The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep Reviews

InXile’s latest dungeon crawler, The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep, has now been out for roughly ten days, so it’s past time we checked out what the different media outlets across the Internet think about this new chapter in The Bard’s Tale series. In short, there’s no definitive critical consensus, and at the moment your enjoyment of the game may depend on your tolerance for bugs. Have a look:

PC Gamer 84/100:

The story underlying all this dungeon crawling business is fairly rote fantasy stuff about a powerful bad guy and a nefarious plot to take over the world (or maybe blow up, I’m not entirely clear on that). Familiarity with the old Bard’s Tale games is fun for picking up references—the first major villain I encountered was Mangar, the final boss of the original Bard’s Tale, and there’s a shrine to creator Michael Cranford next to the old Adventurer’s Guild, which I think is a nice touch—but not at all necessary to enjoy the story or understand what’s happening. Not that Bard’s Tale 4 leans too heavily on narrative anyway: The entire basis for the game is that my pal and I happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I wasn’t doing anything else so I decided to help him out.

Again, that’s the old school approach: We’re here because we’re heroes, and this is what heroes do. If you need more motivation than that—a deeper meaning, or maybe a more elegantly-told tale—then this may not be your kind of thing. But for old-time adventuring in a sprawling, vibrant world, The Bard’s Tale 4: Barrows Deep delivers.

IGN 7.9/10:

At its roughest edges, The Bard’s Tale IV shows its retro revival roots in some not so positive ways. It may not be special enough for me to easily overlook these technical shortcomings entirely, but it’s an RPG that’s brimming with enjoyable, challenging fights, elaborate and entertaining puzzles, and plenty of visual and musical flair. And that was more than enough to keep me humming along contentedly to its tune more often than not.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun Scoreless:

I feel absolutely certain this will find an audience who’ll defend it, no matter how flaky the tech, how awful the writing, how outstandingly dull the characters. (Oh, they try to do BioWare Bants between themselves, which is so far off the mark, and only laughable because, despite wandering them around for hours, I’d literally no idea what their names were, let alone if they had a personality.) Because people love old things made new, and people love pretending that something crappy now reminds them of something crappy from back when their backs hurt less and they could stay up past 10.30 in the evening without feeling it the next day.

For me, despite a genuinely good combat system, and the moments of respite found on occasions in the dungeons, I’ve had a predominantly dull time with The Bard’s Tale IV. It’s a very dull game in most respects.

WCCFTech 7.9/10:

Overall, The Bard’s Tale IV is a rare new game that feels just a little old. People who only care for the newest thing with the newest mechanics might not appreciate the cosy, slightly dusty tenderness of Bards Tale, but it does have this delightful feeling regardless. Even if you’ve never heard of the series, or played RPGs from the nineties, The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep is a special game not to be quickly dismissed.

COGconnected 86/100:

There is so much going on that is good that it’s hard to even mention it all. You start with plenty of customization options, not just with character creation, but within classes and skills. All told there are somewhere between sixty to seventy skills per class. I haven’t even mentioned the puzzles, which I found to be just the right mix of difficult, neither boring nor too hard. The story is great, even with the occasional self-spoiler. Combat has a lot going for it and keeps things interesting, but it’s always possible that not everyone feels that way on that front. The few performance issues aside, it’s a game that’s hard not to like. Interestingly enough, prior to release InXile Entertainment CEO Brian Fargo said that if The Bard’s Tale IV sells over two million copies over the first eighteen months he’ll attempt to buy back Interplay. Is this a two million seller over the next year and a half? It very well may be.

Trusted Reviews 2/5:

Without the bugs, The Bard’s Tale IV is okay at best. With them, it’s perhaps best to preserve your nostalgia and play the HD remaster of The Bard’s Tale I to III instead. Several bugs were cleared up between us getting code for the game and the review version, however as it stands the version we’re currently playing still has several technical hitches and is a mediocre experience even when it runs smoothly. It could be better, but it’s hard to recommend in its current state, even to die-hard fans.