Bound by Flame Reviews

Bound by Flame is ranked in the 10th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
7 / 10.0
Jun 10, 2014

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.

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6 / 10
Jun 4, 2014

In the end, I wish there was more to Bound by Flame. I adored the crafting system and have come around on the combat system once I mastering the act of parrying, but I still wish there was more. Spiders has turned down the swearing in the game (compared to Mars: War Logs), but Vulcan has his/her outbursts for no good reason. The game is dialogue heavy, and provides a ton of backstory on the towns, the people and the quests in the game; just don't look at the characters while they speak.

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Gamers Heroes
Captain Camper
Top Critic
7 / 10
May 30, 2014

The raw nature of the dialogue, the impressive depth of the companions and their personalities, the artistically impressive and varied environments and the typically over-heroic culmination of the story combine to deliver a package that somehow forces you to forget the downfalls and just enjoy a basic, old-school RPG experience that tried too hard at being something it isn’t.

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5 / 10
May 27, 2014

The game isn't bad, it's just not great, and I was expecting a little bit more than a generic western fantasy RPG with competent combat from the studio that brought us the tantalising Of Orcs and Men.

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Unscored
May 23, 2014

Like so much of the game, it dreams of being epic, but ends up just feeling slight – RPG action that would love to be in the same company as The Witcher and Dragon Age, but instead has to sit with the likes of Game of Thrones: The Game in the pile of adventures that are better than they feel they have any real right to be, past their terrible openings at least, but which offer little reason to burn money or the midnight oil on.

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6 / 10
May 23, 2014

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.

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5 / 10.0
May 22, 2014

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. The characters and story are hard to care for when most characters lack any emotion and expletives are used in every other sentence. If you are desperate for an RPG to play in your wait for The Witcher 3, then Bound By Flame could satisfy your needs for a short period of time. Bound By Flame doesn't bring anything new to the RPG genre, nor does it improve on any existing elements. A short play-time combined with an uninteresting story and unbalanced combat makes Bound By Flame tough to recommend, it frankly just isn't a good game.

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Ken McKown
Top Critic
6.5 / 10.0
May 22, 2014

Bound by Flame is a great, terrible game. Something about it kept me wanting to push through its problems to find the enjoyment buried within. I can't explain why a game that does so much wrong entertained me so much. I couldn't stop playing it despite its issues. There is just something endearing about this game.

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2 / 5.0
May 22, 2014

Ultimately, the game has an interesting premise and selling points that on the face of things are worthy of attention, but the scope aimed for is such that the resources and timescales devoted to it sadly had no hope in achieving.

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ThisGenGaming
ThisGenGaming
Top Critic
6 / 10.0
May 21, 2014

Bound By Flame defiantly has potential to work, but due to having so many problems the game ends up not reaching that full potential… well it doesn't really come close at all. The crafting system and level up system showed the game had promise as well as something going for it, but once you get deep into the game you start to learn what went wrong. There is still some fun to be had in this game, so if you are a fan of RPG's maybe wait until the price comes down to try this game as I can't recommend a full retail purchase unfortunately.

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4 / 10.0
May 21, 2014

The ideas are great, but some are too complex, tightly packed and don't compliment one another. It's the simple ideas that have really stood out and the fact that you share your body with an inner-demon, but the general vibe of the game felt half-assed. It's another game that needed a second look-over before heading to market.

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May 21, 2014

The fantasy RPG is more than a little crowded, and breaking into that genre is likely to be a difficult task. With the help of Focus Home Interactive, the marketing campaign behind 'Bound by Flame' raised more than a few eyebrows, including my own. Everything about the game had me interested and I was more than a little excited to occupy my time with this new adventure in between some of the bigger AAA titles still to release. Not without its shortcomings, 'Bound by Flame' is still an ambitious title for developer Spiders. It sets an interesting, albeit familiar, tone, and delivers an enjoyable and addictive combat system. Unfortunately, this being a grand adventure, the developers should have realized the importance a well-acted character can have on the final product. Had the game been voiced by more qualified actors 'Bound by Flame' could have become a major sleeper title for 2014. Instead, these poor performances have left an unfavorable impression. It's worth visiting for the combat mechanics, but staying for the duration may be a difficult task.

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3.1 / 5.0
May 21, 2014

Given the price of Bound by Flame, I believe that it is a little overpriced and tries to be a triple A title that unfortunately doesn't add anything new to this genre. From a gaming perspective it works but it needed some more game testing and probably a revamped skill system that makes you feel out of your depth. Nonetheless, I've seen far worse Western RPG's and thankfully Bound by Flame ticks most boxes.

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May 18, 2014

Bound By Flame is a frustrating game to write about as it is frustrating to play. It's not a terrible game, though, but an uneven one that could have used a lot of extra development time. It prizes the idea that you can play your own way, but it is heavily biased toward one style.

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8 / 10.0
May 18, 2014

Bound By Flames is a fun and very competent RPG whose pros clearly overshadow its cons. It's not perfect, it's not from a big budget studio, isn't 100+ hours, and it doesn't say Scrolls, Age, or Souls on the box, but any fan of the genre should give it a legit shot -- I think they'll be pleasantly surprised as I was.

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Game Debate
Joffy S
Top Critic
5 / 10.0
May 17, 2014

A sad fact of life it may be, but go into Bound By Flame with low impressions and you're probably not going to come away disappointed. Those hoping for the appropriate stop-gap until The Elder Scrolls VI though will be left wanting. Bound By Flame is relatively harmless fantasy by numbers that is difficult to recommend beyond a budget-priced pickup, or if you're in the utmost doldrums waiting for a big release.

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May 15, 2014

Though Bound By Flame is an interesting game, it felt lacking. A little more could have made this game one of the best.

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6.5 / 10.0
May 14, 2014

Bound By Flame strives to live up to its forefathers, and while it doesn't exactly fail, it does make some serious mistakes that drag the experience down.

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4.5 / 10.0
May 14, 2014

Admire Spiders for their ambition, but as with its prior efforts this is again a case of reaching too far and spreading too thin. The result is a game that feels incomplete despite its comparatively short length for the genre.

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7 / 10.0
May 14, 2014

There are some solid mechanics here that are marred by some significant issues, preventing the game from becoming a classic.

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