Platforms: PlayStation 4 (reviewed), Xbox One, and PC.
Developer: The Molasses Flood
MSRP: $14.99
Introduction :
The Flame in the Flood is something I’ve been hearing about for a while. I’ve always contemplated buying it, despite not really knowing much about it. The concept that was pitched to me by someone really appealed to me but I was a bit worried that it would get old after a while, and although it is enjoyable, it does begin to grow tiresome after a few hours of playing.
The Flame in the Flood is a game about a survivor of a flood and a dog trying to scavenge whatever they can in the wilderness to stay alive. The player must craft whatever makeshift tools they can to defend themselves from whatever dangers lie ahead in their journey, keep themselves healthy, and more. It’s a very difficult game due to the fact you have to manage your resources very carefully as food and water may be hard to come by and there are many animals that will wreck you if you come across them unprepared (and you will more than likely be unprepared). It’s quite tedious – but in a good way.
The game doesn’t hold your hand when you start the game you’re thrust in. It teaches you some basic controls but for the most part, you’re on your own. For some games, this would just be weird and frustrating but it works here. Thematically, it makes sense. You are this survivor who is by themselves, you don’t really know what to do! You just have to rely on your survival instinct to make sure you can keep progressing. If you do die, it’s game over. You’re done! Depending on the mode you select, you can restart at a checkpoint and try again but chances are by that point you were already so far gone that there’s nothing you can do to save yourself. The other mode has no checkpoints, and if you die… you’re dead forever and you’ll have to restart completely.
Great environmental storytelling in a repetitive, bland world:
The Flame in the Flood doesn’t have a traditional plot. A lot of the story is told through effective environmental storytelling where you walk up to an object, press a button and a little bubble pops up with your character’s thoughts. You get an idea of what happened and what life was like before tragedy struck. There’s also things littered throughout that give you an idea of what’s going on without any character's telling you how to feel or giving you any context. Houses are breaking away from land and falling down the rapids, rooftops have SOS painted on them, and more. It’s a great way to give this world some story in an untraditional way.
The problem with The Flame in the Flood is that you’re always on the move. You never have a chance to stop, settle down and make a camp. The game takes place on basically a massive river. You’re traveling downstream on a small raft, stopping on small islands to get food or sleep in a house for a night. When I say small islands, I mean REALLY small. It’ll take you a minute and a half at most to see everything and each island looks fairly similar. It gets really repetitive after just a few hours because you never feel like you’re encountering anything brand new.
The river is always pushing you forward, so you can never go back to a camp or make a base. You won’t stay at a base for longer than 5 minutes. It ends up feeling very boring and you get tired of constantly moving to similar looking areas over and over again.
An annoying hunger meter:
One other issue I have is I felt I died too quickly from things like starvation. Food is extremely scarce in this game and I died from hunger frequently. Come to think of it, it’s the only thing that killed me! It felt just a bit too unforgiving – once your hunger meter depletes you die right away. You don’t just become weaker like you may in real life, you just fall over and die.
The Verdict:
Although The Flame in the Flood does a great job of immersing you in the world, it ultimately wears off very quickly. I felt I had seen everything the game had to offer after just a few hours and I didn’t care for what I was playing anymore. The game never progresses beyond finding food and water, I never encountered any unique locations or anything that made me feel like I was actually progressing. It just felt like I was doing the same thing over and over again. If it weren’t for the repetitive nature of The Flame in the Flood, it would be really great but sadly it failed to click with me completely.
