![]() ![]() A new encampment marker had barely popped up on the screen before Scout slumped over dead on her raft, her hunger meter drained entirely. Too long, in fact, as the berries I’d munched on weren’t enough to get me there. I still find myself frowning at the time I died of starvation because I chickened out while trying to cook food at an existing campfire near a nasty boar, reasoning that I’d have another chance at the next island. Once you’ve passed a spot on the river, it’s gone for good, a design choice that adds a welcome dose of tension. “Good control is essential, as there’s no going back. There, you hunt on foot for the supplies necessary to either keep starvation and injury at bay or to repair and upgrade your humble vessel. Most of the fun’s in the Endless mode, which happily chucks the story bits and focuses on the core gameplay of riding the currents while attempting to steer toward camps and wilderness areas. It’s ostensibly the story of a young woman named Scout and her dog Aesop, although the campaign (such as it is) never really offers much elaboration beyond that aside from specific NPCs and the hunt for a mysterious radio signal downriver. I could think of far less appealing apocalypses. ![]() The Flame in the Flood rushes us through all this on the current of a destiny that’s never exactly manifest. Rabbits, wolves, and bears evade rent in crumbled apartment buildings, all while the occasional fiddle or harmonica strain suggests the American spirit need not die, even if our cities do. In the little islands dotting the river and in the banks beyond, dark conifers and grasses thrive on land once suffocated under cement. But The Flame in the Flood succeeds in part because it’s a game about pushing us toward a promising something, placing us as it does on a river that’s jumped its banks and engulfed the world. Survival games don’t often lean heavily on hope, preferring instead to focus on the humdrum drive to simply last until the next day. ![]()
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January 2023
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