The Flame in the Flood

 Switch
User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 49 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 30 out of 49
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 49
  3. Negative: 7 out of 49
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  1. Poincare
    Oct 14, 2017
    3
    I thought I'd roll the dice and try out The Flame in the Flood since it just arrived on the Nintendo Switch. The game is priced reasonably and this review accounts for 12 hours of gameplay on the traveler setting with Aesop and the dog.

    The blunt: I'm disappointed with this purchase and overall gameplay. Your character dies way too much and forces you to restart at UNSTRATEGIC    I thought I'd roll the dice and try out The Flame in the Flood since it just arrived on the Nintendo Switch. The game is priced reasonably and this review accounts for 12 hours of gameplay on the traveler setting with Aesop and the dog.

    The blunt: I'm disappointed with this purchase and overall gameplay. Your character dies way too much and forces you to restart at UNSTRATEGIC checkpoints or the very beginning of the game. Supplies are nowhere. Really, even when the dock you've landed on seems to give a hint of perhaps some supplies. Nope. It's nothing useful or practical. That means, when your hunger or thirst level is at 20%, prepare to die 50 times until you can locate some consumables to give you just +5 nutrition. Really! Repeat this process across 10+ hours of gameplay and it is not enjoyable and extremely limits the value and playability of this title. Also, forget about upgrading your raft to something useful that doesn't cause you to drown another 60 times while trying to find supplies. Since upgrade supplies are either largely missing and non-existent, your overall excitement and engagement with the title dwindles quickly. Additionally, the menu system is overly cumbersome and a real pain in the butt to navigate around.

    The good: Music is unique and sets the context for this title. Art direction is clean but extremely limiting when the game experiences night time. Controls are best engaged with the Nintendo Switch's Pro Controller.

    Final thoughts: Skip it and spend on another title.    … Expand
  2. AllySky
    Aug 31, 2018
    3
    While not my cup of tea, it is a pretty in depth survival game with the option to make the rogue-like/lite aspect of the game to take it easier on you, if you're more interested in the campaign.
  3. Prozacookies
    Apr 15, 2021
    3
    This isn’t the absolute worst game I purchased recently on the Nintendo eshop deals/sales page, but it isn’t very great or fun either. I started off having high hopes for this game as it sounds fun & is interesting visually, but it quickly became pretty underwhelming. There is a tutorial, but it isn’t very clear, it wasn’t near comprehensive enough & left me with a lot of questions &This isn’t the absolute worst game I purchased recently on the Nintendo eshop deals/sales page, but it isn’t very great or fun either. I started off having high hopes for this game as it sounds fun & is interesting visually, but it quickly became pretty underwhelming. There is a tutorial, but it isn’t very clear, it wasn’t near comprehensive enough & left me with a lot of questions & unable to understand basic gameplay functions. You leave the little starting area after being told how to walk, pick things up, & shoo away crows. Then you get on the raft, which is incredibly fragile & takes a lot of damage very easily (and you have no idea how to fix it, because of course the tutorial didn’t bother to cover something so basic & important), and float down the river to various places. The first place I came to had aggressive boars, but I had no idea how to handle them, because again, the tutorial didn’t even mention weapons or combat. I managed to make both a knife & a hammer, but had no option of actually using them to defend myself, and two separate traps that didn’t have any effect on the boar. It’s not fun to have to constantly guess at basic gameplay functions because the tutorial is so shoddy. That’s not making a fun, challenging game, it’s making some unnecessary, frustrating guesswork that doesn’t even make any sense. A knife, hammer, or traps are all things that should have helped. In addition, your hunger, thirst, temperature, & exhaustion level deteriorate at a ridiculously fast pace, especially compared to the actual resources available most of the time. There are rain & storms constantly forcing you to sleep indoors immediately (depleting your hunger & thirst even more) or get sick. For all the effort you go through to gather supplies, craft a snare, find a place with rabbits, build that snare, wait, catch a rabbit, skin a rabbit, build a fire, & then cook the rabbit- it doesn’t even fill your hunger up halfway. It’s just overall frustrating, stressful, and boring, on repeat, indefinitely. If you’re looking for a fun survival or exploration game, this isn’t it. If I could return it, I would.… Expand
  4. Icantquit
    Apr 22, 2022
    3
    Playing on Nintendo Switch: Gotta say I do love, love, love this game. It took awhile but I've repeatedly won basic and survival mode numerous times.....BUT I have played Endless Mode several times and was all set to keep going. I had tons of food, medical supplies, everything needed to keep on going. That is, until the game apparently just runs out of well, game. Around mile 211.6, afterPlaying on Nintendo Switch: Gotta say I do love, love, love this game. It took awhile but I've repeatedly won basic and survival mode numerous times.....BUT I have played Endless Mode several times and was all set to keep going. I had tons of food, medical supplies, everything needed to keep on going. That is, until the game apparently just runs out of well, game. Around mile 211.6, after leaving an area, I ended up nowhere. The screen went yellowish then blue and then it looked like I was under water at night with one color water around me, then I'd be on top of blue water during the day. There were no other items around. No waves, no rocks, no vehicles, no docking areas. Nothing. But my food, water and gas kept going down. Tried to endure to see if the world would return but no luck. I ended the game and restarted from the last checkpoint. Same thing. I shut the console off after hard quitting/closing the game and restarting. Same thing. Am I just DONE at mile 211.6?

    For this reason alone, it went from 5 stars to 3.    … Expand
  5. bnan_j
    Jul 24, 2023
    1
    Excellent idea, terrible execution. Has the staple of "guess our mechanics, win a prize". No tutorial, high difficulty, replayability depends on how the player can excite themselves with it.

Awards & Rankings

85
#85 Best Switch Game of 2017
69
#69 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2017
81
#81 Most Shared Switch Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 11 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 11
  3. Negative: 0 out of 11
  1. Nintendo Force Magazine
    Jan 7, 2018
    60
    A fascinating but flawed journey down a roaring river. [Issue #31 – January/February 2018, p. 23M]
  2. FNintendo
    Nov 3, 2017
    60
    The Flame in the Flood's survival mechanics are worthy of praise. The game has a very well-made background world and an interesting crafting system that puts the players in the middle of the game's concept. However not all of the game's elements are as outstanding and it often feels that it doesn't fully live up to its potential. Nevertheless, dedicated players will be closely around The Flame in the Flood for a long time.
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  3. Switch Player
    Oct 26, 2017
    70
    The Flame in the Flood comes to fill the survival genre gap on Switch. With a unique and enjoyable art style and soundtrack, it is a very brutal experience, that may not hit the target due to a cluttered inventory and crafting systems, but still delivers a poignant adventure.
    Read full review
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