Video Game Review: The Flame in the Flood (PS4)

Take me to the river . . .

The Flame in the Flood (2016)

Format: PS4/Xbox One/Windows PC/Mac (Reviewed on PS4)

Publisher: The Molasses Flood

Developer: The Molasses Flood

What is it: A "roguelite" survival game, set in the American South where an apocalyptic flood has devastated the land. The player controls a young girl called Scout who, accompanied by her dog Aesop, must traverse a gargantuan river by raft, stopping off at islands and ruined settlements to gather and craft the essential supplies needed to keep Scout alive.

Review: Another video game review, another indie game. I don't play them exclusively, I've just happened to have picked up a few of them lately. And I'm late to the party with The Flame in the Flood - it came out in 2016 for PC and Xbox One, then made it to the PS4 back in January of 2017. It's a charming but flawed game that nevertheless has kept me coming back to it.

The basic premise of the game is survival - you have to keep Scout alive for as long as you can, making your way as far along a huge, procedurally-generated river as possible, all the while keeping her hunger, thirst, temperature and fatigue in check. The game is essentially split into two parts: one where you're travelling on the river itself, guiding your raft around obstacles, and the other when you set foot on dry land and get to move Scout around, foraging for food and supplies.

And what a beautiful game it is. The graphics have a distinct style to them, with an almost Tim Burton-esque look to the characters. Everything is gorgeously animated, from the day/night cycle and the changing weather, to the river itself (that ranges from slower, calm sections to frothy rapids that see you fighting to steer your raft) and the rusted and ruined detritus that floats alongside you (including entire ruined houses), a constant reminder of the devastation that Scout is fleeing from. Stepping onto dry land finds you in the company of rusted out pickup trucks, ruined wooden churches and broken asphalt. The whole environment, especially when coupled with the excellent Americana score composed by Chuck Ragan (including several original songs that kick in at key moments), puts you firmly in the South. There's a distinct Huckleberry Finn/Tom Sawyer vibe going on here.

Where the flaws begin to kick in is the sheer complexity of the game's core element - survival. There are two difficultly modes, but even on "normal" you had better prepare your anus, as The Flame in the Flood takes no mercy. This game goes out of its way to try and kill you.

There are four core elements that you have to manage, which are represented by the circular icons next to Scout's avatar at the bottom of the screen and deplete with the passage of time:

1. Hunger - Scout's gotta eat. There are some simple berries and plants that you can find and eat immediately, but these don't restore much. To survive for any decent length of time you'll need to kill animals for meat or cook more complicated ingredients, both of which require tools and a campfire, for which you'll need supplies. If your hunger gets to zero, you die.
2. Thirst - Scout's gotta drink. That bloody big river is polluted, naturally, so to drink the water you gather from it you need to craft a water filter, which requires supplies. You'll occasionally find taps or wells with clean water, but these are scarce. If your thirst gets to zero, you die.
3. Temperature - Scout's gotta stay warm. You start the game wearing simple cotton clothing, but the further you travel down the river, the colder it gets, so you'll need to make warmer clothing, which requires supplies. If your temperature gets to zero, you die. Are you sensing a theme yet?
4. Fatigue - Scout's gotta sleep. You need to find shelters (campfires, abandoned buildings, old school buses) where you can rest up for a few hours, which allievates fatigue but increases your hunger and thirst. If your fatigue gets to zero, Scout collapses, you die.

This wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for how the supplies in the game work. There are a huge amount of different supplies to gather, a lot of which have multiple uses, and Scout can only hold so many items. Your trusty dog Aesop (who helpfully runs around sniffing items out for you) has a small bag on him which can also hold a few items, and you can store some items in your raft as well (but only access them when you've docked somewhere), but it quickly becomes incredibly hard to manage it all. You need certain supplies to make the tools you'll need to create traps or clothing, but those same supplies are also needed to make a campfire, and also needed to make medical supplies, and so on and so on. You have to make hard decisions about what to keep and what to use them for. That's if you find them at all - the islands and settlements are split into different types, and you'll only find certain supplies at certain types of area. Because of the size of the river and the current that propels you along it, you can't visit them all, so you have to choose where to stop off with care.

If that wasn't enough, the game tries to kill you in other ways. You'll encounter wolves and wild boars, which you can kill and eat if you've manage to craft the right traps or weapons, but if you haven't they'll attack you, resulting in lacerations and broken bones. You'll need bandages and splints to deal with these injuries which, you've guessed it, require many of the same supplies as everything else to craft. If you don't manage to treat the injuries within a period of time, you die. There are frequent downpours of rain which soak Scout; if you don't find a shelter or campfire within a certain time and dry out, Scout gets sick, you die. You can get bitten by snakes or poisonous ants; if you don't find aloe to treat it within a certain time, you get an infection. If you don't make penecillin within a certain time, you die.

Oh, by the way, did I mention that your raft is somewhat fragile and can only absorb so much damage? Crash into too many things while you're on the river and it gets destroyed, and you die. You can collect materials to make repairs, but these take up more of the limited space in your pockets.

The game is meant to be a challenge, I completely understand that. But what makes its survival system so complex and, at times, unplayable, is the use of RNG. Ah yes, the dreaded Random Number Generator. I mentioned before that the river you travel down is procedurally generated - this is to ensure that no two games of The Flame in the Flood that you'll play are ever the same. However, the game uses RNG to determine: A) what types of islands or settlements you'll encounter, and B) what specific supplies you'll find at each one. When you have the sheer number of different items you have to find and things you have to craft that this game does, the use of RNG ultimately becomes its downfall. I've had games where it's been kind and I've managed to travel really far, constantly finding what I need, but I've also had games where I literally haven't survived past the second day due to not being able to find the right combination of supplies for anything. When this happens it's frustrating to the point of being unbearable.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
A beautifully presented, challenging game that's ultimately let down by a complex system that's run by RNG. When a random number generator governs your enjoyment of a game I really shouldn't recommend it, but the beauty of its presentation and the fun to be had when things do go your way make it worth your time.