If first impressions are everything then Bound by Flame is one of the worst action RPGs I’ve played in a long time. The opening hour is dire; it’s also far from an accurate representation of the 29 hours that follow it.
The problems started with the character creation screen, which provides minimal adjustments. You can choose your sex, your name, and pick from a combination of five different preset faces of various ethnicities and five different preset haircuts. All the female faces look the same and none of them are particularly feminine. Scrolling through the various combinations I got the feeling that it was more like a puzzle to match the right hair to the correct face than a customisation screen. In the end I settled for the default face and hair which bears an uncanny resemblance to Hawke from Dragon Age II.
Then away I went, starting my adventure at a crumbling old temple carved into the side of a mountain as Vulcan, a member of The Freeborn Blades. They are a group of sell swords charged with protecting a scholarly group of mystics known as The Red Scribes that were trying to find a way to end a long and bloody war with the Deadwalkers and their necromantic overlords, the Ice Lords. The Ice Lords have carved a bloody swathe from the northern lands to the south, enslaving or murdering every man, woman and elf that gets in their way.
You’re filled in on all these details in an opening cinematic that may have well have said “Last time on Bound by Flame…” like a TV show that had a pilot that never aired but still acts like the audience had magically seen it anyway. Recanting the game’s plot lines and back story in an offhand manner making the player wonder if there is in fact a previous game in the series they needed to play first. Don’t worry, there isn’t. What’s more, the dialogue is god awful, swinging between bad, very bad and so bad it’s good. The guy tasked with playing the mercenary that refers to the Red Scribes completely dead pan as ‘a bunch of scrotums’ deserves an award. OK, maybe not an award, but at least pat a on the head for a job well done.
Despite this, the main cast puts in some relatively solid performances, particularly Robin Atkin Dowes who provides the voice of Bound by Flame’s main protagonist Vulcan. Providing an incredibly entertaining performance with a voice that is very similar to the one he used when he played foul mouthed hit man Travis Touchdown in No More Heroes. I kept expecting him to start screaming the names of random desserts mid battle and telling enemies to fuck off whilst he cut them down. Sadly this never happens, but watching Vulcan wrestling with his literal inner demon like a medieval cross between The Darkness and British comedian Terry Alderton, never ceases to entertain.
It is a pity that most of the tertiary characters sound almost robotic because once the adventure beings proper after Vulcan’s been possessed by a demon and reached the ramshackle hamlet of Valvenor, the narrative begins to really pick up pace and the bum performances of the townsfolk coupled with some lip syncing issue put a dampener on an otherwise great story.
Although the voice acting is far from perfect the game is rather pretty and technically proficient on PS4: running in native 1080p and 30-60fps with cel shaded aesthetic not unlike Borderlands. Mixing thick black lines with solid, bold colours give the world of Bound by Flame a painted quality. When it all comes together it looks great, but occasionally the character models don’t quite mesh with the backgrounds and they feel separated from the world around them. 
Enemy designs are varied and detailed, Bound by Flame’s rogue’s gallery a heady mix of high fantasy and Slavic mythology in a similar manner to The Witcher games. As the ghouls, wraiths and skeletal warriors of the Deadwalker army are accompanied by all manner of beasties from giant spiders to eldritch nightmares and all manner of demonic beasties.
The game’s combat is best described as the bastard child of Dragon Age II and The Witcher 2.
Attacks are tied to square and triangle for light and heavy/ area attacks. There are two main modes of attack available to Vulcan which you cycle between using R1; Warrior mode that focuses on offence by wielding 2 handed weaponry like swords, axes and hammers, used for breaking shields and overpowering enemies, and Ranger Mode that focuses on evasion and speed wielding a pair of daggers for taking out faster beasts. You can also use various flame spells in both modes by holding L2 and pressing an assigned face button, including the usual fireballs and defensive barriers. They’re useful but nothing to write home about. Pressing L3 will enable stealth mode in which you can hopefully creep behind your foes and stab them in the back. Although it rarely ever works.
You can also lay explosive traps for unsuspecting enemies to stumble into as well as replenish your health and mana with potions created via a simple crafting mechanic.
Ranger and Warrior work using a sort of rock paper scissors type arrangement. For example, you can only dodge in Ranger Mode but cannot block heavy attacks. Whereas in Warrior mode you can block heavy attacks but cannot dodge, instead performing a guard break move. Your attacks are more powerful but a hell of a lot slower. 
The main problem with this is that guard break and dodge are both performed by pressing circle, and what is considered a heavy hit isn’t always clear. So occasionally, you’ll find yourself accidentally trying to dodge in Warrior mode or block a heavy attack in ranger mode and getting walloped instead. This problem is compounded by the fact that even the lowliest grunt packs one hell of a punch and the enemy AI is completely unforgiving. As such, it doesn’t take many screw ups before you’re dead on the floor, often within seconds of a fight breaking out. Frustration quickly follows.
When I first started playing it felt like the combat was designed for one v one fights because as soon as the game threw more than one opponent at you, it completely screwed up. Changing targets sporadically, making fights a lot tougher than they ever needed to be. However, this problem is mostly negated by using R3 and the right stick to lock onto targets. You also begin the game with a very narrow blocking window. As such, it was incredibly easy for small groups of enemies to beat the shit out of you.0
Initially combat almost has no sense of impact because the ability to stagger or interrupt enemies is something you have to unlock via levelling. For the first couple of hours it just feels like you are just dancing around until whatever you’re attacking is either dead or ignores your impotent sword waggling and smacks you in the teeth, knocking you off balance and taking a healthy portion of your life meter along with it. This creates an odd kind of disconnect with the game and makes judging the flow of combat difficult to until you recognise the steady back and forth that most of the game’s fights possess.
You also need to keep an eye on what your companion is doing and adjust accordingly because when left to their own devices the friendly AI is completely useless. For example you have to tell them to defend themselves when they are attacked or they will keep ineffectively attacking the enemy whilst making no attempt to defend themselves until they’re inevitably knocked out.
Luckily, issuing orders is an absolute breeze although only relatively basic attack, defend, automatic (seriously avoid using this at all costs!) and character specific skills like healing or magic are available, with a couple of taps of the pad, you’ll have an effective ally in combat.
Most of the combat issues are resolved once you have levelled up a few times by sinking a few points into three skill trees that boost the power of your warrior and ranger modes and pyromancy (fire magic). Unlocking skills that do all sorts of useful things, like staggering enemies, increasing the speed and distance that you can dodge, extending the period in which you can parry and counter attack annnnnd… widening the block window as well as allowing you to block attacks from the side and behind.
You can also purchase feats (perks) that bestow bonuses such as additional health or damage with certain weapons. However, in order to do so you have to perform certain prerequisite tasks before each is available for purchase. For example, in order to be able to unlock Tough (+10 to max health), you first have to be hit by an enemy 20 times. I thought this was a rather cool mechanic as it makes much more sense than the usual perks that just magically make you better at something with no prior experience of it.
Weapons and armour can also be improved by making better parts from the odds and sods that are dropped by vanquished foes, found lying around in trash piles and chests, or bought from blacksmiths and traders. For example you could build a new pommel and guard for your sword, bestowing various buffs like extra damage or elemental effects
The good news is that once you’ve unlocked a few fundamental abilities and perks, and have found some half decent equipment, Vulcan ceases to be such a useless mess and combat becomes a hell of a lot more fun and much more manageable. The bad news is that before you get to this point, which took about two hours of play time and a lot of deaths in the meantime, I can see many people throwing the pad down in frustration and never touching the game again.
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he first boss was pretty much the breaking point for me. It certainly looked the part; a towering demonic behemoth: a lumbering mass of claws teeth and bone. The fight itself is a lesson in terrible boss battles. He was stupidly powerful, had health bars on each limb and depleting one had no effect on the speed or power of its actions whatsoever. If you hit it, the thing didn’t even flinch, carrying on like a fly was buzzing around it. What’s more, it was surrounded by a million fucking minions whose only job seemed to be to artificially increase the difficulty of the fight by making it an absolute nightmare to target the bastard as the camera either swung wildly as the game attempted to auto-target whatever got closest, In the end I was forced to lock on and scroll through numerous minions before I could finally lock on and attack the bugger. And every time it hit you, you lost the lock. In short it was tiring and difficult for all the wrong reasons, crossing that fine line between challenging and broken.
After wildly lashing at it enough times with my wet noodle of a sword and getting enough lucky hits in with my new fireball powers, it finally went down and I was rewarded with a very satisfying cut scene in which Vulcan guts the bastard. Spurred on by this I decided to press on, because as a semi professional critic it’s my job to make sure a game is completely irredeemable before I write it off entirely.
I’m happy that I did because once I got past the awkward opening and the adventure begins proper. Exploring the semi open world, helping villagers, taking sides in various internal conflicts and navigating the games minefield of moral dilemmas, that aren’t always as black and white as they first appear, it’s clear that Bound By Flame is well worth your time.
Do you side with the local lord or the downtrodden refugees? Do you let the demon take over your mind and body to obtain the power you need to defeat the Ice Lords or, do you try to find another way? 
If you decide to give into the demons demands and relinquish your humanity, you’ll be given a boost to your offensive capabilities with additional extremely powerful fire spells and other demonic abilities. Your physical state will also change as the demon slowly takes over, eventually transforming Vulcan into a fiery beast. This affects not only the game’s final outcome, but also how your companions treat you. Some won’t mind, others will eventually be repulsed by your appearance and others become hostile. If you stave off the demon’s incessant whisperings in your ear and maintain your humanity, the path to success is harder because of the lack of additional powers and you’ll need to find other people to help you overcome certain obstacles and the outcome of the game will also be significantly different.
The whole system reminded me a lot of the Sith/Jedi dynamic from Knights of the Old republic. Succumbing to the dark side made the game a hell of a lot easier, but playing as a Jedi made the game more worthwhile in the long run. The same is true of Bound By Flame.
Like Bioware’s classic in Bound by Flame your resolve is constantly tested as the choices come thick, and fast. You’ll often find yourself wondering whether you made the right choice or if you missed some vital fact as pretty much nothing is what it seems and few characters are what I would call trustworthy.
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espite the poor quality of some of the dialogue you’ll want to press on to see what happens next. The game’s main cast are varied, entertaining and fleshed out. Even if some of them feel like they’ve been lifted practically wholesale from other tales like the sarcastic, self serving witch – Edwen; that bears more than a slight resemblance to Dragon Age’s Morrigan. Or the stout and noble warrior Randvall who speaks entirely in the third person, and is best described as a weird mix of Game of Thrones’ Khal Drogo and Jaqen H’ghar.
So should you bother with Bound by Flame? It’s a tricky one. Despite some serious misgivings during its opening, I eventually did find myself succumbing to its quirky charms. The opening is a mess, it’s poorly translated and far from original, but somehow, despite these issues, Spider’s have managed to create a game that works despite any logical reasoning. It’s the gaming equivalent of a triple fried egg with chili sauce and chutney sandwich. It sounds awful, it sounds disgusting, but once you have it in your mouth you’ll wonder why you never tried it sooner.
So long as you can overcome your initial misgivings and power through the first couple awkward hours, Bound by Flame will reward your bloody mindedness and faith with a fantastic adventure that is well worth sacrificing a long weekend for.
