Bound by Flame Isn’t The Next Skyrim, But That’s Okay

"We don’t compare to the Witcher."

For a game that we’d never seen in action until now, there’s been an impressive amount of hype already generated for Bound by Flame. Thanks to a combination of a very impressive debut trailer and the fact that there’s a bit of an RPG drought at the moment as we eagerly await The Witcher 3 and Dragon Age: Inquisiton, the anticipation for Bound by Flame has grown unchecked.

Now that we’ve actually seen the game, however, we can shed some more light on what to expect. Bound by Flame takes place in a high fantasy world under siege by seven ice lords. You play the role of Vulcan, a mercenary tasked with trying to defend the beleaguered lands from the minions of evil, which include gigantic, rotting flesh golems and shambling cadavers.
Soon after the story kicks off, a botched attempt by our hero to bolster his strength by summoning a fire demon instead sees him possessed, gifting him with the power of flame but at the potential loss of his humanity. This duality then becomes the focus of the game, especially when facing off against foes. As is swiftly becoming the norm for RPGs, Bound by Flame offers three skill trees you can specialise in, each with an Ultimate Ability lurking at the top. Vulcan can better himself through a tanking tree that lets him use swords, axes and hammers, or a nimble ranger tree that sees him focus on twin daggers and a crossbow, gaining speed but sacrificing stamina. The pyromancy powers are the ones that are the real draw though, allowing the demon within to revel in his more destructive tendencies and reduce foes to ashes.

This duality also shapes the wider content of Bound by Flame too, as the action-RPG will feature a branching plot and multiple endings depending on how you choose to play it. Opting to pursue quests that preserve your own humanity while helping others will see you remain fairly recognisable, while following the demon’s path will see your armour deteriorate as your body becomes wreathed in flames and, finally, horns jut out the top of your head. While you’ll be more susceptible to damage if you take this route, your magical powers will be much stronger.

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We don’t compare to the Witcher. We’re a small company, we don’t have an open world, we’re just trying to tell a story.

However, anyone hoping for an RPG experience to rival that of The Witcher 3 has seriously overestimated the scope of what developer Spiders is trying to achieve. Lacking the comparative resources of CD Projekt Red, the team won’t be bringing a world as vast as the Nilfgaarsian Empire into being. Instead, the focus is on creating a story-driven experience that will resonate with players.
“It’s not open world, it’s hub-like,” explains producer Walid Miled. “So you go to a chapter, you have the greatest level you can go to with various quests you can do in any different order. You can go from level to level inside a chapter until you’ve finished all the story-based quests and then you can go on to the next chapter and so on.”
Although there’s still a chance we may see the game on Xbox One, at the moment the only next-gen console Bound by Flame is being developed for is PS4. It’s targeting a release on Sony’s new console in the second quarter of this year, when it should also appear on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. The fact it’s straddling the generations is another area where it differs from the likes of The Witcher. While the latter is focusing solely on the latest consoles, Bound by Flame is designed to reach a wider audience.

“It was developed to be multiplatform,” Miled explains. “On the PS4 it’s 1080p with high resolution on the shadows and textures, but it was really developed to be across all platforms. We also added on the PS4 touchpad and lightbar integration, but it’s cross-platform. We didn’t specifically develop it for next-gen.”
A wealth of other standard RPG features are also set to be included, such as crafting, companions and sidequests. All told, Spiders is estimating you’ll be able to do everything in roughly 20 or 25 hours. Given the diversity of the story though, there’s a strong argument for playing through again to see different quests, pick up a different companion and land a different ending.
An ambitious project by a small developer, Bound by Flame isn’t going to be the next Skyrim. That doesn’t mean you should let it slip from your radar though, especially if you’re an RPG aficionado desperately looking for a fix while you wait for some of the bigger games to come out.
“When we come out on PS4, hopefully we’ll be one of the only RPGs around,” Miled concludes. “We don’t compare to the Witcher. We’re a small company, we don’t have an open world, we’re just trying to tell a story and give something new to the player our way. We’re not trying to compete with any of the big guys because… well, obviously we can’t! But we’ll try not to arrive at the same time just in case!

Bound by Flame

Published by: Focus Home Interactive

Developed by: Spiders

Genre: Action

Release Date:

United States: TBA 2014

UK: TBA 2014

RP-T+ for Rating Pending, Targeting a Rating of Teen or Above

Also Available On: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360