The Bard's Tale Trilogy

Yep, I grew up with the originals, and if you did, you will love these too! They are the same games, just with improved graphics and effects. Note I say improved - and not modern. That's what you want - you don't want Skyrim: Bards Tale Edition - you want Bards Tale - and that is what this is. The new features only add to the game, nothing is taken away. It feels the same, it looks basically the same - only better. I love it. Pretty much a perfect job by the Devs.

In a discussion with Darkest Dungeon fans, some of them claimed that the design team was obligated to diverge so hugely from DDI when creating DDII. You can diverge too far and in the wrong direction. I sadly did not get the chance to play Bard's Tale back when, because I was busy from 1984-1999 with real-life problems, the military, and working my way through university, and although I had a Commodore 64, I did not have the money or time to play much at that time. The Bard's Tale series are 4 great games! In the first one, you are exclusively in various dungeons and towers of Skara Brae. You are hunting down a servant of the Mad God. The mechanisms for fighting and leveling up are very comfortable. In the second one, you are in Caith generally. You can and must leave Skara Brae to pursue your quest in other towns. Here, you must find the pieces of an ancient artifact to save Caith. In the third one, the Mad God has destroyed Skara Brae and all of Caith. Here, you are dimension hopping. The first portion of the game is just leveling up your character. Sadly, they did not build-in a mechanism, like we've had for some time now, to level-up the characters. Many people complain about having to dungeon crawl in the labyrinth of the Mad God again. The fourth one obviously came out much later, and is for another review. You can have a party of upto 7 characters, or 6, depending upon what mode you choose. You will be challenged with many puzzles and various monsters to fight. I love that they provide the old cloth map. I intend to get them all taken to a print shop and hang them on the wall with my BG I and II and IWD I and II maps. Modern creators under-estimate the charm of a cloth map.

I played this game as a kid about 30+ yrs ago and this is the perfect remake for what I wanted. I've tried playing the originals and they are too clunky now. This is the perfect blend of old and new for me. I'll warn any new comers. This game can be punishing and is all about the grind. The new auto save feature though makes it much more accessible. Excellent job on this and I'll be preordering Bard's Tale 4 just based on the work you did on this game. Can't wait for the rest of the trilogy to launch.

So I played TBT on my c64 in another era and my 10 yo self wasted too many sunny days indoor crouched over a monitor fighting packs of monsters that I still look like a sickly white irishman who fled the famine. These games that sat alongside gaming greats such as Ultima and led to RPGS's being so poular and thus one day birthing the like of Baldur's Gate were such an important part of my life that in many ways i contiune to chase the feeling of wonder that came with the to this day. In truth revisiting these games are rareky a good idea no matter how great they were. This is true of TBT on Dos Box for example. The graphics, gameplay, user interface and punishing difficulty make spending any real time withe these classics more chore than not. Thankfully the remakes have changed all that. Whilst I'm really hanging out for the excellent 3rd tile Thief of Fate I have cut my teeth on the first game and soon found myself in nostaliga heaven with a title that stays true to the originals but adds much needed updated gameplay such as the ability to Quick Save anywhere. The game itself remains as challenging as ever but no longer as punishing. Still I shamefully admit I became a little cocky and 8hrs in with my party reaching lvl 10 I strayed too far into a dungeon only to find myself trapped facing a dragom battle I can never win. Lesson learnt, I for one should have known better and had made better use of the save game features. Thus this was a very good reminder of 80's gaming where caution and respect went hand in hand. So do I reccomend or not? Its a hard call, returning fans will welcome a return to Skara Brae in modern playable manner that respects we all have jobs/kids/pets in 2018 to manage. Many newcomers may still find this baffling and even lame but if you have any love of CRPG"S these are really mustplays if only for the record.

This is an amazing game but not for the casual player. Don't expect to see enemies approaching in the 3D view screen -this is just a generic representation of your surroundings. Instead you may detect enemies if you have the right abilities and read about it in the actions pane. Encounters will be represented as animated cards and battles planned strategically before the combat is executed in a text based fashion. The game presumes that you like to read text. You can play the game keyboard-only or use the mouse. TIP: Start by unequipping all items from the default A-team and use the items to equip your own team of choice. This will save gold and give you a head start. There is a complete in-game manual and a vast catalogue with all creatures in the game (including your stats from all your encounters). This is a Might and Magic type of game where you go exploring with a party of heroes and choose your battles, gain XP, sell and equip loot etc. and the game is from the same era (1985) as the first Might and Magic (1986). This remake adds polish and finesse to the original games and is highly recommended if you like to do your own thinking and not just point and click.