The Flame in the Flood

This game is dictated too much by RNG. Feels weird to say, but something definitely feels off in the balance and even on the base difficulty it can be extremely hard to find what you need. If you light high scarcity survival games, this could be a good one, but it just wasn't clicking for me. Mostly ended my sessions upset rather than wanting to come back for more

Like others have said has plenty of charm, but there are so many frustrating things in this game beyond your control that it feels like an exercise in masochism. Sometimes the rivers current is so strong the raft becomes almost uncontrollable and you will have to tank multiple hits. The current gives no clear indication that this is about to happen mind you, so you just have to be 100% locked in while on the raft, lest you die and be sent back not to just the most resent save point, but back to the most recent "checkpoint" which usually means about 30 to 60 minutes ago. Which is so far back that it almost feels like an entirely different save file because very few things in your inventory will be the same, and you will frequently lose the crucial raft upgrades that you spent and hour rummaging around for. The thermometer you use to know if you need to have more or less warm clothes on is so unintuitive that I took off layers when I should have put on more and got hypothermia during a sunny day, and died within 45 seconds and got sent back an hour... As far as I got in this game the "story" is having short cryptic conversations with a one npc on a few islands who tells you tutor…

could be a very good game but it is ridden with bugs that will make you lose your runs. have fun losing input control in the rapids during a 3 hours run lazy dev or greedy studio ?

Do yourself a favour and just play through the story mode. You will enjoy this game much more that way. In survival mode, the first couple hours of progression is good and quite enjoyable but then you reach a point relatively soon and think "is that it?" Theres nothing wrong with that, but the story mode bundles everything up nicely and doesn't overstay its welcome, whilst still letting you experience most of the game. There is a difficulty modifier for survival mode where the further you travel, the less and less items/animals appear, but beyond that, it's a "how long do I want to travel down this same river before I die of bordom?".

This is gonna be some people's favorite game, and some people will bounce right off. Audiovisually, it's lovely. Coraline style poppet art, very visually distinctive, with Appalachian strumming in the background. Everything's well animated and mostly visually clear. Tbh I like this style way more than I like Don't Starve's sepia Edward Gorey type thing. Mechanically, this is a recipe crafter. Recipe crafters rely on the player building up a knowledge bank of what goes with what across multiple runs. I don't like recipe crafters. I think they're kind of a boring knowledge check of whether this particular game wants you to know that 2 Twigs and 1 Branch make a Campfire Kit when combined in the presence of the Campfire Gremlin or whatever. I can build a dang campfire irl and it has nothing to do with memorizing a recipe. Add to this, you can kinda get screwed by drop luck. Even if you know what goes with what, maybe you're just not finding a jar. Which brings us to the second part of the game's formula. Hamfistedly wrenching a boat through currents and taking hard to repair damage when you miscalculate. Controlling the boat does not feel good or intuitive, and you're encouraged t…

When you play the campaign it was fun. It's a real gamble of what kind of game you'll get. Survivor mode completely sucks. The randomness of the game often leaves you with no supplies and gives you wolves and pigs that attack you before you've had a chance to do anything. The raft controls are the worst. They often hit things that aren't there and steering is almost useless as it will guide you where it wants to.