In Bound by Flame, players can choose their own destiny and carve their own story path by selecting whether or not they can stay being human or, follow the path of the possessed as a demon can tempt and grant the protagonist with additional powers. Following this, your character can complete specific quests and form alliances with different characters and this can have profound changes to the interactions and ending later in the game.
The game has a PS3 graphical appearance but where it lacks in graphical ability, it makes up for in being surprisingly deep in gameplay. You can choose between 3 classes – Warrior, Ranger and Pyromancer with loads of skills to upgrade across different skill trees. You can wield swords, axes, warhammers, duel-wield daggers, use bows, throw fireballs, create traps and even add poison and fire to your weapons! There are 4 acts with over 35 side quests that vary from killing certain beasts, rescuing allies to acquiring rare materials. Bound by Flame offers a strong challenge as enemies are tough to overwhelm unless players play intelligently, are properly equipped and appropriately levelled. It is however, a very rewarding and engaging RPG title that lacks a certain polished quality in gameplay and graphical strength. For its genre, Bound by Flame is also very short with the main campaign completed in around 10 hours. There is also no real replayability as players cannot go back to complete uncompleted quests nor is there an online mode.
Bound by Flame is the PS4s answer to Dark Souls and it does a reasonable job at being a solid challenge but, it lacks in length compared to other RPG titles as well as the graphical finesse that accompanies the expectations of the PS4. Fans of RPG or action/adventure games should pick this up but only later when there is a price drop. 7.5/10