L.G.C. |Reviews| — Bound by Flame

Game: Bound by Flame
Webzone: http://store.steampowered.com/app/243930/
Devel: Spiders – Game Weavers
Engine: Silk (get it? because they’re Spiders?…)
Price: 29.99 / CDN 32.99

Wazzat: You are a mercenary possessed by a flame demon in a desperate world ravaged by seven Ice Lords. In this RPG where every choice counts, you will have to choose between unleashing the powers of the beast within and rejecting its demonic influence.

Systems of business:

Venn:
CPU: AMD 8150 X8 OC 4Ghz
GPU: NVIDIA 980 4GB
RAM: 8GB
SSD: Samsung 840 EVO
OS: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
Kernel: 3.13.0
DM: XFCE 4.12
Video Driver Version: 358.16

Jordan:
CPU: Intel i7 6700K X4 @ 4.0GHZ
GPU: MSI NVIDIA GTX 980
RAM: 32GB Corsair
SSD: Crucial MX 200 512GB
OS: Fedora 22 64 Bit
Kernel: 4.2.6-200
DM: XFCE 4.12
Video Driver Version: 358.16

Pedro:
CPU: AMD FX8370E x8 OC 4.2GHz
GPU: Asus GTX 970 STRIX
RAM: 16GB HyperX DDR3 1866MHz
SSD: #yol0raid 2x250GB Samsung 850 EVO
OS: Fedora 23 64bit
Kernel: 4.2.6-301
DM: Cinnamon 2.8.5
Video Driver Version: 358.16

CHAIRQUISITION:
– Nooope

– Not sure if want

– Check it out

– Shutupandtakemymonies

Makes with the working

V-

Everything works but the performance can be a bit hit-or-miss /w everything on 11.
No issues /w my multi-monitor setup because I use separate freedom screens.

J-

P-

I have to ding it a chair right off the bat because it disables the secondary monitor if I set it to fullscreen on the AMiGA.
The reason I’m only dinging it one instead of the usual 2 is because I played 99.98% of it in the SteamBox.
There it ran out of the box with no issues.
Also, it doesn’t respect XDG standards, it just dumps the config folder in your home folder without even trying to hide it.

Total-

Shiny / Sounds

V-

It has a funky cel-shaded aesthetic, sometimes.
I mean, you don’t really notice it at first but sometimes it makes things look downright cartoonish.
That said, the first 30min of this game look pretty FKN good.
Notice how I said the first 30min? Yeah, about that.
Not that the rest of the game looks like liquid arse but thar be a difference.
Animation rigging ranges from passable to ಠ_ಠ.
I would say the same goes for lip sync but that either works or the motherfuckers on screen break out some serious telepathic shite because their mouth-organs do not make /w the moving.
Then we have the dialogue …and the one character that drove me extra crazy.
Captain Demon pants.
Mr. Thou this, Thou that.
Seriously, not all demons speak like that.
Yes, in some urban areas of the underworld this type of speech is common but it’s not an accurate portrayal of demon culture.
I’m trying to keep a level head about this because I don’t want to come across an just another angry demon.
#demonlivesmatter
Shite moves and shite makes noises.

J-

3D Graphics, on linux? What year is this!?!
Honestly, it looks as good as a non-Unity/non-UE4 3d indie title can
The soundtrack leans heavily on the Conan the Barbarian score for inspiration. Brass section biatch!
After 20 years of playing D&D, I still cringe when listening to some of the made up fantasy names for shit. Especially when spoken aloud

P-

It’s very clear all of the voice actors recorded their lines in different places and with different microphones.
Hell, some of them even recorded lines from the exact same dialog in different days and different states of mind. That’s really the only excuse I can think of for the lack of tonal consistency in every single conversation characters have with one another.
To finish up the sound, I’mma give it to the composer guy, Olivier Derivière. He did a good job with the background music. It fits the thematically fantastical setting perfectly.
Graphics, yeah they fit. There’s really nothing I can complain about those.

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Control

V-

Apparently the controlla works better on the Linux.
Few things provide me /w more enjoyment than Windows sheep crying in a Steam discussion about something working better on Linux.
Things seem logically laid out.
Every now and then Mr. mercenary pants will autowalk.

J-

Works with the steam controller and xbox. Doesn’t know what to do with the PS4 Controlla
TIL you need steam overlay enabled to use the steam controller
Mappings are relatively sane considering all the stuff you need to do
I do find that blocking is hit or miss. Plus the camera does you no favours

P-

Logitech F310 was recognized out of the box
NVidia Agents of SHIELD Controller worked only if I played it locally. If I tried to stream it from the steambox and play it like that, it wouldn’t pick up on it.
Also, you can rebind keyboard mappings but not controller mappings!

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FUN

V-

WTF is up /w your busted ass-map system, Brad?
How exactly did that meeting go?
GuyX: “Hey! let’s use a large map that you can zoom into and pick quests”
Guy:Y “Oh, FK no! let’s have a bunch of little fkd up maps that (get this) we’ll stack on top of each other so the player can only see one zone at a time!”
Seriously, I was stuck in that first town trying to sort the FKN quest glyphs for so long I forgot how to fight.
Not that there’s much to remember.. swing swing / dodge / block.
You know, I could go on-and-on about the faults in this critter but at the end of the day it boils down to one thing.
It’s boring.
After the first two hours I took off the headphones and started hammering on the B button because I simply didn’t care.
And it may as well be on rails. Seriously, you can’t jump.

J-

Like Venn said, maps no worky
This game really requires you to take the defensive approach at first. You suck at low levels
The trapping system could have been interesting, but with the one kind of trap, it really just boils down to lay them in front of dudes and have them chase you into them
Hoo boy, the dialogue blows
It’s a poor man’s bloodborne or demon souls, but it’s the closest we’ll get to that sort of game under linux

P-

Why, WHY do you show me all of these cutscenes of combat at the start of the game instead of giving me a combat tutorial?
Why are you showing me my character do some amazing shit, instead of letting me actually do it?
Why can’t I disable the tutorial prompts? I’ve already gone through the game once, why don’t you let me disable those big ass obtrusive “tips” that do nothing but get in the way of the action?
The plot is so generic and “safe” I don’t even know why they bother giving you choices.
Characters will only ever rarely acknowledge your decisions at any other point than when you’ve just made them.
Egregious example comes straight from the tutorial.
The captain asks you to give Peeler some traps and then, when you’re in the temple, he asks you to go look for him. Only the quest to look for Peeler is secondary, means you don’t have to do it. Whether or not you do it is irrelevant. Peeler will never again be mentioned by ANYONE ever for any reason at all. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t even exist outside of the tutorial.
And just to put a bow on the bad stuff, the final boss is just stupid fuck-you hard because fuck you, that’s why. It has a metric fuckton of hp and every now and then conjures a dragon demon-thing because it can.
All that said, I love this game.
Outside of the last boss, combat is hard but fair.
The leveling system gives you a lot of choice.
The crafting system is limited but very satisfying in what you can do with it.
And, out of the bland generic-ass companions, Mathras shines like a beacon of interesting personality.

Total-

Final –