Bound by Flame

Bound By Flame was almost made to be divisive. If you love gameplay above all else, then this will be an enjoyable experience for you. But if you're more of a story-driven gamer, then it would be wise to steer clear of this particular title.

The game is constrained by budget and underproduced so there are technical and visionary flaws in the game, and it's disappointing that Spiders decided to stay on the safe side of narrative boundary pushing for the first time in its existence. But an enjoyable theme and combat system is just enough to make Bound by Flame addictive enough that it succeeded in holding my attention from start to finish.

Most of the game is very well done, but none of it is that innovative or imaginative. It’s fun, but it’s a slightly above average RPG.

Bound by Flame is a different and strangely addicting action roleplaying game. It is marred by a few bugs in the quest system though. While you wait for The Witcher 3 you could do much worse than this though. Recommended if you lust for a new RPG adventure with crafting, fun combat mechanics, interesting characters, less traditional dialogue and a great style.

Bound By Flame is an ambitious action RPG with a lacklustre story, an annoying camera and disappointing graphics. It's a nice attempt at greatness, though it doesn't quite nail the high notes.

Bound by Flame is a great, terrible game.

Let's be realistic: Spiders ain't Bioware and Bound By Flame is not Dragon Age. But the french studio tries it's hardest and gives us a quite hard RPG, far from the mainstream easiness of games. Each fight is an adventure, you better be a fan of Dark Souls than Super Mario RPG to enjoy that game. Anyway, you will have to close your eyes on some real flaws (weird level design, poor AI, boring script..) Happily, Bound By Flame is coming at a time where RPG are quite rare. If Spider's game won't replace Dragon Age Inquisition or Risen 3, it can be a way to wait until those latest editions come out.

Bound by Flame fails to deliver on its promises and this is mainly because the combat system is simply not good enough. It's decent enough to play though, but way too generic to stand out.

It is a budget RPG and it feels like one, but that's not always a bad thing.

While never truly bad, Bound by Flame is rarely much better than serviceable either. [Issue#245, p.60]

Bound by Flame is a little overpriced considering its gaming flaws.

The story, writing and the role-playing part of the game is distinctly previous-gen play, if not older.

If you can look past the poor narrative and weak character dialogue Bound By Flame is a solid action RPG. The combination of fire and sword is an exciting duo which flows seamlessly in battle. However, you can’t help but feel that, with the PS4 in mind, Bound By Flame has been rushed to fill a gap in the market.

As a mid-range title it would have been fine with the amount of content, but released at near full retail, it's bitten off more than it can chew; something that tastes especially poor when the meal hasn't been fully cooked.

Good ideas, but the lack of budget/time/experience, or whatever the reason was, resulted in a game that could have been much better. Still, if you know what you're buying, it can be an entertaining experience.

If you've been burning with anticipation for a fantasy RPG on Sony's newest console, Bound by Flame may be worth a look – but be sure to keep your expectations lukewarm.

Bound by Flame is a low budget action RPG that doesn’t really shine. The plot varies depending on how you tackle it and the gameplay’s really challenging but there’s not much else to it.

For every great thing Bound by Flame does, it messes up critical gameplay components like the combat. There’s this sense that the game can’t get out of its own way, and only die-hard high-fantasy fans that aren’t afraid of getting torched by a budget title should check this one out.

Bound by Flame hardly surpasses an 'ok'. Poor visuals, odd gameplay mechanics in a really hard game, with many unbalanced situations. However, it fills up that lack of RPG games of the new generation.

Bound by Flame aims high, tries to take on Dark Souls and The Witcher, but disappoints. It's a shallow attempt at riding the success of other fantasy-franchises. It's full of cursing, moral decisions based on, well nothing, a standard setting and something that's supposed to resemble a combat system.

Releasing an Action-RPG this unpolished during the current PS4 drought was opportunistic. That's the best we can say about this. [July 2014, p81]

Bound By Flame had potential, its excellent crafting system and skill trees are a good basis for any RPG, but the unbalanced combat system doesn't do a good job of exploiting them.

Bound by Flame is such a cliché when it comes to setting, characters and story, which is why the game never surprises. A decent combat system and crafting might keep your attention for a short while, but not long enough to really surrender yourselves to the characters and their battle against the Ice Lords.

You might find something interesting in the dark fantasy lore, but the background is ultimately wasted. Gameplay is boring, full of issues, and generally underdeveloped. A rushed project, and nothing can save it from mediocrity.