Bound By Flame - Review Roundup #3

Here is third round of reviews for Bound By Flame I found this week. This should be the last roundup of reviews I will post. As usual the scores vary from bad to good.

The Game Fanatics - 4.5/10

Bottom line, borrow this from a friend, or get it on a steam sale when it’ll cost $5 or less. That’s only if you have a hankering for some fantasy though, there are many other games that are simply better.

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IGN - 7/10

Bound By Flame has one huge strength: the harmony between its entertaining combat and role-playing systems. Granted, its weak storytelling does weigh it down, but the strong core of its gameplay powers it through to transcend these flaws. Bound By Flame’s combination of progression and action ultimately make it greater than the sum of its parts.

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Calm Down Tom - 3/5

The good bits aren’t just pretty good, they’re great. The bad bits are so bad that I was sometimes starring at my screen in disbelief. On balance though, I would rather have a game that’s occasionally great than a game that’s consistently pretty good. No doubt that’s not how everyone will feel, and I can’t argue with anyone who says that Bound by Flame is badly written, technically rough, derivative and full of awful characters.

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Softpedia - 8.5/10

Bound by Flame is a worthwhile experience that takes an overplayed fantasy storyline and breathes new life into it, even managing to surprise at times, offering a captivating journey and luring you within its world, keeping you glued to the keyboard until you see its conclusion.

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Alloy Seven - No Score

Bound by Flame is listed as Focus Home Intereactive's most ambitious RPG to date. While it does follow the formula of their past RPGs, I agree that this entry attempted to expand and improve on that foundation. They still have some progress to make before their games can be considered truly great, but there is enough fun here to satisfy players who can look past the shortcomings I've mentioned in this review.

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More information.

I've loved Bound by flame, simply because it is easy and fun to play.
My only regret is probably the price : It's current price on steam seems a bit high for a game that can be finished in 20 to 25 hours while doing all the quests including the secondary ones. It's too short considering the price.
But the game itself is really captivating to play, especialy since it's not the kind of game that makes you lose time by going from one point of the map to another for a mission (some game of the same price range are finishes in 40 hours, but sometimes in those 40 hours you've spent a lot of hours simply walking from point A to point B, here in Bound by flame it's not like that).

I'm about 2/3 done with mars war log; and I find it ok - not awful but definitely not memorable (at this point). Not in love with the combat - mostly FPS'ish with very little chance (in many cases) to use traps effectively (not enough advance warning that combat is comming up to lay hte trap and then lure enemies).
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I saw total biscuit review on Bound by Flame and he absolutely hated the combat (called it basics non-sense). I'll probably play Bound by Flame but not so sure it will win me over. I hope the layout is a bit more open than Mars war log narrow corridor.

Weird spectrum of scores.

I'm playing it and it's a lot of fun. Some boss fights can be really tough but in general, it's a good game. I'd personally rate it at 7.5 / 10