As Spiders' #1 (self-proclaimed) fangirl, I have taken it upon myself to 100% every one of their games in 2025, in anticipation of the impending release of GreedFall 2. After quite a bit of an uphill battle, I've managed to finally complete Bound by Flame, the black sheep of the Spiders catalogue. I say this unreservedly, and with good reason. It's an unoptimized, overambitious, buggy experiment, with occasionally campy and unconvincing voice acting, but one with lots of heart and passion. As such, I can't help but recommend it. You take on the role of Vulcan, the explosives expert of the Freeborn Blades, a mercenary company attempting to prolong the inevitable: the end of the world. Vertiel is consumed by a preternatural endless winter, spearheaded by Ice Lords and their necromantic pawns. An (un)fortunate accident at a ritual to hold back this horror imbues Vulcan with the power to control fire, with wound to their humanity. Possessed by a demon, you now hold the fate of the world in your hands, a fate that you can affect by clinging to your fragile humanity, or permitting the demon to take control.


I have next to no excuse for my godawfully long playtime in this game, compared to many others. It's not that it's terribly difficult, per se, but horribly optimized. I'm not one to decry Spiders' catalogue as janky -- I personally love the combat in GreedFall and see every earlier installment as a less-refined version of it -- but there is a lot to be desired with how Bound by Flame plays. Yet, when you get into the groove of the battle, and find your rhythm between throwing fireballs and slashing daggers, the combat is satisfying. I do recommend to only use skills from the Ranger and Pyromancer trees, however, as Warrior, with its usually beautiful Zweihanders, axes and hammers, is an incredibly slow and ineffective experience. My first playthrough was a Ranger with some Pyromancer skills, which I found to be a fun and engaging experience. The second and third playthroughs felt like a never-ending chore, but I would be amiss to judge the game on those grounds. The first playthrough, although occasionally tedious, was enjoyable enough.

Full transparency, my pros deal almost exclusively with aesthetics and worldbuilding, and not necessarily with gameplay.

PROS
+ The characters. Although this isn't nearly as heavy of an RPG as their later installments, the characters all felt as if they had their own motives, agendas, and places in the world. It's impossible to keep everyone happy. (I really particularly enjoy Mathras. He's a lot of fun.)
+ Beautiful and in-depth crafting system. Standard armour and weapons can be customized minutely: you can add parts to your armour that buff your mana or health points; offer you poison, magic, or ice resistance; or grant a quicker regeneration speed to HP. Upgrades to weapons grant boons in battle, as one would imagine.
+ Consumable items, such as crossbow quarrels, traps, and potions, are incredibly effective. Traps and bolts do a great amount of damage, and their value/usefulness scales in accordance to their rarity.
+ Olivier Deriviere composed the soundtrack. His musical direction, with its organic sounding strings, distant vocals and exciting percussion, truly added to the experience. My favourite piece is the theme that plays in Valvenor, the secluded town in the swamplands.
+ The natural landscapes we see are gorgeous and immersive, particularly the swamp.
+ Creature design. The monsters and wacky creatures you encounter -- outside of the standard zombies -- are all unique, and have that very distinctive Spiders feel to them. It's kind of hard to articulate what I mean when I say that, but playing through any of their games should net you the same results, if you're observant.
+ There are several endings -- while I don't think this game is particularly replayable, to see this attention to detail is quite nice, and I'm glad that this has also become a staple of Spiders' games.
+ The side quests all tie into the main quest, which is likewise another Spiders signature move.

CONS
- My game kept crashing, repeatedly. The issue eventually resolved itself, and didn't happen nearly as frequently if I didn't bring up the Steam or Discord overlays. It's probably an internal issue on my end, but goodness me, was it frustrating.
- The combat is incredibly unbalanced. Like I mentioned above, the heavy weapons do next to no damage and oftentimes swing inexcusably slow. It's frustrating to use them, as there's no payoff. You either die mid-animation, or spend too long trying to chip away at the health of an inconsequential Deadwalker.
- The pacing of the game is rather awkward. Act 1 is quite long, but it doesn't overstay its welcome. Acts 2 and 3 are both too long and too short at the same time. You can tell that there's a story that they wanted to tell, but its length and scope exceeded their budget and resources.
- The combat encounters, especially in Act 3, grow rather repetitive. While this can be good for predicting the next move, it grows incredibly grindy and not very exciting very quickly.
- You can only take one companion with you at a time. I find this disappointing as the companions all had great personalities with a lot of potential to work off of each other, yet
- The ultimate boss has absolutely no excuse being so tanky. Say skill issue if you wish, but it is an absolute chore -- and not very fun whatsoever -- to chip away at without an incredible amount of cheesing or saintly levels of patience.


I'm not sure if this is a fair criticism, but the game definitely feels its age and budgetary restrictions. You can tell that Spiders was still trying to get their foot in the door with crafting sweeping and consequential RPGs, and as such, the game falls short in quite a few places. I'm sure my opinion on this bit would be different had I played it 11 years ago, or if I didn't start with GreedFall, but it is what it is. It's not a great game by any means, but it is a good game. I enjoyed my first playthrough, and it's a treat to be able to see the seeds of inspiration for Spiders' later endeavours. This review is more ambivalent than I wished -- after all, I am recommending it! -- but it took this form as I wrote it. You will enjoy it if you know what you're getting into: an unpolished, poorly aged, and experimental RPG with lots of bugs, questionably campy charm, and a priapic 6,000 year old zombie with perfect charisma.



Overall Rating ★★★⯪☆
Story ★★★★☆
Gameplay ★★★☆☆
Graphics ★★★★☆
Sound Design ★★★★★
Replay Value ★☆☆☆☆
Difficulty ★★★★☆
Bug free? ★★☆☆☆
PC Requirements ★★☆☆☆
Game Length ★★★☆☆

I wouldn't say "wait for sale," as the game is running at a standard price of $6.99 USD. You'll definitely get your money's worth of playtime. However, if you're still hesitant, Spiders' games go on sale quite often, so it's worth keeping your eye on it.

Visit Damsel Direct for more gunpowder, magic, and chaos.

[h1]“But you see, that’s what I like so much about mortals: their stories last just about the right amount of time… give or take a few decades… and then they’re done… and then they come around again.”[/h1] As Spiders' #1 (self-proclaimed) fangirl, I have taken it upon myself to 100% every one of their games in 2025, in anticipation of the impending release of [i]GreedFall 2[/i]. After quite a bit of an uphill battle, I've managed to finally complete [i]Bound by Flame[/i], the black sheep of the Spiders catalogue. I say this unreservedly, and with good reason. It's an unoptimized, overambitious, buggy experiment, with occasionally campy and unconvincing voice acting, but one with lots of heart and passion. As such, I can't help but recommend it. You take on the role of Vulcan, the explosives expert of the Freeborn Blades, a mercenary company attempting to prolong the inevitable: the end of the world. Vertiel is consumed by a preternatural endless winter, spearheaded by Ice Lords and their necromantic pawns. An (un)fortunate accident at a ritual to hold back this horror imbues Vulcan with the power to control fire, with wound to their humanity. Possessed by a demon, you now hold the fate of the world in your hands, a fate that you can affect by clinging to your fragile humanity, or permitting the demon to take control. [h1]Some quick words[/h1] I have next to no excuse for my godawfully long playtime in this game, compared to many others. It's not that it's terribly difficult, per se, but horribly optimized. I'm not one to decry Spiders' catalogue as janky -- I personally love the combat in [i]GreedFall[/i] and see every earlier installment as a less-refined version of it -- but there is [i]a lot[/i] to be desired with how [i]Bound by Flame[/i] plays. Yet, when you get into the groove of the battle, and find your rhythm between throwing fireballs and slashing daggers, the combat is satisfying. I do recommend to only use skills from the Ranger and Pyromancer trees, however, as Warrior, with its usually beautiful Zweihanders, axes and hammers, is an incredibly slow and ineffective experience. My first playthrough was a Ranger with some Pyromancer skills, which I found to be a fun and engaging experience. The second and third playthroughs felt like a never-ending chore, but I would be amiss to judge the game on those grounds. The first playthrough, although occasionally tedious, was enjoyable enough. Full transparency, my pros deal almost exclusively with aesthetics and worldbuilding, and not necessarily with gameplay. [b]PROS[/b] + The characters. Although this isn't nearly as heavy of an RPG as their later installments, the characters all felt as if they had their own motives, agendas, and places in the world. It's impossible to keep everyone happy. ([url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3428997651]I really particularly enjoy Mathras.[/url] He's a lot of fun.) + Beautiful and in-depth crafting system. Standard armour and weapons can be customized minutely: you can add parts to your armour that buff your mana or health points; offer you poison, magic, or ice resistance; or grant a quicker regeneration speed to HP. Upgrades to weapons grant boons in battle, as one would imagine. + Consumable items, such as crossbow quarrels, traps, and potions, are incredibly effective. Traps and bolts do a great amount of damage, and their value/usefulness scales in accordance to their rarity. + Olivier Deriviere composed the soundtrack. His musical direction, with its organic sounding strings, distant vocals and exciting percussion, truly added to the experience. My favourite piece is the theme that plays in Valvenor, the secluded town in the swamplands. + The natural landscapes we see are gorgeous and immersive, particularly the swamp. + Creature design. The monsters and wacky creatures you encounter -- outside of the standard zombies -- are all unique, and have that very distinctive Spiders feel to them. It's kind of hard to articulate what I mean when I say that, but playing through any of their games should net you the same results, if you're observant. + There are several endings -- while I don't think this game is particularly replayable, to see this attention to detail is quite nice, and I'm glad that this has also become a staple of Spiders' games. + The side quests all tie into the main quest, which is likewise another Spiders signature move. [b]CONS[/b] - [b][i]My game kept crashing, repeatedly.[/i][/b] The issue eventually resolved itself, and didn't happen nearly as frequently if I didn't bring up the Steam or Discord overlays. It's probably an internal issue on my end, but goodness me, was it frustrating. - The combat is incredibly unbalanced. Like I mentioned above, the heavy weapons do next to no damage and oftentimes swing inexcusably slow. It's frustrating to use them, as there's no payoff. You either die mid-animation, or spend too long trying to chip away at the health of an inconsequential Deadwalker. - The pacing of the game is rather awkward. Act 1 is quite long, but it doesn't overstay its welcome. Acts 2 and 3 are both too long and too short at the same time. You can tell that there's a story that they wanted to tell, but its length and scope exceeded their budget and resources. - The combat encounters, especially in Act 3, grow rather repetitive. While this can be good for predicting the next move, it grows incredibly grindy and not very exciting very quickly. - You can only take one companion with you at a time. I find this disappointing as the companions all had great personalities with a lot of potential to work off of each other, yet - The ultimate boss has absolutely [b]no excuse[/b] being so tanky. Say skill issue if you wish, but it is an absolute chore -- and not very fun whatsoever -- to chip away at without an incredible amount of cheesing or saintly levels of patience. [h1]Last words[/h1] I'm not sure if this is a fair criticism, but the game definitely feels its age and budgetary restrictions. You can tell that Spiders was still trying to get their foot in the door with crafting sweeping and consequential RPGs, and as such, the game falls short in quite a few places. I'm sure my opinion on this bit would be different had I played it 11 years ago, or if I didn't start with [i]GreedFall[/i], but it is what it is. It's not a [i]great[/i] game by any means, but it is a [i]good[/i] game. I enjoyed my first playthrough, and it's a treat to be able to see the seeds of inspiration for Spiders' later endeavours. This review is more ambivalent than I wished -- after all, I am recommending it! -- but it took this form as I wrote it. You will enjoy it if you know what you're getting into: an unpolished, poorly aged, and experimental RPG with lots of bugs, questionably campy charm, and a priapic 6,000 year old zombie with perfect charisma. [h1]The Final Verdict[/h1] [b]Overall Rating[/b] ★★★⯪☆ [b]Story[/b] ★★★★☆ [b]Gameplay[/b] ★★★☆☆ [b]Graphics[/b] ★★★★☆ [b]Sound Design[/b] ★★★★★ [b]Replay Value[/b] ★☆☆☆☆ [b]Difficulty[/b] ★★★★☆ [b]Bug free?[/b] ★★☆☆☆ [b]PC Requirements[/b] ★★☆☆☆ [b]Game Length[/b] ★★★☆☆ I wouldn't say "wait for sale," as the game is running at a standard price of $6.99 USD. You'll definitely get your money's worth of playtime. However, if you're still hesitant, Spiders' games go on sale quite often, so it's worth keeping your eye on it. [quote]Visit [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/damseldirect]Damsel Direct[/url] for more gunpowder, magic, and chaos.[/quote]