Taking the role of a mercenary or as I like to call it, hired help, long story short there’s demons to slay, people not to trust, and player-based decisions that make an attempt to try and change the outcome of the game. By the way you’ve also been possessed by a demon who could care no more for you, or any of the other lifeless NPC’s that you’ll meet in the game.

Now, while many people will be comparing the game to those in a similar genre such as the The Witcher, and most obviously Dark Souls, Bound by Flame is it’s own game. Dark Souls seems to have set a benchmark for what qualifies as a “good” game, within the genre of slower, combat focused games. Although, I feel the most appropriate term that can be given to this is an ignorant based standard, that many will more than likely disregard, along with any other game that bares similarities to Dark Souls, as a rip-off wannabe. With that being said I don’t feel it’s okay to even draw any comparisons as the games have nothing in common other than the obvious which I have just mentioned.

"Dark Souls seems to have set a benchmark for what qualifies as a "good" game, within the genre of slower, combat focused games. Although, I feel the most appropriate term that can be given to this is an ignorant based standard, that many will more than likely disregard, along with any other game that bares similarities to Dark Souls, as a rip-off wannabe."

Bound by Flame presents itself to the player as a straight forward adventure with minimal side missions, that tie in to it’s main story. While these side missions don’t do much to contribute towards the main story they’re quite enjoyable and deliver enough content to keep the player engaged. These also add replay value to the game along with elements of choice, to keep the player coming back for a second time round. As I said previously there’s an emphasis on combat and the way it ties in with it’s RPG system. As the player gains experience points through battle with other demons and creatures within the game’s world, along with looting dropped items from fallen enemies, these can be used to craft new resources which can then be combined to upgrade and produce stronger weapons, potions, and armor.

What’s unique about the crafting and resource system in Bound by flame is that it doesn’t feel too pestering or heavy. It’s not deep enough to repel players not fond of this system, but it’s not so light that it would repel those who are heavily deep in to this feature. It’s also rather simple in the way that it works and it doesn’t overdo itself in swarming you with text and explanations as to what every single item does.

As thought out and well managed the item system is in the game, I do wish I could say the same for the actual plot of the game, and the characters that it involves. There’s no denying the enjoyability of the game particularly when slashing your sword through Deadwalkers and timing your counter-attacks on Necromancers. Free to use at the player’s disposal are daggers, axes, swords, and the like.

Different weapon types are particularly useful when going against different enemy types, combined with Pyromancer  magic and the option to switch play-style by the flick of a button, the longevity for engaging and enjoyable combat is a given. How well your allies make use of such dangerous weapons when fighting alongside you is a different case entirely. It’s a great feature that you can assign them certain actions such as healing your character or attacking from a distance, but their own abilities and combat are lackluster in comparison, and I found myself doing most of the work. Every other character in the game felt “half developed” and did nothing of the sort to have me interested in who they where or how beneficial they may become to me later on down the line.

" It's not deep enough to repel players not fond of this system, but it's not so light that it would repel those who are heavily deep in to this feature. It's also rather simple in the way that it works and it doesn't overdo itself in swarming you with text and explanations as to what every single item does."

This also stretches into conversation sequences when a large number of the characters would exchange dialogue for the sake of progressing the story forward. Character interaction appears to be somewhat broken in my honest opinion, if not thought out entirely and given proper care and attention. The characters themselves are full of personality and I guess we should be grateful for that, but the conversations that take place between the characters don’t quite match up or even make sense as to how people would respond or talk in actual reality, and the stiff animations don’t do much to help this neither. I guess it’s also okay to excuse the fact that amongst the primary group of people you travel and make conversation with for the majority of the game, all have entirely different accents hand picked from around the world.

Since the game itself takes place in a fictional realm of middle-earth humans, bad-mouthed elves, and floating plants with a chip on their shoulder. I counted one Russian, an upper-class Englishman, a Scottish guy, and my main character originating somewhere from the U.S. but hey it’s laughably forgivable. As far as the brains of the group go, the only person who seems to be aware of the bizarre happenings taking place in the actual story of the game would be the player.

Seeing as the main character becomes possessed as some point by another worldly demon you would expect your companions to be in a state of “Shock and Awe” when he or she slays an over-sized zombie, that you were previously fleeing from twenty minutes beforehand. But oh no not here, in my character’s own words. “Uh, hey…Did anybody see what I just did to that huge monster? I mean, seriously? I fried that thing! I saved our asses, and you’re all just, Hey, what’s for lunch?.”

Not long after that when your character’s eye’s are bright red and he or she is cursing the other members of the group in a completely different tongue, and insulting the very nature of what it means to be human, they still remain completely oblivious. This whole issue with the character dialogue and not being aware to the strange events taking place around them, is a complete immersion breaker. It looks like a bad stage rehearsal for a low-budget play, taking place in a rundown theater. Just to add time to the crime, the game throws in character choice responses in the same way that the Mass Effect series does.

However in the same way that Mass Effect does this, by having your character say something that’s completely different from the text box you chose, Bound by Flame does the exact same thing. While there are consequences for your actions they’re not really worth caring for as no relationships are formed between anyone in the game, nor will they see you in a different light, should you choose to be an arrogant snob. These sections of choice however seem to prove useless the majority of the time anyway as it often contradicts itself and backfires on what you originally chose to say.

At one section in particular when deciding not to snitch upon a murderous witch, responsible for the death of an untrustworthy old man. My character mentioned her name during the next set of choices that followed immediately after. Not to long thereafter she spilled the beans on who the witch was and why she killed him. Does storytelling mean anything these days when it comes to a game that involves the element of choice? As fun and exciting that Bound by Flame is, my own personal reasons for continuing on with the game came from my liking for combat and raising the abilities of my character. The world in which you’re given to explore is quite open in the sense of being split between sandboxes and zone entrances that contain minimal loading times.

""Uh, hey...Did anybody see what I just did to that huge monster? I mean, seriously? I fried that thing! I saved our asses, and you're all just, "Hey, what's for lunch?."

In each of the zones the player uses an in-game map that is placed in the bottom right corner which can also be over-layed over the screen through a semi-transparent filter. This works well as the game’s world is set up as mostly as paths with mission indications to help navigate the player in reaching his or her destination. The game’s world itself bares well with the theme and setting of the game, that being dark, ghostly, and fantasy medieval.

There’s narrow forests, foggy swamps, caves, villages, and the like. The visuals that give these settings life however, are really nothing to write home about. The best part from a visual standpoint is increase in resolution and frame-rate that the game holds over its console brethren. While the graphical settings will please the PC gamer’s fetish, and will run well across a multiple of configurations, playing on the highest settings available I wasn’t really impressed.

Textures appear flat and contain a “hard wet” look, and the detail appears quite minimal. The game is clearly screaming for tessellation and would do well in benefiting from more visual effects in giving the game a more atmospheric style and look. Particularly in the form of smoke, dust and particle effects. Since my character seemed to emit her own light whenever nightfall came, not much can really be said regarding the game’s use of correct lighting and character shadows. The practicality of how this actually works for the best of my knowledge is not explainable nor did I accept it as actually possible. Had my character been carrying a torch I would understand, but then fact she became her own light source with no supernatural tie-in to the story made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

All said and done Bound by Flame is full of plenty to do and plenty to explore. Upgrading your artillery and changing your character’s appearance never gets old, and the element of choice and ongoing side missions succeeds on delivering replay value. The game is fifteen hours plus and while I don’t bold well with the idea of justifying a game’s length in contrast to it’s price, I mention the length of the game on the basis of how enjoyable the game is, and how much time the player can expect to spend with it depending on his or her play style and natural sense of progression.

Despite the few misnomers regarding odd character dialogue and out of touch instances of character emotion, Bound by Flame manages to stand out more for it’s good sections, and they largely outweigh those that are bad. This isn’t a DarkSouls substitute nor is it attempting compete with it. Bound by Flame carries it’s own identity and deserves the play time that it manages to deliver so much on.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

Bound by Flame will feature the Warrior, Ranger and Pyromancer classes and even allow you to customize your items and equipment by crafting. You can also choose your own companions to accompany you on different quests.

The combat is definitely more tactical than your typical hack and slash adventure, so it’s best to plan out your approach before rushing out to meet your enemies in battle. If that weren’t enough, you’ll need to carefully manage your human and demon halves to assure victory.

Bound by Flame releases on May 9th for PS4, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Spiders Studios has finally tacked on a release date for its next action RPG Bound by Flame. It will be releasing on May 9th for PS4, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, and the studio has also released some new screenshots for the game. Check them out below.

The screens include some of the monsters you’ll encounter in the game. The combat system is billed as being quite complex and you’ll need to change tactics depending on the enemies you face.

Thankfully, you’ll have a strong range of attacks and magic to aid you along the way. Spiders Studios promises that a new trailer showcasing the game’s combat system is due in the next few weeks so we’ll get to see exactly how it all works out for ourselves.

Will you be picking up Bound by Flame? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, as well as what you think about the screenshots.

Spiders Studios has released three new screenshots for their upcoming action RPG Bound by Flame, which combines both tactical and dynamic combat in a tale about the war between humans and demons. Check them out below.

Developed by the team behind Mars: War Logs and Of Orcs and Men, Bound by Flame is currently slated to release for the Xbox 360, PS3, PS4 and PC. It will be available via digital download on PlayStation Network, Steam and Xbox Live, much like the studio’s earlier titles.

Along with facing off against horrifying demons, the player will control a hero struggling with his own identity as he chooses between the human and demonic side within him. The game will feature a strong back story and several characters, including companions who can join you in battle.

Though a solid release date hasn’t been provided, Bound by Flame is slated to release in Q2 2014. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

Bound By Flame will center on a mercenary who has been possessed by a flame demon. Players will need to choose between giving into the powers of the demon, or maintaining their humanity by developing more abilities. As enemy difficulty increases, so will the temptation for players to give up another portion of their hero’s soul for more power.

The game’s plot will differ based on several key in-game choices made by the player, which adds some serious replay value. Additionally, players will be able to build their characters differently with each playthrough by changing the abilities and skills they chose to improve, further adding to the game’s replay value.

Characters will also be fully customizable at the game’s outset. Gender, facial structure, and more can be manipulated to change your hero’s appearance.

Bound By Flame will also include a crafting system, allowing players to both build and improve upon equipment to further their questing edge.

Bound By Flame releases on PC, PS4, PS3, and Xbox One in early 2014.

The action RPG explores a future of humanity engulfed in civil war, despite technological advancements and inter-planetary colonization. We sat down with Spiders Studio CEO Jehanne Rousseau to explore what went into developing the game, and similarities in systems from the Mass Effect series.

Ravi Sinha: What prompted the decision to go with a digital release via Xbox Live, PSN and Steam? Wouldn’t something of this scale benefit more from a moiretail release?

Jehanne Rousseau: We did want to produce or at least co-produce our own game, but we are an independent studio and releasing a retail game requires thea kind of budget we simply didn’t have. Mars is a new franchise with some mature content that no publisher this side of the solar system would be willing to invest gazillions in without taking control of everything in the project.

This was not an option, so we preferred to do our thing with a lower budget and the support of a publisher who respected our perspective. 

Ravi Sinha: Tell us more about the dialogue and decision making system. How does it differ from games like Mass Effect?

Jehanne Rousseau: Both obviously have spiritual ancestors in common, as we’ve been playing Bioware’s RPGs (among others) since the Baldur’s Gate eratimes, way before Spiders Games was founded. Dialogues in Mars: War Logs naturally build on that gaming experience, as well as on the experience we gained from our own previous works.

So you still get to pick your lines depending on the kind of attitude you wish to show, the way you plan to deal with every single issue in the game or just depending on how much more you want to learn from the person you’re talking to [One thing is, besides the necessary tutorial stuff, we didn’t want to hold players’ hands  by the hand too much, so whenever they’re curious to know more about the background, somehow they will actually have to role-play ‘curious’ and ask the friendlier (or not) NPCs that are around – while unlocking codex entries that will let them know even more].

"Combat is meant to be dynamic, but tactics do remain essential, or you will find yourself surrounded and your companions knocked down unconscious pretty quickly."

The decisions you make throughout the game will then affect the story – sometimes quite dramatically – and the outcome of various quests, but also your reputation and how your companions or other NPCs will see you. Or even ‘touch’ you, for some of them.

On the other hand, and because of the importance of your choices, we wanted to make sure these choices were as clear as possible. So we eventually left the (Mass Effect style) dialogue wheel and “key-word” system that we had in our previous games, and got back to actual sentences that leave little doubt as to what your character will be saying or doing once you’ve picked your reply.

In the end, we’d should we compare the dialogue system in Mars with other RPGs, games like Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age: Origins or more recently The Witcher 2 would probably feel closer rather than Mass Effect.

Ravi Sinha: The combat is pushing for different styles and abilities, but how will these abilities affect other areas outside of the game like exploration and puzzles? Will there be multiple ways to approach a problem using the skills you have?

Jehanne Rousseau: There definitely are multiple ways to approach a problem, but for the very most part they rely on the choices you make in dialogues. Some of the Feats you can develop throughout your character progression may increase your chance of looting interesting stuff, or improve your crafting skills (so you can make better upgrades for your equipment) for instance, but in the end your abilities remain dedicated to increasing your chance of survival in a post-apocalyptic setting that will have you getting  you into a lot of fights.

Now, of course, if said problem actually IS a tough fight, some abilities can help you win the battle before it even starts, or make sure it doesn’t happen at all.

Ravi Sinha: Is combat meant to be more tactical and less twitchy? Even moves like dodging and fighting seem more calculated than the twitch-happy nature of most action RPGs these days.

Jehanne Rousseau: Combat is meant to be dynamic, but tactics do remain essential, or you will find yourself surrounded and your companions knocked down unconscious pretty quickly… and then things will probably get lethally twitchy on you too eventually! So you need to analyze and adapt. Just dodging and rolling around until you get a clear shot can do the trick for some time if you’re lucky, but this mostly suggests that you had just better hit the Tactics Menu command and take the time to rethink the situation.

Mars is said to be a difficult game, especially as the main character Roy and his allies are just human beings and can only take so many hits before they die… But actually it’s all about taking advantage of every option you have. Every single skill, item or upgrade – whether skill or equipment – is useful and can make a major difference in battle when used properly.

Once you’ve understood the mechanics and tools at your disposal best suited to your playing style AND the kind of enemy you are fighting, then combat should get that satisfyingactory ‘almost too easy’ feeling even on the higher difficulty levels… and becoming the most dangerous guy on the planet feels all the more rewarding.

"Technology has made some serious steps backwards, while violence, fanaticism, racism, misery and despair are pretty much everywhere. There’s still hope, though. Since there’s still life."

Ravi Sinha: A lot of science fiction centered around Mars defines it as this other frontier for humanity, one that can represent hope and answers just as easily as it can bring to life man’s savagery. What tone does Mars War Logs go for when defining the Red Planet?

Jehanne Rousseau: Mars War Logs is a little grimmer and more pessimistic, as you realize that even after achieving space travel and colonization of Mars, humanity is still confronted with the very same issues and dangers, both globally and individually.

First you get some sort of crude reminder of our place in the universe in that whatever the faith, whatever the ambition or the technology of your civilization, all your efforts can be ruined in a flash by something that’s just completely out of your control.

Then you see private companies replacing governments completely, and using the people who depend on them as soldiers to fight for the control of whatever’s left of that destroyed new world. And as you dig deeper, you realize that despite the Science Fiction setting suggested by the time and place, there’s not much of a future left in a post-apocalyptic world like this.

Technology has made some serious steps backwards, while violence, fanaticism, racism, misery and despair are pretty much everywhere. There’s still hope, though. Since there’s still life. And it’s actually up to you, as a player, to decide if you wish to preserve it as much as possible, or let your anger and personal interests take priority over any ideal of rebuilding a more ‘civilized’ civilization.

Ravi Sinha: What kind of play-time are you looking for with the game? What kind of incentives will there be to replay it, besides the differing abilities?

Jehanne Rousseau: One playthrough should take 12 to 15+ hours in medium difficulty depending on how much time you dedicate to exploring and finding out more about the game universe.

But there’s actually one particular major point in the main quest that will have you choose between two opposite sides… and then walk along two different paths through the whole final third of the game, along with different allies, a different extra (romanceable) companion and several different outcomes depending on some other important decisions to make. Also, when replaying through, you should notice many other smaller changes depending on the way you behaved or solved (or not) certain quests.

Mars War Logs – Launch Trailer is here ladies and gentlemen. And for some reason this another version of the original launch trailer we had reported a couple of days back.

Mars War Logs is a third-person action RPG. In the game, the player plays a role of Roy Temperance who is a man seeking to save the planet from the mass catastrophe that devastated the planet almost a century ago. You will be taking on quests, participating in dialogue choices and decisions, crafting and modyifing your weapons and of course slaying the terrifying monsters that roam planet Mars.

Mars War Logs is developed by Spiders studios for PlayStation Network, Xbox Live and PC. The game will feature a big variety of dynamic quests, high-quality character specializations and multiple skill trees and a full fledged crafting system.

Launch Trailer:

Interested in Mars War Logs and want to know how well this action RPG Mars adventure turns out? Stay tuned on GamingBolt for our review. Please post any comments or opinions you have down below in the comment section.

The screenshots showcase a new character, namely the Technomant army general’s right hand Devotion Chase, who hunts Roy in Shadowlair for her own ends. As for those purposes, well, that’s the mystery.

Stay tuned for more details as Mars War Logs nears release for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

You’ll be playing as Roy, a human with his own set of skills, as he attempts to survive his journey on Mars and hopefully discover just what happened 200 odd years ago to make things so shitty.

Calling it right now: NASA. All because of NASA.

Mars War Logs will reportedly offer a plethora of choices for how you want to shape your character, along with real time combat and a crafting system for weapons. Check it out when it hits this Spring for Xbox Live, PSN and PC.