The Flame in the Flood delivers a brilliant twist on the survival genre. The inability to linger in one place makes the game feel like a proper adventure with some additional survival trappings.
I played this on PS5 and I'm now one of the 216 people to have gotten the platinum for it. I really loved this game and if you're interested in a challenging survival game that's similar to Don't Starve, check it out. I actually liked this game better than Don't Starve because I was able to figure it out better (couldn't get through winter in Don't Starve and gave up). At the start of this game, I didn't like it. The raft controls were frustrating and it just wasn't that much fun at first. I'm glad I didn't give up because I ended up loving it and I've played it for 88 hours so far. I ended up getting better at controlling the raft, but it makes sense that it's hard to control and you still crash sometimes. Otherwise, nobody would care about getting the tools to fix the raft. Also, it makes me care more about upgrading the raft which can improve the controls for it and make it take less **** main reason I wanted to write this review was that the top review that comes up is somebody complaining that some animals messed them up and they died because the game didn't give them enough medical supplies so it's more about luck than skill. Seriously?? You get killed by animals and you just blame the game?? It couldn't possibly be something you did wrong that you can improve and avoid next time, right? On the contrary, the game is about skill and you can definitely avoid dying to animals (even without medical supplies) once you know what you're doing. Of course some runs will be easier than others but there's nothing wrong with that. I got to the point where I was able to pretty consistently survive far into Endless Mode or the campaign without dying (even without using Aesop's bag which is a way to save your best items into the new playthrough). My recommendation is that you don't give up and for crying out loud, try to figure the game out by yourself and don't just look up stuff online before even making an effort to get better on your own. It's much more fun when you do get better that **** of the main reasons I give this game a 10 is that it's so original. Don't Starve is the only similar game I know of. Every other survival game is in 3D so this is a nice change. After playing so many games, it's nice to find one that is so different (not just about killing, fighting, etc.). Also, like just about all of the professional reviews say, the music is great.There are only a few issues I had with the game: 1) Eventually, it was really easy to get far in Endless Mode and it got a bit too easy and repetitive for me to continue surviving for a long time (only after about 50-80 days, the first 50 days or so are still challenging). It did take me a several playthroughs to get to that skill level though and I will probably play the game giving myself more restrictions to make it harder (like no raft upgrades). The trophies actually add a lot to the replayability too. 2) The game gave me error reports way too often. Fortunately, it autosaves a lot so it doesn't make you lose much progress at all and I got fewer errors after reinstalling (this doesn't delete your game progress). It's disappointing that they haven't patched this 5 years after the game came out. 3) There are some more things the game really should explain to you. Sometimes the item descriptions lie to you. The most annoying to me was the description of broken bones which says that if you don't fix it, you'll regret it until the end of your days. It makes it seem like something permanent will happen if you don't fix the broken bones. What actually happens is absolutely nothing and it cures itself eventually, but what took me forever to figure out was that your hunger meter goes down about 2.5 times as fast when you have broken bones (same with getting poisoned by poison ivy). This makes no ****, and if you do try to go for the Paleo Diet trophy and you're wondering if you can drink dandelion tea, looking this up online will give you the wrong answer. The answer is NO, YOU CAN'T. I went 67 days in endless mode without eating plants and only drinking dandelion tea because of a snake bite and it didn't give me the trophy. Then I got it right at day 40 when I didn't drink the tea because I backed out to the main menu when I was bitten by a snake and then it doesn't save that part (but don't use this exploit normally as it makes the game way too easy).
The Flame in the Flood encourages you to put long-term goals aside and live in the moment, to make choices and overcome short-term problems with risky but satisfying spontaneity. Despite the awkward menu system, it’s an absorbing game that lets you experience a journey in the present, and fully appreciate the sights, sounds, and joys of floating down the river in its alluring world.
Flame in the Flood doesn’t burden player with too many details: there simply was a flood, and now a brave girl and her dog are trying to get as far as possible downstream. Good Samaritans are all but non-existent, waters are rough and shores are rougher, so survival isn’t going to be pretty. [Issue#208, p.56]
Beautifully done battle with nature, which relies primarily on audio-visual aspect and a realistic setting. Grab your axe, food for three days and get downstream.
This is no quaint river rafting trip where you can sense the spirit of Huckleberry Finn. This is a relentless beast that let’s you die without warning. But even once you got the basics covered this is not as engrossing as Don’t Starve – even though artdesign and music are top notch.
Overall, the experience of playing The Flame in The Flood is more frustrating than nerve-wracking. I get that survival games won't be easy, but their systems should feel balanced, not bullshit. And the nodal method of traveling down river can feel futile in its own way. There's a big, bad wolf between me and any desire to play this further.
This game introduced me to Chuck Ragan (musician).
It is a great journey game. If you can ignore questionable visual choices (or if you like me and can enjoy the visuals) then you will face uncompromised survival experience with great music and interesting mechanics.
But most of all you will face your journey. This game change all we know about survival game (hoarding resources) and give us smart approach, to travel along the river you need to prioritize what to take with you cause your boat couldn`t take it all. I realy enjoy the game with it`s growing difficulty and sense of journey.
This game is very annoying! No matter what you try ,it’s purpose is make you lose. The last level is ridiculous. The raft is crap, controls are very bad, enemies are at every place and the camera is awful, specially when rafting . And the menu scheme/mechanics is atrocious. You have to juggle between commands while it’s raining and wild animals can attack you. I narrowly finished it, but at the end didn’t enjoy much. Don’t buy! Another rogue indie crap!
Nice idea but bad execution. This game has a fine drawn graphics, good audio (music) and that's it. Game mechanics are often crude and frustrating. Gameplay is simple but yet unbalanced, sometimes I was thinking it's more based on luck than careful planning or 'survival skill'. Amount of rain is ridiculous, is it USA or Amazon? In my opinion days are passing too fast and you're almost constantly wet or/and hungry, but what annoyed me the most are really rare checkpoints. I know it supposed to be a rogue-like but losing 2h of progress can be really frustrating. Sadly after few "Game Overs" it's getting boring and no storyline (or any kind of plot) makes it even worse. Better stick with "Don't Starve".