Focus Home Interactive’s latest and first venture into next-gen is an action-RPG title known as Bound By Flame, for those interested in this I can gladly say there won’t be much disappointment, unless of course you’re not very much of a fan of CD Projeckt RED’s infamous “The Witcher” franchise of course.

Enemies of all kinds are present here.

The good thing about Bound By Flame from the small bit of gameplay I’ve played, is that it never feels amateurish, even though Focus Home Interactive isn’t the biggest of publishers out there, but they’ve created a title that could very well get them noticed with mainstream gaming audiences. Bound By Flame has an excellent balance in difficult, no enemy felt to hard, nor did they feel too easy, in fact I’ve died more than a handful of times since my first time popping in the disc.

There’s a lot of open gameplay in Bound By Flame.

The large open world is really impress given the fact that for the most part they’ve only had about 7-8 gigs of data to work with. And the game looks absolutely beautiful on Playstation 4, that was really the first thing that amazed me more than anything else upon first starting. I was mesmerized by the game engine (whichever they’re using), that I did a bit of exploring before going to my designated area for the main quest. However, anyone looking for a good Skyrim clone can stop while they’re ahead. Focus Home was clearly trying to differentiate from other series, though it still gives you those similar vibes, most notably is that of The Witcher.

Magic and Companions are present as well.

Combat is almost exactly like that seen in The Witcher, this will intrigue some, and immediately turn off others. Magic and companions are actually pretty useful, I was digging the AI of my companions (having dealt with two different companions at my first time playing). Never once did they feel stupid, nor were there any glitches present which would cause them to act stupid. Everything seems so neatly built that it’s hard to believe this wasn’t developed by a more known developer, not to say that Spiders isn’t a great developer, as I myself have never really played any of their titles, but I’m aware that they aren’t exactly known to most mainstream gaming audiences.

Difficulty doesn’t screw around, thankfully, you’re companions are actually useful, damn useful.

The only major flaw I’d have to say about Bound By Flame is that character creation felt a bit limited. Yes you can choose gender, but that and the option to change your face and hair is really all there is to do. No voice change or any of that, but what you’re given to work with is still fairly impressive. Bound By Flame is an excellent title from Focus Home Interactive, one that will hopefully be successful enough to warrant a sequel and perhaps more importantly get Focus Home Interactive and Spiders’ names out their as top studios in the industry. Expect our review of Bound By Flame on it’s release day of Friday. May, 9, 2014.