Xbox

The Bard's Tale

This is without a doubt one of the best RPG games I’ve played on the Xbox to date. It’s not as epic as KOTOR and your karma-building decisions aren’t as crucial to the gameplay, but this game packs in more humor and charm than anything I can remember. Whether you want to simply play a great adventure game or just laugh hysterically for a week or more of solid gaming, The Bard’s Tale is the perfect solution, and a game that I can’t recommend highly enough.

For me the game delivered quite a few solid hours of fun and many moments of laugh-out-loud amusement. If you've read to this point, chances are that Bard's Tale will strike a pleasant note for you as well - pleasant enough to start out with a rental, at least. If Bard's Tale 2 ever happens, there is definitely potential for an emergence of new top-notch comedic game series that can stand proudly alongside classics of the genre, such as Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island. Toodaloo.

I know what you are thinking…“John, why should I play The Bard’s Tale and not Halo 2?” I’d like to make a stand that there are many titles sinking below radar because of the Halo 2 craze that deserve our attention. The Bard’s Tale is incredibly witty and creative, indicative when the CD cover instructs you to flip the disc over “for a really disturbing image” (though it took me a while to figure, I was horrified when I did). Though officially classified as an RPG, it urinates on what is traditionally demanded in the genre why still delivering a fun storyline you want to see.

Eines Tages gruben einige findige Herren bei Ubisoft in ihren Wühlkisten in den dunkelsten Ecken und erinnerten sich, dass sie als junge Männer auf ihren alten Rechnern The Bards Tale Stunde um Stunde gespielt hatten. Was lag also näher, als dem Barden ein zeitgemäßes Outfit zu verleihen und ihn abermals auf eine lange Reise zur Rettung der Menschen und einer holden Maid zu schicken? Ob das Flair der alten Zeit wieder aufersteht oder der Barde ein Aufguss geworden ist, erfahrt ihr hier im Test.

Brian Fargo, famed creator of seminal RPGs Baldur's Gate and Fallout is finally back in action with a re-telling of his original great, The Bard's Tale. Having formed his own company, inXile Entertainment, Fargo licensed the Snowblind Engine used to make Sony's Champions of Norrath and created a rather unique, if somewhat familiar, top-down fantasy role-playing game. While The Bard's Tale may look like every other top-down perspective RPG hack-n-slash you've played in the past, it is not. The Bard's Tale is a lampooning of the entire genre with a hero who is often more despicable than the villains and a magic system that is unlike anything done before.

The Bard's Tale features three different endings, but the story is not significantly different. After all is said and done, The Bard's Tale is enjoyable for a single play-through, but the gameplay and extras are probably not enough to entice most gamers for a second round. It's recommended for RPGers who will enjoy a Monty Python style comedic RPG that spoofs RPGs.

The Bards Tale is one of the best role playing experiences for the Xbox console in 2004. It's unfortunate that the public hasn't taken notice of The Bards Tale, but we are glad to help pronounce its greatness. If you have the time, rent or pick up InXiles The Bards Tales. It's a true hidden gem.

If you like dungeon-crawling and giggling, play The Bard's Tale. While the repetitive combat and dated graphics keep me from awarding it the FFC Gold Star, I got a lot of mileage out of it on my own personal Fun-O-Meter.

As I recently noted in my column, the action-RPG genre is burgeoning. With numerous fantasy-based titles on the market, developers are looking at different settings in which to place the popular gameplay style. Before those settings are saturated, inXile takes a satirical look at all the fantasy action-RPGs with The Bard's Tale. Though it bears the same name as the classic '80s RPG, this iteration of The Bard's Tale isn't like its predecessors. It's an action-packed game with great characters, a fantastic script, and excellent voice acting. It's an extremely humorous tale that's especially suited to gamers that have played one too many titles in which they've saved the world as the chosen one.

It may be called The Bard's Tale, just like the Amiga roleplaying classic, but the true ancestor of inXile's enjoyable action-RPG is Earthbound. Like Nintendo's cult classic, it's a game with likable characters, a sharply-developed sense of humor, and somewhat perfunctory gameplay.

Un peu moins de 20 heures seront nécessaires pour atteindre la princesse, une durée de vie raisonnable comparée à la concurrence, mais qui se trouve considérablement augmentée à cause d'une difficulté trop élevée par moment. Pour les habitués, ce sera probablement une promenade de santé, mais seront-ils prêt à se lancer une énième fois dans un jeu du genre certes rigolo, mais globalement ennuyeux. Le déjà vu déborde de ce soft, si vous souhaitez un RPG évolué, préférez les récents Jade Empire ou Kotor II, plus jolis, plus longs, plus sympas, plus mieux.

The Bard's Tale is a decent dungeon crawler that invests some energy into lampooning role-playing games and high fantasy in general. Despite the fact that it bears the name of a much-loved mid-'80s computer role-playing game, and despite the fact that it's the handiwork of one of that game's creators, InXile's reenvisioning of The Bard's Tale is not a nostalgia piece for fans of old PC RPGs. Borrowing Snowblind's Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance engine, as well as its overall structure, The Bard's Tale is a decent dungeon crawler that invests some energy into lampooning RPGs and high fantasy in general, but like a stand-up act about airline food or the line at the post office, its perspective isn't very interesting, and it lacks any real follow-through. If you're not looking for the sequel to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and can see your past a few problems, you'll find that The Bard's Tale is a fair action RPG.

The Bard’s Tale could’ve been a great game, but focuses more on being funny and irreverent than being a solid action/RPG and ends up being pretty average. While humor and good writing is a noble goal, it’s something that enhances a solid game, not mitigates a less-than-stellar one.

For a genre that takes itself seriously to a fault, it's amazing that it's taken all this time for someone to poke fun at RPGs. In those bad old good old days when computers used to be steam powered [we really have come full circle -Ed] and required smacking like naughty children every now and then, Fergus McNeil and his Delta 4 gang were always taking the rise out of chin-stroking fantasy adventures, and for good reason. The comedy value in these mystical, dungeon-roaming, spell-casting epics is there for all to see. From the clichéd dim-witted yokel characters and hackneyed storylines of princesses stuck in towers to the faintly ridiculous game mechanics that see animals coughing up coins upon their death and the ritual destruction of barrels. RPGs may have gotten away with all manner of unselfconscious nonsense for the past quarter of a century, but no more.

If you’re a real RPG junkie (which I freely admit I am), the fresh, irreverent, humorous tone of Bard’s Tale may be entertaining enough for you to ignore the fact that it’s sitting on top of a pretty mundane, flat game experience. If you aren’t as seduced by the jokes, you’ll probably be better off by playing any number of meatier RPG choices out there.

Want to really piss off the D&D geeks in your school, dorm, office, or extended family? Then try this: the next time they’re planning a rousing game of pen and paper, ask politely to join in the festivities. Don’t worry’ they’ll let you come along even if you’re a total D&D newbie (a new party member IS a new member, after all, which at the very least means there will likely be a dead, lootable body in the immediate future). Obviously, you’ll show up unprepared and will have to create a new character.