (for you loot ♥♥♥♥♥s) is easy to get, press e, boom. No going through bags and stuff, you just get it all.
- the UI, inventory, quest management and so on is pretty well organised and easy to follow
- the idea for the core of the story is not bad
- swear words! I like swear words in computer games!
- the voice acting is pretty good even if the actual text is really weak

and that's it, I honestly can not think of anything else that's good about the game. (in my experience and from my point of view).


THE BAD

- it boasted player choice, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, I can not count the amount of times I was given a choice, only for the opposite of what I'd chosen to be forced on me. Even when rescuing a guy who got lost in the sewars, I was forced to bring him back to camp before moving on in the sewars just a little further to complete a second quest that was close by
- the conversations with NPCs are bad, terrible
- it's a rip off of Dragon Age in many ways even going as far as having the "suspicious witch" (Morrigan)
- there was a tooltip saying that it was important to shop when in town. I was looking forward to going to town, you never do.
- speaking of which, nothing I found in shops was ever useful to me
- the enemies are totally unbalanced (I don't mean too hard, I mean sometimes too easy and sometimes too hard). Not to mention the last boss who is ♥♥♥♥ing ridiculous even if you switch down to easy mode. I had a harder time fighting 3 recruits than the Lord of Ice
- the "classes" are forced on you, I wanted to play 100% warrior but leveled much higher and maxed that tree early on.
- the story is really short, there are only 4 acts and there really aren't many hours of gameplay
- the friends you take with you are entirely useless !! I mean totally useless, they do no damage at all to the NPC enemies, the only use in having them tag along is in tanking some of the lowbie mobs (for a short while before they die)
- though the combat is the strong part of the game (imo) some aspects of it drove me mad. For example, it does happen that in the case of point and click fights I spam the mouse button. That usually isn't a problem but in this game, the commands are chained for a bit, so if the mob does something which requires you to use another skill, you have to wait for the chain of attacks which you spammed to finish. That was very annoying.
- You'll probably finish the game in less than 20 hours even if you do all the side quests.. that's very short imo.


Some people asked on forums whether this game was like Dark Soul, I haven't played Dark Soul yet, however I can tell you that on normal difficulty (Hawk), I died regularly in common fights. That's a good thing though, cause there is a bit of player skill involved in the combat.

One last thing, I didn't put the graphics in either good or bad because even though they are not very good, they aren't very bad either. The environment is mostly cartoony than real but I guess that also means you get a high FPS and smooth gameplay.

All in all, even though I bought this game with a 75% discount, I regreted it and would only recommend it for someone looking for a cheap RPG but who has really nothing else to play.

PS The last boss is ridiculous, did I mention that?

Okay, there are quite a few posts in discussions about the combat system saying it's too hard and companions are useless.
I urge you to please not be put off by these.

Some are correct some things they say such as the companion having trouble following you or the action and may remain stuck or wandering.

If your companion has suddenly vanished while exploring, back track until you find him/her then just walk around at different angles while moving away from them until they resume to follow, failing that, find a door or a gap to go through and somehow they get teleported to beyond that crossing point (you may need to wander off then return to the door/gap to see your companion). This mainly happened in the swamp and around the final area called Black Frosts Domain.

Tip for better companion fighting: They are a bit weak in the health department so you being the hero need to aggro and eliminate the stronger more deadlier enemies first, while your doing this your companion may thank you with a nice ice blast or if your lucky some mind control. If they do die and you find yourself a bit deep, run away and let them get back on their feet - you may be quick enough to revive your companion before the enemy you are fighting gets their health back.

Now in terms of general combat, yes it is hard but you need to practice and I mean practice. Some fights you will not win unless you can use the Q key to dodge while in Assassin stance or use SPACE while in Warrior stance to parry. Timing is essential with these and with good practice you may not even be hit. Once you understand and have achieved this sense of timing then things become very rewarding when you beat a tough fight. Focus carefully on the skill tree as well, don't scramble your points. Try and focus on your preferred fighting style while utilising the best pyro branches for that style of choice. Do not forget about your other stance how ever, do feel free to try and balance the weaker stance out by going for what is needed, remember your main stance is your offensive stance.

Hope this helped in some way in regards to the combat up roar, the game really is a nice one to play and has great choices for you to develop the plot/story. Graphics are not up there in the top of the list but some areas still look stunning and there are some errors with the subtitles like wrong words but after some time you don't pay attention to them. I rate this 8/10.

the Good: - great visuals/graphics
- good music, good (enough) voice acting
- engaging story, interesting characters
- great leveling and equipment upgrading systems
- fun combat

the Bad: - controls out of combat are sluggish (can get stuck on corners)
- quest log and map could use improvement
- very limited character creation

Bound by Flame is a very good game overall, just keep in mind that it is not a big-budget, AAA title. It's a little rough around the edges, the characters aren't too deep or memorable, but the story is good and the combat and crafting aspects are fun. Give this one a chance (and a little time to grow on you) and you'll probably find a hidden gem.

Firstly I have recorded the entirity of my first playthough for youtube, the playlist is here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNzEgKaq7dj7x1jZM4PGdtgljJ2f84Kmx

My decision to play this game was to compare Mars War Logs and Bound by Flames. Because just look at them they are so much alike as far as how they play and to a degree the story.

Pros:
- Visuals are nice.
- Characters for the most part are well designed and though out.
- The story is interesting up until the ending.
- The dialouge and voice acting is for the most part good.

Cons:
- Ending is odd, something of a cop out from making the rest of the game.
- Doesn't feel like you have much of a choice between embrassing the demon or using him up until the end.
- Try to feel open world but the enviroments are not large enough to accomplish it.
- The content snowballs, from spending a decent amount of time in the initial zones, to rushing through the last two zones.
- Combat can be very frusterating, for all the wrong reasons. Most fights of any notability are just a matter of mashing the right button, doesn't so much feel like you are doging attacks or making a strategic decision.
- Out of place feeling when the character are using curse words, it just doesn't feel like it fits, to modern for the setting of the game.

Other Thoughs:
- There are some bugs and oddities in the game. Sometimes the voice actor say one thing, but the subtitles say another.
- Some character you never feel as though you know or care about.


Overall I would recommend the game. Its not going to be the best that you have ever played, but it is decently fun and entertaining. After all that is the reason we play video games.

Bound by Flame is a 3rd Person Action RPG by Spiders Studios. You play as a mercenary who must save his land from a walking dead army through the use of powers granted to you by a demon.

Bound by Flame is very rough around the edges, full of "jank" as some lovingly, or not so lovingly, describe. It is evident in myriad ways, from the dialog, to animation, to overall plot of the story. This is not some extremely polished AAA title, but it is not without its charm. Ultimately it had enough of that charm to keep me playing until I completed the story.

The gameplay is similar to Legend of Zelda, or a very paired down God of War. There are no combos, kill streaks, or anything of that sort. You can parry, block and dodge attacks; choose from 3 main strong style weapons (axe, hammer, sword); try stealth mode with daggers; or use a small selection of fire-based spells to attack your enemies. Combat can go a little slow at times, with some enemies having a lot of health, and I found myself at times running around in circles so I could slowly heal or chug some health potions. Your companions are mostly useless, but the one that casts healing spells can come in handy at times. Overall, I wouldn't call the combat the game's strongest point, since it can get very repetitive. There is not much variety in types of attacks, and you will be battling the same types of enemies over and over and over.

The graphics in Bound by Flame are impressive for a smaller studio. There are glitches here and there with the occasional floating piece of armor, but overall I liked the way the world looked. Some of the character faces are a little bland, but I liked the look of most of the enemies.

The dialog and voice work was probably my favorite part of the game. There is a very peculiar sense of humor present in this game, with the hero never beyond dropping a witty one line when the option presents itself. I did find the frequent use of curse words to be quite funny, because who wouldn't want to drop an F bomb at an Ice Lord trying to take over your realm.

The story is not something that hasn't been seen before. You can see bits and pieces of other works present in the plot, but overall it works. I was a little surprised when the game ended, because it seemed like everything was just wrapped up a little too quickly and there were still many threats that were discussed but never addressed. Also, the endings didn't really do enough to tell you what happened. Some major characters were just never mentioned at all. One ending just cuts to the credits without really giving you any idea of what was going to happen. That was disappointing.

Overall, Bound by Flame is a game I can recommend, but just barely. I believe its short length works in its favor, because although there still seemed like there was much to do in Vertiel, there wasn't enough variety in combat and enemy types to keep me wanting to do it much longer. I enjoyed the ride for what it was, a campy 10-15 hour fantasy RPG.

Grade: B-

Let me first start out by saying I don't mind hard games. I enjoy the challenge of doing blind playthroughs of games on the hardest difficulty and seeing how well I can learn and adapt to steep odds. While this game is hard, there are a lot of things in there that just seem to be a result of lazy programming. The problems are:

No control over combos. Want to do that one move that stuns your enemy or a quick blow in between your enemie's attacks? TOO BAD the fighting in this game boils down to who can flail the hardest as you have no control over which attacks you do. There are really no combos other than Left click, left click, left click x 1 billion and they all do random ♥♥♥♥. Sometimes you will do a heavy swipe that will stun your opponent, sometimes the very same heavy strike will not stun the SAME EXACT opponent. Sometimes left click will have your character do a forward lunge and sometimes it wont. ♥♥♥♥ just happens when you click LMB. The only logic that I could get from the combos is that it might be affected by the distance between your character and the target you want to hit at the moment you press left click and thats pretty much it.

Enemies that do a ♥♥♥♥ ton of damage while you do very little damage. This is a a horrible part of the game since oftentimes you will be fighting against mobs of enemies and when every enemy you fight is a tank that hits you like a truck, combat isnt fun, its a chore because 1 or 2 mistakes will mean you're dead and have to redo almost 10 minutes of gameplay.

Being stuck in an infinite stun lock against groups of enemies is a thing and completely ruins the combat. There's this one part pretty early in the game where you have to train new recruits how to fight and they BEAT THE ♥♥♥♥ OUT OF YOU because they all knew how to coordinate their attacks so you'd never be able to retaliate unless you wanted to get hit once and die.

The counter system is buggy and useless against getting stunlocked by groups of enemies. A big part of Bound by flames combat is to perfectly block an attack leading to a counter. Since your character pretty much has no attacks that can stun his opponent leading to actual combos, this is pretty important since the only way to do damage is to contantly press LMB until you see the monster rear back for his attack animation and then hit you. However, sometimes, even if you react perfectly you will still take the damage even if your block comes out right.

TLDR: Buggy combat, enemies op and you are underpowered, a guy kicked me out of my block and proceeded to keep kicking me while I was down so I couldnt recover until I died.

This game has been on my radar for some time. I was worried about difficulty of the game and the fact that reviews were not to optimistic; however, the game was not as difficult as I imagined and I was able to finish it quite quickly. Game story is great and the atmosphere of the game feels like combination of Risen or Witcher. There is no thievery mechanics but combat is quite nice especially as a ranger/pyromancer combo. The game is quite linear but it has tons of side quests to keep you occupied. I bought it on 75% sale at $9.99 and I can say it is worth every penny.

Pros
+ Great story
+ Nice graphics
+ Companion relationship development
+ Combat
+ Boss Fights

Cons
- Linear
- Short

+good atmosphere
+great music
+challenging fights
+good story

-too short

Playing through this game was an experience i won't forget, it have a rich story line that i lived myself into considering i only opened the game to see what it was about and it took me 11 hours to close the game again and that was only because i needed to get some sleep, and then i finished the game the next morning(afternoon woke up late in the day after going to bed at 9am.) but over all i don't regret throwing my money at this game, i had fun and after a total of 12.9 hours, i added another game to my completed games list.

GL & HF.

To start with, this is a game that any and all can easily come to love and enjoy. This is an epic story and cinematic in a game that has all the action and queting an RPG lover would ask for. It does sadly depend on each and every choice you make to shape the story for the plotline, so you might have to replay the game several times to see it all. I sugest save as often as you can for that and all that will be left is pure enjoyment.
I am a little saddened that it is so short but it was time well wasted.

Lets keep it simple.
Dark Fantasy Story : 8/10
RPG Elements: 9/10
Sound: 6/10
Music: 9/10
Gameplay:8/10

If you are looking for a challenging and rewarding Dark Fantasy Action RPG, this is it. Wait for it to be on sale, hit the install, and have fun. The combat can be unfair at times, but this is not Dark Souls. The action combat is like Witcher & Gothic had a baby. The skill trees are great and very fun to test out. The voice acting is ....meh, but I have seen worse movies. The soundtrack is quite good, you won't be humming anything at work, but adds to the game. You can't compare this game to some AAA title. The effort and love put into this game shows at its core. Spiders had a story to tell and they had fun doing it. Enjoy!