THE FLAME IN THE FLOOD
Survival adventure burns bright, but not for long
Death can come slowly or quickly, but you’ll rarely escape it. That’s what you learn as you travel through an unusually serene, post-apocalyptic America. Good planning and careful resource management might save you from starvation, but it won’t mean a lot if you get on the wrong side of a rampaging bear. Happily, there are plenty of reasons to head back out on your journey after the Grizzly Reaper comes calling. You play as Scout, a young girl who has nothing but the clothes on her back until her new doggy friend, Aesop, drags a bag and radio to her. It’s the start of a deceptively simple quest: to head to higher ground in the hope of picking up a radio signal. The only problem is that you have no idea what’s waiting for you, and the only way to learn is to set sail on Scout’s rickety raft.
What is out there is an accessible mix of procedurally generated exploration, the need to look after Scout’s basic needs (such as hunger, hydration and fatigue), and careful resource management. You split your time between sailing down a grand river towards your goal and hopping between the small islands along it.
WILD AT HEART
Those pockets of land are where you gather resources, nab food, hunt different types of animals, and grab 40 winks if you’re lucky enough to find shelter on an archipelago.
While it’s easy to grasp what you’re doing, there’s a biting realism to your adventure that keeps the tension at a high level. For example, if you craft a trap and catch a wolf in it, you’ll need both to skin the wolf and to cook the raw meat you get from it. If you don’t heat it up before eating, expect a lethal bout of food poisoning.
Like in real-life trekking, one mistake can finish you off. Sounds harsh? Well, it’s not quite permadeath – there are checkpoints along the river that you can restart from should you die – but it does have a lasting impact, and sometimes heading back to the beginning of the game and starting over with a bit more knowledge is the smarter decision.
The first few hours, which you spend learning the rules of the wilderness, really showcase the game’s rich art and music design. An angular, handdrawn look makes it as harshly alluring as the scattered islands you plunder, while the altcountry music that plays while you’re travelling along the river is a perfect fit for the game, conjuring a spirit of weary resilience as you push further on in search of a signal.
Throughout this early stretch, as you’re learning and scavenging and trying not to die, it nails the balance between escalating tension and compulsive micro-management
“EVEN IN ITS WEAKEST MOMENTS, THERE’S A RICH MYSTERY TO THIS WORLD.”
while maintaining some engrossing low-key storytelling.
MORE IS LESS
Unfortunately, it doesn’t last. The closer you get to the ultimate destination, the less the pilgrimage has to offer. Resources become scarcer in an artificial attempt to increase the difficulty, but upgrading your raft can take care of most of your basic needs – sleep and clean water – to make your life easier. As long as you play smart and hoard long-lasting food, there’s little incentive to keep investigating islands.
Plus, you’ll quickly discover ways of cheesing your way through. Hunting, which should be a paranoid game of catand-mouse, becomes a slog of luring animals to the entrance of an island to a point where they won’t attack, then picking them off with tainted meat or arrows. Late game areas turn from atmospheric to numbing, as the challenge seeps away.
You should also be wary of the bugs that plague The Flame In The Flood. A nearconstant nuisance throughout, sometimes I get a harmless glitch that causes a docking animation to not play properly, others see grizzly bears decide to glide over the environment. For a game that relies heavily on atmosphere, these moments shatter any tension developer The Molasses Flood has built.
So why should you bother to make it to the credits? Even in the weakest moments, there’s a rich mystery to this world that remains captivating. While it can’t maintain the high standards of the early going, this is still a ride worth taking.
VERDICT
Tense at first, the initial thrills dampen the more time you spend in its company, but The Flame In The Flood’s warm ambience and unusual design are worth discovering for yourself. Ben Tyrer