The Bard's Tale IV: Director's Cut - Deluxe Edition

I played the previous version of The Bard's Tale many times and I could run it well on my computer. But this edition is extremely heavy, the file is around 35GB!! I've never seen this size in a game, I find it a monstrosity. The installation has taken ages. However, it seems to run well on Linux, but I had to lower the graphics to minimum because my computer seems not to be powerful enough (I have a Quad Core and RX550 as graphics card).

This game has great graphics, engaging turn-based combat, atmospheric voice acting, great songs, a rewarding character development / levelling up / inventory system and great story writing. Why not 6 stars? The puzzles in the game are annoying. In hindsight, I should have taken up the option at the start of the game to skip the puzzles. If I had, I would have found the rest of the game excellent. I cannot recommend this game enough for its enjoyable core gameplay (excluding the puzzles) and its engaging story.

Honestly, the first time that I fired this game up I had bailed because I thought that the learning curve was hellacious! It turns out that an NPC says "don't go that way!" seconds before the encounter. I am glad that I restarted it! I really enjoyed the puzzles! The first thing that you have to discover about the puzzles "is what in the hell is the puzzle?" There is a variety of different aspects differentiating one puzzle to the next... mostly. My three favorite puzzles were 1) the block puzzle that you have to solve twice: once for a key and again for a chest, (Specifically the one where you can push a taller block into a hole. You will know it when you wee it!) 2) "Laser" (not laser) puzzle where I was pulling my hair out to discover that you have to give a valve two feeds for a third to flow (Mainly the first one! Once I got a feel for it my hair had a chance to grow back) 3) The derpy logic puzzle with the statues and the weekdays. Lots of old school fun. Lots of derp. The overall experience has beautiful visuals, although not as interactive as a fallout 3/NV/4. I was happy to see that one NPC had a more significant role than I had originally anticipated. All of the actors stand pretty immobile, other than the very scarce patrol. OH! 4) Pixie golf! Loved it! Did it wrong... still overcame. Nice. All in all, I loved that combat was relatively simple: 3 stats, 4 conditions, 2 types of damage. There is a little bit more tactical stuff, but your squad will always have 6 or fewer and your adversary will have 8 or fewer. 4X4 grid! Easy-peasy! The limited range of a lot of the skills can be easily defied using the taunt skill, and I found that the magic/opportunity/charge system had a divergent flavor to it! In the end, the only thing left that reminded me of the original three BT were a few names/lore, and I was apprehensive at first learning to work with skill trees. DONT PANIC! Equipment is your friend! My favorite gadget let my rogue shoot sharpened lightning! :)

First of all i am too young that I would have playing the Bard's Tale Triology. Anyway I thought the fourth Bard's Tale had a great start into the story and when I read some stuff about the old series I recognizes the first time that some of the main villans return ;-) The control is sometime a little rough. Escpecially in the inventary. Pro: - Great combat system - non hectic and thoughtfull - Pure oldscool RPG atmosphere (yeah that's a pro for me...) - Very challanging puzzles Neutral: - Graphics - Unreal4-Engine is nice not too fancy Con: - Use of Iventory is a little laggy If there would be a remake of the old Triology... I would be a buyer! - Crashes from time to time (something like every 10 hours...)