The Flame in the Flood Review – Beautiful but Unimproved

Back when it first launched in February last year, The Flame in the Flood was one the most soothing and picturesque survival games I’d ever played.That’s still true today, and the Complete Edition of The Molasses’ Flood debut title, exclusively available on the PlayStation 4, is definitely worth consideration if you haven’t already enjoyed this journey down a dangerous and seemingly endless river.

Despite the newly acquired moniker, there aren’t a huge amount of new additions to the Complete Edition of The Flame in the Flood, but the most noticeable is a director’s commentary. While it’s always rewarding and, I think, important to hear behind-the-scenes insights from the development team of a game, the implementation of the feature into the gameplay of The Flame in the Flood is unnecessarily overbearing.

Giant floating cassette tapes litter the environment, creating yet another collectible to make time for in an experience which already tasks you with prioritizing the search for vital resources. What’s more, neither the start menu nor the PlayStation 4 home button pauses the played out discussion once you activate these tapes, meaning you have to accommodate accordingly if you want to listen to each one in its entirety. Players have to go out of their way, in this regard, to enjoy this new commentary, meaning it can act as more of an inconvenience to the gameplay rather than a complimentary bonus.

Other than a couple of new minor mechanical and visual updates, The Flame in the Flood remains more or less identical to the versions found on other platforms. Gorgeous visuals, incredible audiowork, finicky menus, and the creeping sense of repetitiveness—the highs and lows have neither been undermined nor fixed by anything in the Complete Edition.

You do get a nice dynamic theme to deck out your PlayStation 4 dashboard, alongside two new avatars, but don’t expect anything along the lines of a Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration style re-release, as the extra content stops there.

All in all, The Flame in the Flood remains the compelling and beautiful game it always has been, but the lack of noticeable improvements or significant addendums means it’s probably not worth purchasing a second time around if you already own the game on Xbox One or PC.