Bound by Flame

 PC
User Score
6.8

Mixed or average reviews- based on 437 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 219 out of 437
  2. Mixed: 136 out of 437
  3. Negative: 82 out of 437

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  1. Wivvix
    Jun 29, 2014
    4
    I persevered with this game a lot longer than I thought I would, and a lot longer than I SHOULD have.
    I reached level 25 and now I've pretty much given up on this game, because what little it has going for it, is just overwhelmingly drowned out by the disastrous combat mechanics.
    The combat is terrible, slow, clunky and imprecise. The AI is utterly dreadful. Your companions are    I persevered with this game a lot longer than I thought I would, and a lot longer than I SHOULD have.
    I reached level 25 and now I've pretty much given up on this game, because what little it has going for it, is just overwhelmingly drowned out by the disastrous combat mechanics.

    The combat is terrible, slow, clunky and imprecise. The AI is utterly dreadful. Your companions are virtually useless in combat and you have remarkably little control over them, also probably because the AI is just terrible.

    The graphics are dated. The voice acting is mediocre. The RPG elements are superficial at best, and the 'choices' presented to the player largely don't have any agency whatsoever on the progression of the story.

    Probably the biggest let-down is the story. It's basically all filler. Complete and utter guff.
    The amount of coherent lore in this game could be squeezed, succinctly, onto one sheet of A4 paper.

    At times this game reminded me of Dragon Age 2, but in retrospect that's really unfair on Dragon Age 2. This game is so much worse, I personally wouldn't pay $5 for it, having played it.
    It's possibly the worst RPG I've had the misfortune of paying good money for.

    My advice is to save your money and play Skyrim or Witcher 2 again. You won't find anything good here.    … Expand
  2. Archulysses
    Dec 12, 2016
    4
    Story - The general synopsis of the game was interesting at first but such execution of the story was bad, rushed and became ridiculous at times. The summary of the story follows: The event starts during the time the land of Vertiel is in war against a number of immortal necromancers known as the Ice lords. The protagonist (nicknamed as Vulcan) is a bomb specialist working for a knownStory - The general synopsis of the game was interesting at first but such execution of the story was bad, rushed and became ridiculous at times. The summary of the story follows: The event starts during the time the land of Vertiel is in war against a number of immortal necromancers known as the Ice lords. The protagonist (nicknamed as Vulcan) is a bomb specialist working for a known mercenary group named Freeborn Blades. The Freeborn Blades mission is to protect the Red Scribes in their ritual to what could be their only hope to fight and defeat the Ice lords. Upon the occurrence of unforeseen events and accidents, Vulcan was possessed by a demon and together they should work to defeat the powerful enemies of the game. The question now is how, should you use your own power and reject the demons temptations or use the power of fire to obliterate your foes. Really, the story is good at first set up, but fails to perform well since first, the dialogue's are bad and overuse of swearing and profanity ingame. Next the characters are all uninteresting and looks like bad carbon copies of notable Bioware or CD Projekt Red characters and the storyline is bad overall cause its short and the decisions you make even in sidequests doesnt even affect that much in the ending or in the game. Therefore, a poor score of 4/10 deserves this bad performance.

    Gameplay - The Gameplay likewise has its ton of problems. If you will describe it...it is like a poor result of the mixture of arkham's freeflow system and witcher's fighting mechanics. The cons are many: first, the enemy difficulty are unbalanced in that regard that they can easily kill you in one or three hits even on the lower difficulties. The controls are slow to react. The stances of the dagger and sword are unbalanced in that the dagger is obviously the superior ones and the fact that your enemies heal in full health if they go out of their aggro zone...even if you intended it or just an accident. due to this factors this game gives you uneccesary difficulty not in the dark soul kind of way but due to the bad gameplay mechanic itself.However not all is bad like the crafting being simple and easy to do and the system where you can upgrade and personally craft your armors and weapons parts to make them look good aesthetically and better. Considering all those factors, this part deserves a score of 3/10 again.

    Graphics - considering that this game also has a platform in the last gen consoles. I should expect that bigger improvements could be seen in the current gen consoles but alas, it is not so. The environments are all small and the graphics despite being good if you consider the style they use to be comical but regardless as an overall, it is still poor if not below average. The character design and movement are likewise bad and the stages are all short, narrow that exploration is not really a significant part of the game. Overall, a score of 3/10 will do.

    Music and sound - Ill give a good news and bad news on this part. first is the bad news, voice acting and the sound overall is bad but i can see some effort in this regard. for the good news however (Which is the only silver lining of the game) is the music, its soundtrack is amazing and pretty to listen too, however ingame it is dissapointing though to only hear like 2 or 3 music used despite its quality being good. A fair score of 6/10 i will give.

    Overall average = 4.00

    Budget game or no this kinds of game shouldn't even be released in full price. I can see the effort the developers did in making this game and imo i think they have somewhat creative minds in making good story and settings, however maybe due to some other factors like money, time and number of people working are also in place in making the game that it results in poor execution. Regardless, as a gamer, i have right to criticize their bad performance. I hope Spiders can learn from these and do better in their next work. Thanks.    … Expand
  3. 223kazin
    May 9, 2014
    4
    I went directly from Dark Souls 2 to this so do keep that in mind for this review. I rated it higher than I felt I should based solely on that reason. Bound by Flame is an indie game that isn't trash, it's rough around the edges but it delivers a promising experience that could have easily been a nice treat inbetween big game releases. Sadly it made the mistake of releasing within DarkI went directly from Dark Souls 2 to this so do keep that in mind for this review. I rated it higher than I felt I should based solely on that reason. Bound by Flame is an indie game that isn't trash, it's rough around the edges but it delivers a promising experience that could have easily been a nice treat inbetween big game releases. Sadly it made the mistake of releasing within Dark Souls 2's time frame. The combat it simplistic but "tactical", which is an odd mix. I don't care for it much but others might find it more welcoming, it just feels shallow some how and enemies seem to take longer to kill than they rightfully should(on the second difficulty). A critical flaw with the game is that cutscenes cut(pardon me) into the pacing a lot, I read that the story was pretty poor but I wouldn't know because I was hammering that skip button so hard it might have been gentler to use an actual hammer. I'm surprised the B on my 360 controller didn't get ground into atoms. To cut it all short for those ADHD readers: The music was a solid A+, I enjoyed it very much, but the gameplay and combat were lacking, the graphics were acceptable for an indie game, but pretty visuals and nice music alone a game does not make(In this gamers opinion).… Expand
  4. Deccoy
    May 9, 2014
    3
    This game is so bad, don't waste your money. In Short: bad voiceacting / dialogs, unprecise combat, absurd and unclear doging/blocking mechanisms or not even there (dodgeroll), unimersive world (when you put in your name everybody goes ahead and calls you vulcan).
  5. Bamboozled
    May 22, 2014
    1
    I was excited about this game but now it just pisses me off. The environment ist bland and most of the time you are staring at walls. Feels like a corridor FPS. The combat is floaty as hell. The difficulty is far far far too high on the easiest difficulty level (my biggest complaint). The animations and character models just stink. The NPCs and the ambition behind this game are the onlyI was excited about this game but now it just pisses me off. The environment ist bland and most of the time you are staring at walls. Feels like a corridor FPS. The combat is floaty as hell. The difficulty is far far far too high on the easiest difficulty level (my biggest complaint). The animations and character models just stink. The NPCs and the ambition behind this game are the only redeeming points.
    I'm almost at the end of it. Then I can finally wipe it of my drive and forget about it.
    At least it's not buggy...    … Expand
  6. CharcoalBurst
    May 11, 2014
    4
    This is an action RPG that focuses a lot on combat. Problem is, the physics engine is a huge disaster. Just go behind your opponent and stab him in the back several times with the ranger style and you're done.
    Graphics are OK, sometimes. Some places don't feel as polished as others. It goes from al most nice to plain ugliness. No refresh rate settings in the video options. Kinda cool in    This is an action RPG that focuses a lot on combat. Problem is, the physics engine is a huge disaster. Just go behind your opponent and stab him in the back several times with the ranger style and you're done.
    Graphics are OK, sometimes. Some places don't feel as polished as others. It goes from al most nice to plain ugliness. No refresh rate settings in the video options. Kinda cool in 2014 to play in full screen 24HZ when you have a R9 290X and a TV...
    This game lasts about 10 hours and to me it is just not Worth it. What it lacks most is identity. It really feels like a bad copy of Kingdom of Amalur/The Witcher 1 in a world where heroes have no charisma at all... a huge disappointment... You'd rather play those old games if you haven't by now. They're way better and cheaper.    … Expand
  7. Simperheve
    May 22, 2014
    2
    Horribly clumsy combat, robot like movements, the same annoying sound at the beginning, and visuals that really don't represent next gen. I played about 2 hours and then put it back in the box and sent it back. The only reason i even scored it a 2 is because i rented it. If i had bought it, i would have scored it a 0.
  8. mongolrising
    May 9, 2014
    3
    This game is so bad. Awkward unplayable combat, terrible dialogue, cheesy characters (objectified females of course), subpar graphics. It is a huge wast of money and not worth getting at all. The worst part is all the obnoxious fanboys swearing up and down how amazing this game is. This game is bad, don't waste your money.
  9. Blackdragonbird
    May 15, 2014
    2
    What to say? Simple horrible. The combat system is ridiculous cheap and broken, not challenging like DS. The animations, camera, lore, story, pathetic sexual content only help to bury this thing in a barrel of ****
  10. IE33
    May 11, 2014
    2
    I was really dissapointed when I saw the score on metacritic. I was not sure if I should give Bound by Flame chance or leave it and finally I decided to give it a go.

    The first impressions of game: The voice acting is really bad, optimization is also not the best tried to run it on ultra settings on high end PC and all I got was 20-40 FPS (which is a joke since I could run 2x BF4 maxed    I was really dissapointed when I saw the score on metacritic. I was not sure if I should give Bound by Flame chance or leave it and finally I decided to give it a go.

    The first impressions of game: The voice acting is really bad, optimization is also not the best tried to run it on ultra settings on high end PC and all I got was 20-40 FPS (which is a joke since I could run 2x BF4 maxed on my machine and still I would have some free resources), lowering few options from Ultra to High did the job and I got solid 40-60 FPS. The combat system in this game is just nightmare, it feels so uncomfortable not to mention that blocking enemy attacks is just nearly impossible and it takes ages to kill group of enemies even on LOWEST possible difficulty. Graphics are not bad but game looks ugly in some areas. Companions in this game don't do anything besides dying and trying to kill single enemy... in that case they fail too.

    + Graphics
    + Boss design

    - Optimization
    - Voice acting
    - Combat System
    - Lore
    - Companions / Generic Enemies
    - Difficulty levels    … Expand
  11. e1evN
    May 9, 2014
    2
    In Short: bad voiceacting / dialogs, unprecise combat, absurd and unclear doging/blocking mechanisms or not even there (dodgeroll), unimersive world (when you put in your name everybody goes ahead and calls you vulcan). And some things more, which made me stop playing this game for the moment and once again showed that you should not prepurchase anything.

    Some things extended: I guess    In Short: bad voiceacting / dialogs, unprecise combat, absurd and unclear doging/blocking mechanisms or not even there (dodgeroll), unimersive world (when you put in your name everybody goes ahead and calls you vulcan). And some things more, which made me stop playing this game for the moment and once again showed that you should not prepurchase anything.

    Some things extended: I guess coming from Dark Souls franchise, esp. the latest DSII which i played a lot, from the trailers and dev. interviews i expectet a "casual" Dark Souls and i was proven wrong. So the voiceacting, the dialogs, the graphics are not very good and the story is quite predictable some hours in to the game, but what threw me off the most is the "clunkie" combat, its not precice and feels unresponsive, meaning you take damage but you can not see or hear form where or maybe it was the smash to the ground 10 meters behind you which you didnt hear as well. So as said im used to hard combat but it has to be fair. Also the dodging/blocking mechanic is unpleasant, you can only jump back and block, but you have not a shield, whish there were more options and clarity on how to block / doge things.    … Expand
  12. HELLruler
    May 9, 2014
    4
    Wish I could give this game a good rating, but I can't.

    So, starting the game, you face some cutscenes that talk about the story. I admit it's not too inspiring, and I felt forced to skip them all. The graphics are outdated, but that generally isn't enough to let me down. Several minutes later you start fighting. Well, that should've been awesome, should have. The combat doesn't flow    Wish I could give this game a good rating, but I can't.

    So, starting the game, you face some cutscenes that talk about the story. I admit it's not too inspiring, and I felt forced to skip them all. The graphics are outdated, but that generally isn't enough to let me down.
    Several minutes later you start fighting. Well, that should've been awesome, should have. The combat doesn't flow well. Sometimes the enemy will block your attack and punish you, but seems unfair that they can recover so fast after getting their attacks parried.
    Let's not forget you can't dodge. Yeah, if two enemies are attacking you at the same time, you will have a hard time repositioning yourself by just wakling.

    Sadly, I just quit the game before finishing the tutorial. The story may get better, but it started so badly that I didn't even bother myself to find out what happens next. And the most important thing for me, gameplay, is flawed.

    In the end, it's just a subpar game in every aspect. I don't like this comparison, but Dark Souls is less expensive and much much better    … Expand
  13. jmhoffer
    Jul 6, 2014
    0
    You can only play this game if you spend most of your life holed up in a black room with no light. While it had the potential to be interesting if more play-testing had been done, there is no way to have any fun with the game. If you make a mistake in your character progression early on, your only option to fix it is to restart the game. When you restart, you are forced to go through everyYou can only play this game if you spend most of your life holed up in a black room with no light. While it had the potential to be interesting if more play-testing had been done, there is no way to have any fun with the game. If you make a mistake in your character progression early on, your only option to fix it is to restart the game. When you restart, you are forced to go through every single cutscene over again.

    A massive waste of time and money.    … Expand
  14. johnweso
    May 24, 2014
    3
    You are paying 40 dolloars for a 5 or 6 hours' short disaster (thank god~) There is no reason for u to play this game second time because of the boring combat poor weapon armor collection meaningless upgrades boring storyline and there is also nothing to enjoy in the first place.Everything is familiar from other great arpg games u ve played and in this game its much lot worse than uYou are paying 40 dolloars for a 5 or 6 hours' short disaster (thank god~) There is no reason for u to play this game second time because of the boring combat poor weapon armor collection meaningless upgrades boring storyline and there is also nothing to enjoy in the first place.Everything is familiar from other great arpg games u ve played and in this game its much lot worse than u think the way they should be. So plz donate ur money to poor kids who cant afford meals and dont waste ur time and money on this garbage.… Expand
  15. Paulystan
    Jun 2, 2014
    3
    It had real potential. An interesting (ish) story with some okay characters marred by bad screen writing and average voice acting. Graphics are fine although not amazing. I find the gameplay a bit sluggish and to be honest, pretty boring.

    All in all, a game that really doesn't deliver a strong result.
  16. KrispyRices
    Jun 16, 2014
    2
    This game, while beautiful in some parts, is almost painful to look at in others. This is not only inclusive of the graphics, but of the lip syncing as well. That's just a joke, not to mention the dialogue is terrible to begin with. As for gameplay, it's kind of fun but there is very little variety in it. You primarily invest all of your skill points into the ranger whatever categoryThis game, while beautiful in some parts, is almost painful to look at in others. This is not only inclusive of the graphics, but of the lip syncing as well. That's just a joke, not to mention the dialogue is terrible to begin with. As for gameplay, it's kind of fun but there is very little variety in it. You primarily invest all of your skill points into the ranger whatever category because warrior is too slow and you don't receive nearly enough mana to properly be a mage (your health and mana barely increase over the course of the game). Combine that with a fighting system where you repeat the same hit, hit, dodge, hit, hit, dodge, hit, hit, dodge pattern the entire game, it gets pretty tedious and boring. It's fun, but gets mundane pretty quickly.… Expand
  17. nightmarenicoli
    Dec 29, 2015
    0
    other than an interesting story, this game is awful. horrible voice acting, horrible graphics, horrible combat. it may as well have no character creation.
  18. Jojo12
    Feb 11, 2016
    4
    Review from someone playing on Captain difficulty
    Pros:
    Beautiful music Nice graphic style, except for the horrible plant that is shaped like a ... The demon perks and appearance are nice, but it's too bad that if you use them, you're considered "evil" Cons: Bad story where choices doesn't really matter Horrible camera that get stuck in foreground items so you can't see attackers    Review from someone playing on Captain difficulty
    Pros:
    Beautiful music
    Nice graphic style, except for the horrible plant that is shaped like a ...
    The demon perks and appearance are nice, but it's too bad that if you use them, you're considered "evil"

    Cons:
    Bad story where choices doesn't really matter
    Horrible camera that get stuck in foreground items so you can't see attackers hit you anymore
    "Deja vue" dialogues ( good part is that npcs swear and it's hilarious. you almost hear 2-3 in every dialogue.)
    The hitbox is not working well, sometimes the monsters hit you even if you dodge
    When you are attacked by multiple monsters, you have to dodge all of their attacks, which means most of the time you can't riposte at all, and when you try to cast a spell or fall to the ground, the monsters have priority, which means they can hit you again, and then you die.
    Cinematic are "clichés", and sometimes you can see your companion not moving at all, eyes reversed, like if he/she was not supposed to be there. Even if you build your character as a Ranger, the cinematic shows Warrior moves and weapons only.

    Now I'm just playing to laugh at the dialogues.    … Expand
  19. MR67
    Dec 26, 2015
    4
    If you're like me and you like to go for realism in CRPGs and play through the entire game "Ironman" style, i.e. without your character snuffing it and then repeatedly spamming saved games, then this game is going to disappoint you. There is a half-decent storyline there, but the game is let down by poor balance and unpolished production.

    Pros: - Somewhat more interesting storyline    If you're like me and you like to go for realism in CRPGs and play through the entire game "Ironman" style, i.e. without your character snuffing it and then repeatedly spamming saved games, then this game is going to disappoint you. There is a half-decent storyline there, but the game is let down by poor balance and unpolished production.

    Pros:
    - Somewhat more interesting storyline than some other CRPGs out there.
    - Combat is more gritty and realistic than some other CRPGs out there (but see below).

    Cons:
    Where to start?
    - Gameplay is poorly optimised and can be frustratingly difficult. Most enemies can typically kill your character in maybe 5 or 6 hits, so you never really feel powerful, even later in the game. Lack of mana means you have to use your magical abilities really frugally. Some boss battles can have you using up virtually all your healing potions, mana potions and traps, and still only just scraping through. You can only travel with 1 companion at a time, and they contribute almost nothing to most fights, inflicting very little damage to enemies and getting knocked unconscious within a minute or less of beginning most battles.
    - Voice acting is not the greatest and the facial animations are even worse. Dull conversations and poor exposition result in you learning little about the game world so you feel somewhat disconnected from the setting and storyline.
    - Loot in the game is really dull. Most enemies drop components which can be used for crafting, and the occasional ho-hum weapon or piece of armour. You seem to spend a good deal of the game trawling through your inventory to see what upgrades you can make to your gear once you've accumulated a number of different crafting ingredients, which gets tedious.
    - Game is too short (can be finished in about 20 hours or so), but given the frustrating gameplay, maybe this is not a bad thing! The final boss battle is ridiculously difficult - I gave up in disgust after dying about a dozen times, and then uninstalled the game from my PC.

    Worth picking up on Steam if heavily discounted (75% or so), otherwise steer clear. In any event, you would have to be something of a masochist to be able to put up with more than one playthough.    … Expand
  20. zimmer600
    Aug 19, 2017
    4
    Spiders are tagged very high. But a modest budget, a small team, short terms of development and a lack of skill do not allow the game to become something more than a passing and rather dubious entertainment.
  21. Mobile
    Sep 30, 2018
    3
    ENG RU
    Disgusting level design that cuts at the root of the whole idea of the plot and the game as a whole.
    Отвратительный левел дизайн, который рубит на корню всю идею сюжета и игры в целом.

Awards & Rankings

48
#48 Most Discussed PC Game of 2014
66
#66 Most Shared PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
56

Mixed or average reviews - based on 42 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 42
  2. Mixed: 27 out of 42
  3. Negative: 13 out of 42
  1. CD-Action
    Jul 25, 2014
    65
    There is potential in Bound by Flame but I can’t review this game without using some harsh words. It’s linear and clichéd, combat should be better and many elements could be more complex. Still I believe that with more money, people and time Spiders would be able to play in the major league. [07/2014, p.54]
  2. Pelit (Finland)
    Jun 12, 2014
    70
    French indie developer tries to engage adult audience with this RPG. Too bad the world is generic and script is dull as a wooden blade. If you show a few tits and curse like a sailor, that don't translate to a game for adults. On top of that the game mechanics are dull and repetitive. You don't challenge Witcher with this kind of setup. [June 2014]
  3. Hyper Magazine
    Jun 7, 2014
    30
    Ugly, stupid and riddled with cliche, Bound by Flame has car crash fascination but little else to recommend it. [Issue#249, p.62]
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