As the nigh mythical 'early 2014' creeps ever closer, Spiders have come sauntering out of the dark corners of our bedrooms, their creepy, creepy multi-faceted eyes watching us with soulless, detached, curiosity. Wait, what? Spiders is a development studio? And they're showing us Bound by Flame gameplay?

Oh.

Well I feel silly.

Actually, what we have here is an (apparently) pre-rendered though almost certainly in engine demonstration of how combat will work in game. At least, that's what it's supposed to be. I spent more time marvelling at how much Flame has imrpoved over Spiders previous offering, Mars: War Logs. The use of light and shadow, in particular, was especially outstanding. As was the far more prominent use of colour, though I've already commented on that whilst oggling screenshots.

When I was, finally, able to jam my jaw back into place and bolt it closed, the combat itself struck me as...actually just as interesting. It seems that there may possibly be two AI companions available at a time now. Given that we see three burly, disgruntled totally not Vikings hacking their way through a hoard of, uhm, fire breathing goblins I think. But what really leaped out at me was the combat style. A most curious mixture of Slavic, Scots-Celtic and Norse swordplay.

I didn't think it was possible, but I'm now even more stoked for this game. As should you be dagnabit!