In Bound By Flame you play a mercenary who's been possessed by a flame demon, and although you don't have a choice to avoid that, you have complete control over the look of your character. The game offers a robust character customization engine that allow you to choose your character's gender (which will affect dialogue options, especially with companions and potential romances), ethnicity, facial features and hairstyles.
That will take place at the start of the game and determine who you play as but you will have further opportunities to alter your appearance along the way. Your choice of armor is completely customizable, as well. Along your quest you'll be able to find and customize armor via an in-game crafting system. Adding various extras like shoulder and knee pads to existing armor not only will add various bonuses and changes to your combat tactics, but your character's appearance will change as well. You'll be able to combine them in any way you please to make a completely unique character.
There's another way to change as well. The demon inside you will attempt to control your actions but you have the option to rise up against it, performing heroic actions to reject its influence. Of course if you are weaker (or just prefer it!) you can allow yourself to be swayed by the fire demon and do what it asks of you. Your appearance will clearly demonstrate the choices you have made and you will become more or less demonic depending on them. Yes, it's a take on the old karma system that's been done many times before (see- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, inFamous, etc.) but it's always nice to see a physical representation of how good or evil you're acting.
The combat system (recently shown off in the latest Bound By Flame trailer) shows all the different ways you'll be able to play through the game as well, with many options for character advancement and three different styles to select. It already seems obvious that this game will encourage multiple playthroughs in order to see all it has to offer.
Bound By Flames is set for release on PS4, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC on May 9.
