Bound By Flame (PS3) - Review

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Deja-vu is a strange phenomenon, the sense that one has already experienced something whether it be true or not. Bound by Flame, developed by Spider Studios, is so wrapped up in an unerring sense of deja-vu that it becomes overwhelming at times. Homage can be a wonderful thing, placing ideas and thoughts into places they otherwise would not be seen – Franz Kafka in Harry Potter, for instance. Bound by Flame, however, takes its assortment of homages and casts them in such a way that it almost has no individual character of its own.

The first of Bound by Flame's many bewildering, inconsistent design choices makes its presence felt right at the start of the game. The option is given to name your character. Excellent. Sir Joe has led football teams to World Cup glory and saved the realm of Skyrim, so surely he could help save this endangered RPG adventureland? Once Sir Joe had been created from a disappointing and limited list of customisable features, he entered into a world where the entire population insisted on calling him 'Vulcan', the name given to the protagonist by the developers. Why offer such customisation if it is to be disregarded within 30 seconds?

Such an event is indicative of the sloppiness that pervades Bound by Flame. Cut-scenes are often jarring events; the camera leers in at a character before cutting away to an inexplicable, awkward angle that removes any built up tension. The graphics and lighting effects are all over the place; sometimes dazzling, but mostly clipped and dull. Glitches, as is not uncommon in the genre, can turn the most rudimentary of fights into farcical feats of acrobatics. A.I, meanwhile, has a lot to be desired, and in its rush to pay homage to other RPGs Bound by Flame has adopted the idiot allies idea as if it was a trope rather than a consistently bemusing flaw. Character models are bland at best, while the voice-acting is dreadful; the dialogue, at least for the main quest, is little better.

And yet, there are things to like about Bound by Flame. Although the story is often poorly told, it puts across the sense of small actions within a far greater theatre well, and as your own role increases so does the sense of greater importance. This is admirably and subtlety done; no character outright states how important you are, but information scattered throughout the world and lore slowly brings you towards the intended appraisal. The good/bad option choices, personified by the demon who languishes inside Sir Joe, offers interesting if watered down options to change the course of the game. There is plenty of occasion for customisation if one wishes, but the roster of armour and weapons is nothing extraordinary, leaving one wondering what incentive, beyond extra power, there is for experimentation and exploration.

Combat personifies the Jekyll and Hyde nature of Bound by Flame; is it a patient, drawn out affair that requires skill and timing, or is it slow and clunky, nothing more than a repetition of block and attack? Attempts have been made to freshen it up by using different stances; would you rather be slow but strong or fast and agile but weaker? Maybe you wish to concentrate on your flame powers and use magic to your advantage instead? The options are there, but again the jarring difference between idea and execution stops Bound by Flame from excelling in any way. You can see exactly what has been attempted, but you can't help but feel that it has been better done elsewhere and is too sloppily executed here for anybody to truly love it. There is plenty to do, with a solid 20+ hour storyline, but whether you persevere or not is likely down to your love of the genre, rather than any particularly redeeming features on Bound by Flame's part.

Bound by Flame is a victim of its own homage to stalwarts of the genre. A limited world RPG featuring vast expanses of wilderness and corridors, the game is so reminiscent of its influences – The Witcher series in particular – that you spend most of the time wishing that you were playing one of its rivals. It is not that Bound by Flame is a particularly bad game, it just reminds you of better games that you ought to be playing instead. In attempting to replicate its rivals, it has created a world devoid of any real interest or charm but has enough about it to please fans of the genre. This probably makes Bound by Flame the gaming equivalent of a fan-fiction; whether you see this as praise or an insult may impact how you view the end result.

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