3.5/5 ★ – nate_mckeever's review of The Flame in the Flood: Complete Edition.

I had initially picked this game up a few years ago when I was on a big indie kick. And then I pretty promptly forget about it. It sat in my backlog, gathering digital dust, forgotten… Until the other day when I heard it mentioned in Press Reset, Jason Schreier’s newest book. I remembered that I owned it and installed it on my PlayStation. And after a few hours into it, I found myself being charmed by this interesting little game. It’s a survival game, so the learning curve is pretty steep. It took me a few hours (and a few restarts) to finally get into the cadence of the game. But when I did, I found myself being pretty pleasantly surprised. Out of the four major criteria (Gameplay, Story, Visuals, and Sound) Gameplay was probably the strongest in my opinion. Although, everything was pretty good. Not stellar, but good. The Gameplay loop basically cycles between these river rafting and island exploration segments. You navigate your raft down the river stopping in on little islands to explore and gather food and supplies. Sometimes there are critters to hunt… or be hunted by. Sometimes there’s poison ivy, or thorns, or nests of biting ants. After you clean out the island (or run away before the wolves can eat you!) you board your raft and keep floating along trying not to smash into too many rocks or get stuck in the rain for too long. It’s pretty satisfying, maybe even a little surprisingly so. There’s a pretty decent little upgrade system in there too. You can upgrade your raft to be tougher, give you cover in bad weather, to hold more, purify your drinking water, and hold a stove for cooking and heating. You can even put a motor on it. You can also upgrade your clothes to protect you from the elements and your pack so that you can carry more in your explorations. As far as story goes, it’s an interesting take on the “dystopian wasteland” trope. There really isn’t much more to it. You’re trying to figure out what happened to this world and make it to some sort of safety. Well, there’s a little more to it, but… spoilers! Visually, the design is kinda abstract, almost veering into a cubist aesthetic. A little Picasso-esque. Almost. It can be a little off putting at first, but I warmed to eventually. It’s not my favorite, but it has its charms. The music is pretty decent as well. A kinda folksy/bluesy indie vibe. It fit the world and the general vibe. I’m not gonna go out and buy the soundtrack, but I did like it. Overall, this is a fairly strong “Play” in my book. Should you run out and buy it right now? Probably not, but pick it up on a sale or as part of deal. I only played the campaign, and the 10-15 hours that took were a good time. Like I said, it’s a “Play.” Later!