The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep is the return of a series that’s been dormant for exactly thirty years. After a successful Kickstarter, The Bard’s Tale makes one hell of a comeback. inXile Entertainment has given The Bard’s Tale IV a look and feel of the classic RPG and adventure games that you remember, but modernized for today. With nearly 40 hours of gameplay, The Bard’s Tale IV is sure to keep you glued to your chair for every minute of it with its unique yet familiar mechanics. This is not to be missed.
Truth be told, I’ve not played The Bard’s Tale I, II, or III. They’ve released the trilogy separately onto Steam, but not having that experience doesn’t preclude me from enjoying The Bard’s Tale IV, or give me the feeling that I’ve missed out. In fact, the game makes sure to prevent this with the cinematic giving a quick rundown of the events of the first three games. As the story goes, three times evil has sought the rift, and three times a group of rag-tag heroes have stopped the evil before. Now, it has been a century without issues, until now. You go back to the world of Caith, starting in the town of Skara Brae. This is a very Scottish game with very Scottish dialogue, which also means it’s very funny and very drunk. You’ll set off on a quest to first resurrect the old Adventurer’s Guild. From there you’ll solve puzzles, engage in combat, and loot enemies on your way to stop the evil that seeks to destroy everything.
It should come at no surprise, that in order to defeat said evil, you’ll need to assemble a party from NPCs you’ve talked to. Your character, is the only one of choice. You can play as a bard, practitioner, fighter, or a rogue. Depending on the portrait you choose, you may end up playing as inXile Entertainment’s own, Brian Fargo. Each character has four trees to pursue skills in attack, defense, command, and crafting. There’s no right or wrong way to choose your skills, and so the game lets you cater to your own playstyle.
The game is inherently nostalgic, but it looks dated in spots. Unreal Engine 4 powers the game, but the outdoor environments are lacking, though the indoor areas are where the game looks the prettiest. The dungeons and caverns you go through are beautiful and unique, which is a contrast to the NPCs and outdoor scenes, because the character models are generally really rough to look at. However, the townsfolk are a good part of the game that gives it life, they detract from the overall experience. Ultimately, the game has unpolished look at times. What’s polished though, are the puzzles, combat, and exploration. There’s a defined existence and handcrafted look and feel to everything in and around Skara Brae, with varying environments from sun to snow.
The Bard’s Tale IV has lots of items, and like any good RPG, you can share items between party members. Though, many items require specific training in order to use these items, and so gear is not one size fits all. As you progress through the game, each time you return to the menu, the backing video has changed and there’s more to the bard’s story. Not only are you evolving, but the game is too and it feels alive this way.
The entire game is experienced in first-person, in and out of combat. Now, turn-based is what governs the combat in The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep. While this series pre-dates them, I can liken them to Wizardry and Legend of Grimrock games in terms of the general style of play, but it is unique from them. You can get a jump on combat by doing a charge, or get (accidentally) detected and you’ll get struck first. These are named First Strike! and Spotted!, respectively. And in most scenarios you will have the first attack advantage.
Once in combat, the placement of your party is crucial. Your party exists on a 4×4 grid, and you will need to prioritize targets, and constantly re-position your party in order to avoid incoming attacks, and to ensure they do the most damage from different ranges. Each combat encounter has a set number of opportunity points per turn, which expands over time. These points act as AP and control how many and what type of attacks you can use. So long as you have the items and opportunity, you can use this time to heal. Should you not be able to, or sustain too much damage, party members will be defeated and down, but not out. Combat variety exists in ways of not only being tactical, but strategic in planning for the long game as there can be waves of combat to endure, rather than a single skirmish.
The game is good at showing you color-coded enemy difficulty, green for easy up to red for impossible. This is great as you’re usually able to recon a group of enemies before engaging, and knowing if the fight is worth the risk or not. With you, you’ll have a journal which holds your map, quests, and inventory. Your inventory is limited by what you can carry, but it is very generous system that works well with the amount of things you can find at any one time.
There’s lots of characters to talk to. The dialogue options are limited, and simple, but with 350 spoken parts, is expansive. I’ve even found Brian Fargo in NPC form, known as Faryn Brygo – surely a twin of my portrait choice. All the same, the dialogue options exist in a small way, but are appreciated in giving this world life and a sense of history. The townsfolk sound like they had a life before you showed up. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about how hilarious some of these characters and interactions can be.
Given the name, you’ll learn bard songs that can aid you in your travels, such as revealing enemies through walls, repairing bridges long destroyed, and more. Traps are a big part of the game. Move too carelessly, and you’ll trigger a trap that does massive damage. Traps can be avoided or outsmarted in most scenarios.
There’s a limited save system in The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep. But know that there are specific locations where luck stones can be found. Here you have a choice to bind or consume it. Binding to it will save your game, consuming will let your party reap the benefits of extra experience but at the cost of not being able to use the stone. This is where the classic PC gaming shines, where it isn’t difficult for the sake of it, but does enforce that you decide carefully.
The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep is a wonderful RPG that is immersive and grandiose. inXile Entertainment has done this incredibly well to update the series with modern conveniences while maintaining that classic PC RPG feel. It’s great to see a series return after three decades and be such an entertaining, beautiful, tactical, and strategic RPG that will have players of any skill thinking on their feet. Without having played the prior games to compare it to, its depth and length in every aspect is on par with what you’d expect. The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep will make new fans out of it, and old fans will rejoice in this fourth installment that hearkens back to the original games as if they never left.
A pre-release Steam code was provided by the publisher for review purposes
