The Flame in the Flood is a River Ride Worth Taking

The American South is full of flood plains, swamps, and marshes. In the summer, the air becomes humid, so heavy and wet it can feel deliberately spiteful. In literature set in the South, that base level of environmental hostility, combined with the complexities of an ugly, violent and racially-charged history, forms a mythologized sense of danger and mystery. In Southern Gothic literature, evil lurks everywhere. Natural beauty and inhumane terror are always interlinked.

The Flame in the Flood mythologizes that mood even further. It's the first game by developer The Molasses Flood, a team drawn from major studios like Irrational Games, Harmonix, and Bungie. Out now on PC, Mac, and Xbox One, The Flame in the Flood takes place in a post-apocalyptic rendering of the South, one where a massive flood has destroyed nearly everything. As the name implies, it's a game interested in finding the vibrancy---the life and joy---amid the churning rapids.

To find it, though, you'll have to survive. You play as Scout, a young girl with a dog and a raft. The dog can help find resources, alert you to threats, and provide a measure of levity and companionship. The raft offers mobility, a means of following the currents downriver, through one broken former town after another. You'll need both to find food, shelter, and hope.