The Flame in the Flood: Complete Edition PlayStation 4 Review

A catastrophic flood during the post-apocalypse in America when the world is literally a swamped wasteland. Death hides in every corner, not just because of wild creatures, but also a hideous list of natural diseases. What could you possibly do to survive? The Molasses Flood decided to put you just in there to test your survival skills. And guess what! Soon you discover that they test you as hard as it can get. With infinite sailing added to never-ending hunger and thirst, your journey through The Flame in the Flood: Complete Edition will surely be a memorable one.

The Flame in the Flood puts you in the role of Scout, a survivor during the post-apocalypse who is companioned by her dog Aesop. As Scout, your only task is to keep surviving by scavenging food, clean water, finding shelter, and eventually finding a way through to the other end of the wasteland. The game starts with a tutorial, in text form, explaining the basic mechanics, and immediately getting things going. Very soon, you realize this rogue-like survival game isn’t as easy as it initially appeared. Nature shortly becomes the greatest enemy, who shows no mercy if you let your guard down even if only for a moment. Scout must constantly move from one island to another using her wooden raft to avoid death by starvation, thirst, and diseases. She must gather supplies and shelter to keep her survival meters or stats green. Scout isn’t a fighter and she’s vulnerable when facing wild animals. Her powerlessness adds the extra difficulty to the game, keeping you on edge the whole time.

When scavenging, players need to hunt for meals by setting up traps. A well planned trap is very rewarding, but invites danger too. Imagine that you’re trying to catch a rabbit and get bitten by one. A rabbit bite might not cause a serious injury, but will bother you in this harsh condition. Then, suddenly, a large boar attacks you from another direction and breaks a couple of your bones. To heal from this injury you find a shelter, and from nowhere a poisonous snake shows up and bites you. So, you can’t simply roam around and scavenge, you need to be calculated as well. Your supply of clean water is also essential, unless you want to die from thirst constantly. There is water everywhere, but you need to filter it before drinking. It’s not as easy as it sounds though. For filtering, you also need to find the essentials items. Sometimes it’s annoying that Scout and her dog can only carry a limited amount of items. And when you’re crafting something, you need to know what to prioritize. Which means you can’t carry other essential items. In times like that dumping items could force you to make very testing choices.

As mentioned earlier, players will experience death in many ways, permadeath also being an option in The Flame in the Flood: Complete Edition. The checkpoint system feels a bit random and hard to predict. Say, unless you haven’t really accomplished any task, the game will always restart from the beginning. There’s no save option or exact checkpoint in the game. Sometimes say you’ve survived for several days and accomplished a few tasks, but in the end gave up on being serious, the game will restart after you die. Players need to keep a balance of four stats or condition meters: food, water, temperature and shelter. Those who are new to this genre will struggle to survive for long due to the difficulty in maintaining Scout’s stats balanced. You can’t simply have a full stomach with high fever. Or you’re not hungry, but thirsty enough to die. It’s very frustrating, especially when you die after a decent run, but that’s how the nature of this game is. The post-apocalypse is meant to be the end of humanity, and you learn to accept this reality the more you progress in the game.

However, if dying doesn’t frustrate you enough in The Flame in the Flood: Complete Edition, Scout’s inventory will sure do. This happens simply because it fills up so quickly, and it’s one of the drawbacks I’ve found in this game. Say if you’ve reached a land where there’s decent amount of supplies, and you’re also carrying other items for crafting something. It’ll surely come down to a point when you’ll have to decide which one to carry, supplies or the items, whereas both are equally essential for your survival. Even though Aesop offers his inventory, it’s just too little to make any difference. Adding to the limited space, navigating through the inventory is quite clumsy too. It’s mostly because there isn’t any solid tutorial on how to properly use it. Say if you’ve found a can and filled it up with gas, later on when you’ve found a source of water, you can’t empty the can to fill it with water. It’s also difficult to swap items between their inventories when both are full. Though you can always drop them and come back later to collect, but it’s a hassle most wouldn’t want to go through. Another alarming drawback is that there’s no pause menu. Perhaps it’s supposed to be that way to make the gameplay harder. Because when while you’re checking something in the inventory or planning on something, Scout remains literally unprotected. Your success is based on the amount of time/days you’ve survived. So every minute is important. And when you’re spending too much time sorting your inventory, you’re simply wasting time.

Thankfully though, the game has just the right type of background music and sound effects to ease your frustration down. Its gloomy folk-country soundtrack fits the gameplay quite well and, needless to say, the theme song of The Flame in the Flood: Complete Edition is truly remarkable. Graphically, the game also puts a decent display, revealing a well portrayed swamped wasteland. Abandoned structures and their ghostly display during the night time turns the fear of survival from bad to worse.

Undoubtedly it’s one of the more clever games that I’ve played in many years. Many have compared The Flame in the Flood with Don’t Starve due to the nature of both games, but I’ve found this gameplay experience quite unique. Scout is a very likeable character to grow with as is Aesop. This game is meant to play for long hours, so it’s vital for me to like that characters I’m playing as and with. The Molasses Flood has nicely blended the harshness of Mother Nature against the will and surviving instinct of humans. If you’re up for testing your survival skills and patience, don’t go too far and play The Flame in the Flood: Complete Edition.

Sarwar Ron, NoobFeed
Twitter | Facebook | Google+