Posted on: March 8, 2022

Busukaba

Games: 141 Reviews: 6

It's decent... I guess

So I kickstarted the game so I got the standard version a long time ago. At the time I didn't have a great PC to run it so it was a bit of a pain. Just recently got back into it and started playing the Director's Cut, which I got a free upgrade for. So, the game is OK at best. Love the music, graphics aren't anything spectacular but they're not so bad as to be distracting. The story and lore are decent. But the game is kinda annoying. The problems start with saving. You're only able to save at certain save points and I understand the reaspon for that a bit... vut down on save scumming, blah, blah... but there are some areas in the game where tyhere is a long way between save points and that can be a problem for me as I generally don't have multilpe hours to play at a time. Also, assuming this is a bug, but any doors you need a key to get into will close and lock again after save. So not knowing what is critical for progression you have this feeling that you have to press on to the end of wherever the locked doors reveal or you're screwed. Combat is... eh. You can only choose 4 abilities per charatcer and if you decide to use a weapon that grants you an ability, say goodbye to some 4 abilities you chose. Additionally, elven weapons which you can unlock "powerful" abilities for, often aren't really worth the trouble... at least so far as I've played. Skills and skill trees are not all that varied or exciting and really, early on until you get some skills to unlock more oportunity points, you're playing defensively every fight (unless you don't mind losing half your party every fight or being able to fight red enemies at all). Fairy golf is kinda fun and puzzles generally aren't too hard to figure out if you take the time to read lore or pay attention to in game clues. Still, there are some that are ridiculous. All in all it's a solidly meh game that I'm pretty happy I kickstarted and didn't pay full price for

Is this helpful to you?

Posted on: June 13, 2022

Bozone_Layer

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 8

Not Bard's Tale

There is really nothing "Old School" about Bard's Tale 4. Modern graphics, brand new mechanics, and mostly puzzle-oriented. Generally, not a bad thing. However, when you use the name of an established franchise like Bard's Tale, people are going to buy it expecting, well, Bard's Tale. The reason I'm rating this down, however, is that it's deeply frustrating at times due to the useless mini-map, the obsession with stone/gear puzzles, and its willingness to punish you for assembling the wrong group. Not fun. Look elsewhere for retro-RPG goodness.

Is this helpful to you?

Posted on: September 26, 2019

heckter80

Verified owner

Games: 44 Reviews: 2

Better than normal ed, not up to par

They fixed the fight crashing issue, now it crashes for other things like teleporting or clicking on experience shrines. Saving finally works much better, so even if you do have the crashes, you don't lose too much time. And now you can reset your skills with currency, which is nice. And you'll need that because the new gear won't let you use the same skill as the gear you use at the beginning. A huge bonus is being able to skip puzzles including those extremely annoying fairy puzzles. The strengths is the story and uniqueness of the game. They did a lot of weird things. Some of those things turned out amazing, some turned out to be pretty annoying. Weakness is playability. Skills are so limited you really have no variety and no reason to do a second playthrough. I defeated the new DLC on hard just after the tutorial zone basically. And that zone is probably tougher than any other fights you will encounter. I don't know for sure, I can't see being able to force myself to play to the end of a second playthrough. Combat is buggy in that sometimes you can't really click on the square you want. Playability is about ten times better on pathfinder: kingmaker. Much more variety and challenge. This game should really be a three, but I gave it a four due to some of the unique things it has. If you want to play something once with a good story, this is OK. If you want to try different characters or replay with different builds, pathfinder: kingmaker is the way to go.

Is this helpful to you?

Posted on: December 30, 2019

roopiin91

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 12

Hardcrashes to desktop

I can't even run the game smooth on Nvidias recommended settings, which is mostly "high" but with alot of other settings completely turned off with a 1080ti / i7-6700K. The game seems to not be optimized since my gpu and cpu usage are between 50-60%, so around 40% of the power are not being utilized. For example the game "Deliver us the Moon" are using 98% of my gpu and i can run that game on ultra graphics at 3440x1440p. I managed to play 6+ hours and now all of a sudden so started the game to hardcrash to desktop twice within a 20 min session. I want to enjoy and complete the game, but i can't get the motivation since i can't trust the game to function.

Is this helpful to you?

Posted on: August 31, 2020

antenor

Verified owner

Games: 203 Reviews: 3

Enjoyable experience Extraordinary music

I'm an old school player. I played the first bard's tale 30 years ago, and it wasn't perfect, but I loved it. Similarly there is a lot that I dislike in this game but my overall experience (and it is an experience) is very positive. The bad: It's a very different game to bard's tale 1-3: It has a "special attack" based combat system that takes some getting use to. The skill tree is overwhelming at first and the limited re-spec option (you can re-spec a limited number of times by using mercenary tokens at the adventurers review board) is a bit hard on new players. Code wheel is just annoying. The good: Although it is different to BT1-3 it is good in it's own right. It is very satisfying when you characters skill work well together. If you persevere you will get it and enjoy it. It has many nostalgic nods to the first games. The street names, the street which goes on forever, the characters in the story, the spell names etc. The music! I've never been much for music or even sound in a game, but this is something else. All of the music is great but there is one particular song when you first leave Skara Brae that is just extraordinary and it adds so much to the celtic/scottish feel of the game. The voice acting isn't bad either. Overall a very enjoyable, immersive experience.

Is this helpful to you?

Discover CD PROJEKT RED games

Highlights

Featured

Close, but not an exact hit

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

Customize How You Play

Create the Hero You Want To Be

Craft your Party, Your Way

Outsmart Evil

Unlock the Secrets of the Past

The Blade’s Tale

New Song of Exploration “Strugglers’ Lament”

Other ratings

Add a review

Edit a review

Delete this review?

Report this review

Additional Details (required):

Report this review