Darkness has ravaged the lands of men. Creatures of the night, demons, and the soulless dead roam the confines of the dark realm. Only a glimmer of light hovers over the hills of Inserland. The castles of ancient kings given way to the abodes of the darkest beasts. You are the bearer of the last light of the world. The last flame. In your hands is the courage, the determination and your courage to defeat the darkness of the five kingdoms. It is your mission, to transport the last flame, and return the creatures and beasts to their realm of darkness...

The Bearer & The Last Flame is a dark fantasy action adventure

The Bearer & The Last Flame is a dark fantasy action adventure which, at first glance, seems to be quite an engaging game. However, it doesn't take long to realise that this falls short of being an adventure that you'll want to spend much time with.

Right from the opening exposition cut sequence, my worst fears started to unravel. The narration is so below par that I was beginning to suspect that it was some hilarious in-joke. The narrator has the weirdest of accents, can't pronounce several words correctly, and the music mix is so poor that it drowns out the voice-over on more than a handful of occasions... Which actually turns out to be a bit of a blessing.

When the game starts proper there's no real idea of what on earth you're supposed to do, so I spent far too long just wandering around in circles. And when the occasional enemy appears you'll find yourself having problems attacking them. The combat system is terrible. You can't lock onto your target and, as the camera is all over the place, you'll find that you can't even see whose attacking you until you move the camera around.

You'll find that you spend way too much time dying over and over again in the same spot, having to return to the last save point... And that gets dull real quick.

Whilst the game looks great graphically, there are way better examples of the genre out. Save your money and time.

3

Nick Smithson