Sunday, March 3, 2013

Preview: Bound by Flames from Spider Studios




We got a little teaser and a screenshot for a game called Bound by Flame over here at the Vidya Weekly that tickled my adventurer’s fancy with a look at a giant swampthing-boss-monster.  Here is a little snippet from the press release that was sent over to us:




"This action/role-playing game let's you play a mercenary possessed by a flame demon in an ambitious Dark Fantasy universe. As a victim of this demonic influence players will have to choose between this evil or to reject the demonic influence, developing heroic talents instead. Dangers, and becoming more terrifying and fearsome in battle, will be temptations to acquire more power by giving up part of the hero's soul to the demon. Progression of the demonic influence will be reflected by the transformation of the hero's body."

This is my take on all this that we received.

Graphically it looks amazing. Just look at that massive…swamp giant-Cthulu monster. He is gorgeous! I sincerely hope that every single monster in this upcoming game looks like this one because if they do…well Square-Enix take notes.

I am particularly interested in how the main character’s body will change as you acquire new powers and how that will translate into gameplay. My ADD goes crazy with flashing lights and fire is absolutely no exception to this rule. I’d also like to see some examples of combat so I can better understand how the player will interact with the world in and out of combat but alas I do not have that sort of information right now. I’m looking forward to seeing some gameplay footage to further delve into the rabbit hole.

This is going to be Spider Studio’s first try at an epic adventure game so I am interested in seeing where their journey takes us. A lot of well-established studios turn out the same game over and over again to guarantee profits. This tends to lead to “innovation lost” syndrome so for me this is actually rather exciting. We have a new studio with a fresh outlook doing an established genre. There is a real chance that we will get a 3rd person action RPG that will derail the normal genre “must haves” and go down a different path.

It is mentioned that there will be companions and though the press release filled me with excitement the mention of this feature is one of my only major worries. I am always a bit skeptical when I hear about companions being introduced into a game. Companions and bugs are almost a household legend told time and time again at the nerdly dinner table. “My warrior friend with the massive axe got lost” “Crap I wasn't ready to fight yet and he aggroed that whole group.” And this being their first big ol’ adventure game makes me a little worried because the AI used to operate computer controlled companions is notorious for causing in game glitches. I could just be a worrywart though and the guys and gals at Spider Studios could pull it off without a hitch.

You’ll also have the ability to craft weapons, armor, and the like. I don’t have any information on it other than the game includes it. Everyone loves a great crafting system, so stay tuned on that.

The press release also mentioned quests and different scenarios based on what choices you’ve made along the same vein as many games made by Bioware. Whether these are going to be major deviations from the story or simple small things are both up in the air. But! Either is fine with me. Bioware has done a lot of great work with choices changing how a story evolves and those guys over at spider Studio will have some great examples to draw from.

Time will tell of course with all of this and despite my concerns I’m genuinely excited to see how this turns out. The screenshot we were sent is absolutely drop dead gorgeous and if they can make more monsters that look like that or even better then I am sold! I would totally wine, dine, and date this game super hard. 10/10 would open my PC’s doors for! Bound by Flame is Targeted for release on PC, Playstation3, and Xbox 360 at the end of 2013!

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             Currently listening to Liez by 55 Escape

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