The Flame in the Flood Game Review

The Flame in the Flood is a self described "rogue-lite" survival game developed and published by The Molasses Flood. It's a game wherein you journey through a flooded post-societal America, trying to survive by foraging for supplies along the way.

You might be turned off by it being a "survival" game and I can't blame you. God knows we've had too much of those types already. However, The Flame in the Flood has enough about it that sets it apart and above the typical stuff we see from its genre.

The expectation from survival games nowadays is that the player starts weak, slowly gathers supplies and builds a base camp. With The Flame in the Flood, it avoids the slow descent into a static kind of gameplay where survivalism becomes more of a farming or management simulator. The game is all about movement. The player navigates down a river to some unknown but important objective all the while visiting locations to forage for supplies which can be consumed immediately to satisfy the hunger and thirst meters, or used to craft gear and equipment. Supplies are finite and non-renewable. Once the location is exhausted, the player must make for the river and sail further downstream. Any kind of camping is temporary.

How It Works

The game is divided into two parts: the river portion and the locations. If you've ever played FTL:Faster Than Light, that should give you some idea on how this works. You drift down the river and visit locations on the way to the main objective. Visiting locations is necessary since hunger, thirst and fatigue are constantly draining throughout both game layers and you need all the supplies you can get but more on locations later.

Smooth sailing for now...

Navigating the river is treacherous. The raft is a bit hard to control. Worse, some parts of the river are rapids. If you're not careful, you could smash your fragile craft into pieces and drown. Going about it cautiously is a good idea but sometimes nearby supplies and locations may force you to take some risks to get to them. Another thing to note is that you cannot fight the current for long. Whether you like it or not, you are slowly but surely inching to your main objective so choose your locations carefully as visiting one often means you cant row upstream to the other.

Whitewater rafting!

The three orange icons are locations. Choose carefully.

You can make repairs to your craft as well as upgrade it. All of the upgrades are helpful and provides a nice goal to work towards while making it to your main objective. A rudder is a good idea. You can upgrade your raft for increased carrying capacity, a stove and even a motor which allows you a limited ability to go upstream and backtrack juicy locations you may have missed.

As for locations, there are different types of them. For example, campsites provide an increased chance of finding flint and always come with a ready-made fireplace. Filling stations always provide fuel as well as mechanical parts for your raft. Choosing locations based on what you need is a good strategy.

Entering a location

Like the river, there are dangers in these locations as well. Some have simple environmental hazards such as fire ants, poison ivy and snakes. Others have wolves and wild boars. If you're not careful, you can sustain injuries and even die.

You will learn to hate them.

 The injuries are also another important game mechanic. If you get bit by a wolf for example, you'll receive a laceration. If, in desperation, you eat spoiled food, you could get parasites in your stomach. Many of these injuries and status effects are debilitating, some can even kill you if untreated. The player must craft remedies from the supplies foraged from nature. Broken bones require a splint, which you can craft. Some skin conditions can be treated with aloe. Bandages are handy for lacerations, etc.

Salvage all you can. Everything is useful.

So that's the game. You sail down the river to the objective and visit locations to ransack them for anything useful. Keep your hunger, thirst and fatigue in check. Craft better clothing to keep warm. Minimize your chances at receiving injuries but treat them immediately if you do suffer a few. Avoid dying and keep moving.

Criticism
If there's anything bad I can say about the game is that it tends to get a bit repetitive. The location maps are quite small and get pretty samey the longer you play and the more of them you've visited. If you do very well, the game can get too easy and there's little reason to visit locations unless it's for upgrading your raft. Playing on the harder difficulty setting is good but this game could use an escalation of challenges as the player progresses, other than the constantly draining meters. Events maybe? I'm no designer.

Style

What can I say about the style? Well, it's a good looking game. It has a unique style, sure. I don't hate it but I can't say for sure that it's the best thing they could have done. It's just my opinion anyway. However, the music in this game is just great. The cheery country tunes fit the setting perfectly. It also doesn't play often enough that it gets overbearing. It's after periods of desperation that you feel glad when the music suddenly comes back on and you continue your journey down the river. It elicits an uplifting feeling. But it does become quite funny though when the happy music continues playing even when you stumble into a dangerous scenario. It's hilarious listening to such folksy music while being mauled to death by a wild boar.

The story in this game is vague. We don't know much other than something bad happened and there's this huge flood that wiped out society. There's a bit of mystery and it works. There's some religious  stuff here and there but it all just fits somehow. It all feels like some spiritual journey. It's hard to describe but I like it. There's a cute dog in it so there's also that.

Overall, it's a pretty good game I would recommend.