I am a backer of this game. I liked the idea of a spiritual successor of Battle Isle and that's what BWK is. I don't need more polish on graphics, interface or a ton of video material. I am happy with this in-budget, in-time and in-quality work the devs promised. It might be not as complex as other titles or looks as good as a triple A game, but then again it does not cost 40+ bucks either. And yes - BWK is also a statement: TBS is NOT dead, dear mayor publishers! So sorry for this rather subjective review.
I cannot share the enthusiams most of the other reviews describe when handling this game. I was so disappointed when I got this game on it's release: the graphics were mediocre at best, the hero was a loud moud of the worst kind and I could not laugh about anything he came up with. The engine was bad and no, its was no serious RPG which I expected from my genre defining experince with it's "predecessors". It was everything I did not wanted it to be, if it utilizes the Bard's Tale name. For me it ist much more a silly spinoff than something I want to spend time on. High praised writing? First class voice actors? Seems I missed these top notch features alltogether. Bad stereotypes and voice actors that actually did their job - wow, if that's top notch, then I would not want to play a mediocre or even bad game -.- Maybe I am spoiled by the expectation of another Bard's Tale episode, but I wouldn't even take this one for free.
I played Re-Volt a lot. It is my SuperMarioKart-kinda thing for the PC. The settings are nicely choosen (neighbourhood, supermarket, museum ...), the weapons cover everything you need (direct attack, zapping all, dropping oil etc.) and there are some shortcuts and alternative routes to find, oh and new cars to be achieved. I already got this one for PC (back then), my PSOne and my Android phone (an emu that got virtual sticks for steering) and I am happy to get it on my PC again. One thing I don't like that much: the AI cars get better if you are in front and it's quite impossible to get ahead too far, because the bots will get faster to catch up. So the game has you in range all the time (which should keep up the thrill). But it's just a small flaw. Oh and the music: well it's a rather electronical kinda techno/dance style. But I like the soundtrack enough to hear the MP3 files I made from time to time.
