Bound By Flame - Review Roundup

Couchpotato

Couchpotato

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I was going to wait till later but decided what the hell. Here are a bunch of new reviews for Bound By Flame that range from good to very poor.

Game Informer - 8/10

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.
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Games Radar - 3.5/5

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.
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IncGamers - 6/10

I enjoyed my time with Bound by Flame, short as it was. I feel that more could have been added to most aspects of the game, and many of you might agree. This makes DLC seem likely, and a good sized addition to the game could make it feel more complete.

This being said, I think most people will find some enjoyment in Bound by Flame, and while it may not be the best action RPG ever made, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to start my second playthrough.
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Gamespot - 4/10

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.
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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.
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And the worst of the bunch from Video Gamer that gave the game a 2/10.

While it features the basic building blocks of an RPG, the presentation they’re wrapped in is offensively shoddy. Graphically it sits somewhere between Morph and that Starship Troopers CGI cartoon you saw once in the 90s. The voice acting is atrocious, especially if you opt for the female lead, who seems to have been directed to sound like Roseanne Barr at her most sarcastic, at all times, no matter the tone of the scene. But you’ll come to regard the horrendous cutscenes as welcome breaks from the tedium of fighting the same forever-respawning handful of enemies for hour after endless hour. Quests are plentiful, but almost every one is of the fetching kind, and that goes for both sidequests and story missions.
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More information.
 
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I doubt it's a bad game. Mars was rough and repetitive but I liked it a lot.
All those "journalists" just want to play multimillion productions. Just like CDPR with the first Witcher. They were practically no one in the industry and after the success of the sequel the media were all over them. I bet the same will happen with Spiders if they become more famous at some point.

FFS the same reviewers would give DA2 an 8 or a 9.
 
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From what i read and heard from other people, it's a decent game.
It's just vastly overpromising to what it actually delivers.
Par for the course these days though, so if they ever come to GOG or DRM free somewhere else i might get it.
 
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Serestrum said:
I doubt it's a bad game. Mars was rough and repetitive but I liked it a lot.
All those "journalists" just want to play multimillion productions. Just like CDPR with the first Witcher. They were practically no one in the industry and after the success of the sequel the media were all over them. I bet the same will happen with Spiders if they become more famous at some point.

FFS the same reviewers would give DA2 an 8 or a 9.
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Yeah i wouldn't give one bit on critic reviews anyways, especially not the big sites like Gamespot.
They are way too much under the thumb of the publishers.
Hell even this embargo stuff in the recent years is beyond ridicolous.
 
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From what I understand from the reviews it's using the same formula of Orcs&Men where it features interesting story, characters and decent graphics but also limited exploration, relatively short game time. Only difference seems the action oriented combat. I enjoyed Orcs&Men. Probably love that too, but seems a bit expensive for what you get. I'm gonna buy it when its price drops.
 
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The German reviews I've seen so far are all quite positive. They say it's an inspired game with deep game mechanics for hardcore RPGers. Not all that glitters is gold, but it's enjoyable and there's really nothing wrong with the game.
 
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I have been playing and like the others say it was just what I expected. More Mar war logs. Its good.
Gamespot is the same site that gave a higher score to Escape goat with its graphics from 1980.

Can't ever trust that site anymore.

I will add that the average reader score at that site is 7.1 which is probably more accurate.
 
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I don't remember when i actually read a game review. I get my reviews from people from places like this.
 
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Escapist:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/art...reviews/11424-Bound-By-Flame-Review-Mild-Fire

Spiders makes mostly shambolic games that ultimately frustrate more than they please
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Excuse me but I don't share this feeling at all.

Sadly, Bound By Flame is also poorly structured and technically sloppy
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Possible but I haven't played it more than 20 mins yesterday so can't say anything yet.

there's a witch who is clearly Morrigan from Dragon Age, but SO isn't Morrigan from Dragon Age
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Bound by Flame is not party based RPG and thus I'm unsure why is Dragon Age, Morrigan, Claudia Black, shapeshifting... brought up here.

The story makes absolutely no sense, but is just deliciously stupid enough to be enjoyable regardless.
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Possibly, but as I've said, too early for me to say anything.

the music is fantastic, and the art direction is pretty damn good.
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At least in early game, this is true.

Mars: War Logs was a truly rubbish game
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Sorry, I'm not reading any more of this review. The reviewer has completely different taste than I do.

....

I'm not interested in Polygon.
 
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Yeah, I'm not sure either. Gotta say the Gamespot video review made it look pretty bad. I just don't want to get burned by another Two Worlds 1.

I'll wait for a sale.
 
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Can't help you there, never played Two Worlds. The word was that it's about endless respawns. So I didn't buy it even on sale. :)

I'll play bbf a bit more and will return when I'm certain about things. Or when I finish it. ;)
 
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Why the hate for Two Worlds 1?

Its an excellent RPG: miles better than Oblivion and just short of Gothic 3. The only drawback is the dialog, everything else from quests, crafting, alchemy, magic, combat, world design and scale, music, sound effects and from the technical point of view; are all competently made and with passion.

And there are no endless respawns as far as I remember (maybe with some wildlife).
 
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SpoonFULL said:
Why the hate for Two Worlds 1?

Its an excellent RPG: miles better than Oblivion and just short of Gothic 3. The only drawback is the dialog, everything else from quests, crafting, alchemy, magic, combat, world design and scale, music, sound effects and from the technical point of view; are all competently made and with passion.

And there are no endless respawns as far as I remember (maybe with some wildlife).
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+1

My only problem with the game was that it was an open world game but some of the world spaces were completely, totally, virtually empty. It was seldom worthwhile to venture on the map edges.

I thought the end monster of 2 Worlds was spectacularly easy - but that was fine by me because I hate boss monsters.

2world2 fixes some of that but I liked 1 better. Looking forward to 3.

As far as the Bound By Flame reviews, there is a part of me that is kinda pleased they are all over the map. The three Spider games I have played, I liked (Fairy, Orc and Mars), but those games aren't for everyone. The Spider folks don't make games for the masses, but thus far they have pleased me.
 
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SpoonFULL said:
Why the hate for Two Worlds 1?

Its an excellent RPG: miles better than Oblivion and just short of Gothic 3. The only drawback is the dialog, everything else from quests, crafting, alchemy, magic, combat, world design and scale, music, sound effects and from the technical point of view; are all competently made and with passion.

And there are no endless respawns as far as I remember (maybe with some wildlife).
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I really, really have to disagree. For all of its problems, I played Oblivion through twice and really enjoyed it. I also finished and enjoyed Gothic 3. Oblivion lets you play whatever character you want, and exploration is pretty rewarding. The main quest is decent and some of the guild quests are interesting. Gothic 3 makes you play a specific character, but he's well done, as are most of the other characters. Two worlds characters are in general overly shallow and unsympathetic and the story is poorly told. I found after about 20 hours I was happy to finish the main quest and end the game. I played Oblivion about 180 hours, if my save game slots are accurate, and I played Gothic 3 well 0ver 50 hours, maybe close to 100. I enjoyed both game immensely. I did not feel this way about Two Worlds. The only thing on your list which I'll agree was better is the crafting system. The one in Two Worlds 2 was even better. In fact the rpg mechanics of both Two Worlds games were really good, but that's just not enough for me.
 
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joxer said:
Can't help you there, never played Two Worlds. The word was that it's about endless respawns. So I didn't buy it even on sale. :)

I'll play bbf a bit more and will return when I'm certain about things. Or when I finish it. ;)
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If that is respawning that you fear of you can play Two Worlds 1 because there isn't any respawning in the game.
 
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TW1 combat was terrible. The whole game was terrible, IMO. I thought the dialog was its best part in that it was so horribly awful it was kind of funny and entertaining to watch and listen to.

"A lovely day for trade!" "And why should I not go back there, pray?" "Forsooth! T'was generous!" I'm laughing all over again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twA_myMeejU
 
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