Bound by Flame released on the PS4, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC locally today, 9 May 2014.
The premise of the game is that you are in the grasp of a demon, and must must choose between the demonic powers you can now access to fight your enemies, or saving yourself from the grip of its evil influences.
If you were on the fence about getting the game, take a look at our review roundup to see how the game fared.
Bound by Flame is currently sitting on 52 on Metacritic for PC.
GameInformer – 8/10 (PC)
A skilled player doing no sidequests and blowing through dialogue can complete the game in about 10-12 hours, but this is sacrificing a ton of content both in the quest, exploration, and relationship-building categories. When you invest the time to master the challenging combat and explore the world, Bound by Flame is a solid romp with rewarding tactical action supported by rewarding boss battles and plenty of ways to see your choices reflected in the world around you.
GamesRadar – 3.5/5 (PC)
If you go into Bound by Flame hoping to play a choice-laden game where every selection you make slowly shapes the world around you, you’ll be greatly disappointed. While you do get some say in how things play out, the outcome will no doubt be the same and your decisions don’t seem that important in the overall development of the story. It’s the rapid-fire decisions made mid-battle and the rich customization options at your disposal that truly let you make the game your own. You do have a demon on your side, after all.
GameSpot – 4/10 (PC)
By RPG standards, Bound by Flame isn’t a very long or expansive game. If you don’t consider the battles you must repeat, the adventure is around a dozen hours long, and there is no world to explore, unless you consider a few medium-size levels made up of twisting hallways to be a world. Bound by Flame shoves too many ideas into its cramped boundaries, thus giving none of them the room they deserved to blossom, and thereby allowing the flames to burn the joy away.
Polygon – 4/10
I tried everything I could think of to get myself to care about Bound by Flame, but eventually I tired of doing all the heavy lifting myself. Between a stale plot that goes nowhere, poorly handled characters and a clunky, boring combat system, there was nothing left for me to hang onto, no momentum left to help propel me. Bound by Flame is worse than just generic; it’s a mess of a game pretending at greater ambitions.
Bound by Flame
VideoGamer – 2/10 (PC)
The narrative is not passable. It’s a mess, and it’s delivered via a script that is at once intentionally juvenile and unintentionally stupid. A script which has an unhealthy fixation on the words “whore”, “bitch”, and “slut”. A script in which a character describing having non-consensual sex with his catatonic wife is served up as comic relief. This actually happens. Bound By Flame is an embarrassment on all fronts.
The Escapist – 2.5/5
Bound By Flame would be an immensely likable game, were it not for just how slipshod it ultimately feels. Its individual components are well crafted, but when brought together, the result is something that just isn’t quite right.
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Ouch. These are the same guys who made Of Orcs and Men and Mars: War logs . Same problem every time – great ideas, but meh execution, probably due to the low budget.
As pcgamer said in their review : “Bound by budget” .