Bound By Flame is the fourth game of the French company Spiders, veterans of Monte Cristo who decided to set up their own studio to perform the kind of games they feel passion for: RPGs with a strong action component and a concept of medieval fantasy dark and very “Heavy Metal”, drawing parallels with games like Gears of War in terms of characterization of their characters.
The creators of Of Orcs & Men like the dark universes with protagonists in the form of cupboards loosening tacos, women blatantly light clothes and characters without hairs on the tongue.
Sometimes they go from braking and what could originally be conceived as something “adult” becomes more a parody of topics of the genre than something truly credible, but it shows the passion and love for the genre.
The game places us in a world in which humanity is cornered in a war that has little hope of winning. Armies of undead and grotesque creatures arrive in waves from the north and each new battle only fattens its troops, leaving the human kingdoms and elves in a desperate situation.
Behind these forces are the seven lords of the ice, powerful wizards and necromancers who have joined their resources in a crusade to end life on the planet. Our protagonist is Vulcan, a mercenary (or mercenary) part of a once great company that nevertheless goes through its lowest moments after losing a large number of soldiers in battles.
As expected, things do not go well and the ritual fails, in part. Instead of benefiting them, the ritual releases a “demon,” a spirit of fire that invades Vulcan’s body, perhaps attracted by the protagonist’s affinity to fire and explosions-he is the explosives expert of the company.
There are many questions about this being, but he has a conscience, a voice and of course he is not exactly happy to share the body with what he calls “a pathetic human”. Much of the argument of the game revolves around the relationship between Vulcan and the being that has inside, which will not cease to leave their unkind opinions in all kinds of situations.
The positive part of the situation is that the protagonist acquires power over fire, which allows him to access skills such as fireballs,
The relationship between the protagonist and his “guest” marks in a certain sense the moral compass of the game. If in Fable we are transformed as we perform good, bad or other acts, here we must evaluate to what extent we want to trust an inner demon whose nature and intentions we do not know.
Yes we know that it is a natural enemy of the forces of the lords of the ice, and perhaps the last hope of humanity despite the little attachment he feels for humans, so in that sense is a powerful ally, but at the same time not We know the possible consequences of giving him more influence over our body, over that “prison” that he despises so much.
The idea of being devoured, or of becoming something even worse than the lords of the ice, is something that will generate doubts, but it is a decision that must be made and affects the development of the game. The only downside is that perhaps the mechanics of this duality
could have been carried out a little better and more progressively, with a gradual system based on actions and decisions, which would have been interesting. Instead of that we have a simple decision at a time of the game that determines everything, which is a bit anticlimactic.
