Oh, Bound by Flame how I wanted to love you! To be honest, I have a soft spot for budget games, especially budget RPGs, or games that attempt to do something interesting, albeit on a limited budget. For all their flaws and constraints, I have often found intriguing concepts and design choices in such games (like the Risen series). However, Bound by Flame does not carry the torch for budget RPGs, instead being a sporadically frustrating experience on Xbox 360 and a shadow of other better games. It is an improvement over Spiders' (the developer) previous game, the downloadable Mars: War Logs, but this is not a ten dollar Xbox Live purchase like War Logs. At the original asking price of $40, Bound by Flame is bound by higher expectations of quality, and although there are some admirable qualities present, this is not a full price purchase. It IS still worth a try if you can look past the numerous flaws, and there is fun to be had, for the right price.
Graphics and Sound
The first thing I noticed when starting up the game was Olivier Deriviere's score, which also happens to be one of the best parts of the game. Like much of Flame, though, many elements that seem interesting or enjoyable at first fall into a rut of exhausting repetition. This can be attributed to the graphics as well. The environments carry the look of traditional fantasy fare, with a few boss and main character designs standing out. They are neither good or horribly bad, residing in the comfortable medium in between. In other words, the graphics are about as mediocre as can be. The problem is that the poorly textured environments and enemy models are presented with very little variation, eventually convincing me that the graphics were not palatable enough to distract me from the fact that I was fighting the same looking skeletons in the final few hours that I had fought at the beginning. The animations are also on the rougher side of things, as facial animation and lip synching are years behind the curve and in battles I often found some of my attacks didn't look like they connected with the enemy (yet still harmed them). You get what you pay for in Flame, and the graphics are no exception, looking like they were taken from a game that came out years ago (it definitely looks better on PS4). BUDGET TO THE MAX! Sound does fare better, at least musically, as Deriviere (skilled composer for games like Remember Me and Assassin's Creed Freedom Cry AND Tangled: The Video Game) offers a suitably epic soundtrack. YET ONCE AGAIN repetition ruins something that should have been solid, just as with the character models! The game repeats the same tracks ad nauseam, with one playing for (I swear!) a good hour straight. After a couple hours, the game already seemed to have exhausted its musical stores, even though there was rarely ambient music when I wandered around the mostly linear maps.
Deriviere in his element
With Deriviere onboard, I had hoped rousing instrumental pieces would back up all of my actions in the game, but the game does not utilize the score well enough and is filled to the brim with silly dialogue and voice acting instead. I sort of found the voice acting to be enjoyable, primarily because of its comic value. Cuss words are tossed about like they're going out of style, as if attempting (and failing) to lend a more mature feel to the grim proceedings. The demon that inhabits your main character speaks as though he is reciting a draft of a play from a terrible Shakespeare contemporary, using "thous" and "haths" as opposed to "yous" and "haves." There is a skeleton character that joins your party and is well voiced for the most part, but the rest of the characters are so-so and offer no respite from the copious cursing (not magical curses, mind you!) and weak writing. The demon's asides while your main character interacts with others are actually kind of funny, and also surprisingly funny (to me, at least) is the fact that pretty much all of the characters are totally assholes. Seriously! There really are not any friendly wizards or kindly old civilians who offer quests to find puppies or slay rats in their basements (I wonder if rats ever have HUMAN problems in THEIR basements...), which is actually refreshing. Through the limited dialogue choices, your character can really become a dick as well, which spices up some conversations. Overall, the graphics and sound package is lacking, though there are glimmers of goodness that are never realized.
Gameplay
The story begins intriguingly enough, as your character comes to share his/her body with a demonic entity after a ritual gone wrong. Granting you flame powers and wooing you with the selfish wiles of evil, I was engaged by the setup. The choices you make during the game manifest themselves physically as well, similar to the Fable series, meaning that when you choose to be evil, your character will sprout horns. You also gain different skills depending on your choices, put to use in what's best described as a "Witcher-lite" combat and crafting system. The crafting system is certainly a welcome part of the game, and I almost never resorted to purchasing items in shops (rendering the small number of merchants almost useless). The story setup and power of choice are also welcome, but they are never fully fleshed out. This is no Dragon Age, for sure. At first, I enjoyed the combat, which required more than just button-mashing for success. Much like Witcher, timing and defensive movements are imperative, but while the Witcher was challenging and polished, offering a rewarding number of methods to dispatch enemies with, Flame is challenging and annoying, with difficulty spikes and inconsistent hit detection taking away from the otherwise solid combat system. Hotkey spells and abilities spice things up enough to keep combat relatively entertaining, though many enemies take an inordinate number of hits to defeat leading to REPETITION. This is not a game that allows you to dive headlong into battle, requiring a more measured approach that makes the damage sponge enemies quite difficult to deal with at times, and fighting more than one enemy at a time can prove to be punishing as you can't take many hits before falling in battle. In the second forest area of the game, I actually was in disbelief that a floating insect creature that was apparently lower-level could defeat me so handily. This is no Dark Souls, but the game can be difficult. The boss fights (particularly the final one...ugh) bump up the difficulty level to a sometimes unbalanced degree, but I enjoyed most all of them EXCEPT for the aforementioned final battle. I won't ruin anything here, but if you do give the game a shot and progress to the end, make sure you save before you battle the last Ice Lord in his fortress. Just a tip. And craft a lot of crossbow bolts and health potions. I mean A LOT.
One of the other important pieces of gameplay present is the ability to choose an ally to accompany you in your quests, but these allies can often be useless in combat, playing the role of punching bag as you get surrounded by powerful insect beings or skeletons that lack compassion for your companion's AI. The only bright spot within the companion interaction is the ability to build up relationships with the characters, similar to Dragon Age, but not nearly as well done. All of the combat takes place in environments that seem open until you pull out your map and realize how linear the different areas are. The illusion of open exploration is dangled in front of you, and this makes it even more disappointing that there is not much variation in side quests and missions. At the end of my 15 or so hours with the game, I had no patience left and was happy to be done. Almost every aspect of Bound by Flame was underwhelming, and I could feel that Spiders development team stretched beyond their means in their first full console game. Of the main Ice Lord villains in the game, you only end up fighting a couple of them and it just feels as though the story gets shortchanged, possibly trying to set up a sequel. I like the idea of the Ice Lords, the demon inhabiting the main character, the wiseass skeleton sidekick, and the fact that everyone is pretty mean, but as charmed as I was by some of its low budget goodness, I struggled to look past the overall rough package. There are hints here and there of a better game and I feel that game trying to jump out and announce its arrival, but odd mechanics and half-baked gameplay systems cut the fun short. I still enjoyed parts of the game, but unless you know you're getting into a messy budget RPG with a full laundry list of problems, you will be frustrated to no end. I laud Spiders for aiming so high with their first full console game, and although they fall short in many respects, I have no doubt their next game will be more polished and infinitely more playable (Bound by Flocka Flame?! forgive me...) Until next time! *shaka*
6.0 out of 10
Graphics: Some cool spell effects and bosses are outweighed by repeated environmental and enemy designs, some poor animations, and some muddy textures. Mediocre all around.
Sound: The music that is present is quite good, but it is wasted in endless looping. The voice acting is unimpressive for the most part, but the weak script and constant cursing make for comic gold.
Replay Value: The story itself can be beaten in around 10 hours, but with side quests and (chances are) repeated deaths, the game can last anywhere from 12-16 hours. One time through was enough for me, but the game encourages multiple playthroughs with the choice system in place affecting the story's outcome.
Entertainment Value: I went into Bound by Flame expecting a flawed RPG and I knew Spiders was going to take risks, but I still ended up being a bit disappointed. For bargain bin hunters and RPG lovers, definitely check this out at a cheaper price (I got it for $22 and still found it a bit expensive). A somewhat charming, guilty pleasure at best, a boring and underdeveloped budget title at worst.
No comments:
Post a Comment