The Bards Tale review:5 stars (The Bard's Tale) - The first thing you should know is that if you're an old-school gamer who grew up playing The Bard's Tale games in the 80s, you may be surprised by this game. It bears no real resemblance to the original trilogy of BT games (aside from one passing reference early on, when the Bard mentions that he once saved a town trapped in "eternal winter," which is precisely what he did in the first game.) Designer Brian Fargo basically decided to completely reinvent the franchise with this game. Humor has always played at least a subtle part in The Bard's Tale games, and there were several Monty Python references in Bard's Tale III, but this time around, the humor really takes center stage.
The Bard is a sarcastic, self-serving and downright rude character whose primary concern is getting rich and getting women. In the original games, you were always on a noble quest to defeat evil. This time, the Bard doesn't seem to care who he sides with, as long as there's a nice reward in it for him.
In a lot of ways, this feels a bit like how an RPG might look if Tim Schaefer ("Day of The Tentacle," "Psychonauts," "Monkey Island") took a stab at creating one. All of the typical RPG conventions are here-- smashing barrels, leveling up, looting corpses, opening chests, etc-- but they're constantly mocked. Often, this mockery comes from the disembodied voice of the narrator, who regularly comments on the Bard's activities. (for example, early in the game, you offer to help a barmaid. You wander into her room, and, of course, there's a treasure chest on the floor. When you open it, the narrator comments, "You're stealing from her?! Oh well, actually, I'm amazed it took you THIS long to get your hands on her chest." Some other great bits of humor come in the form of songs. Yes, characters will occasionally break into song/dance numbers, complete with bouncing-ball lyrics so you can sing along.

In terms of actual gameplay, things are kept relatively simple compared to most RPGs. This was done deliberately so the player could focus on moving the story along without getting bogged down in busy work. For example, if you find a weaker weapon than the one you're currently using, it is automatically converted into coins-- no need to make a detour to the shop and trade it in. I suppose some people may think this cuts down on the roleplaying aspect, but I like it.

Fighting in mostly a matter of hitting the X button to swing whatever weapon you're wielding. However, you can also summon creatures to fight alongside you (the bard has a magic lute to do this), and you can use your directional pad to give basic commands to your summoned allies, such as "Attack," "Defend," etc. It's simplistic, but it works well and the fights are often entertaining enough without being overly difficult.

The graphics are good. They're not going to win any awards, but the top-down view of the world is attractive, and the subtle effects, such as water ripples and trees blowing in the wind, make it all the more appealing. Occasionally, the trees pose a problem since they obstruct your view of the action during a fight, and I do wish a transparency effect was used in such occasions.

Overall, if you don't demand serious depth in an RPG, I definitely recommend this game. It has a good story, memorable characters, a simple interface, plenty of humor, and satisfying hack & slash combat. 5 stars (An absurd amount of fun!) - I am totally loving this game. I'm not your typical video-game player--I'm a 28 year old woman, a wife, and a mother, with a professional career. I don't have a lot of time to play video games, which explains why I'm just now getting around to playing this--and I received it as a Christmas gift. But this game is such fun! It occurred to me, as my little Bard character was walking around, about to shoot some crows, followed by his little dog and the crone he'd summoned ("covered in sores and tattoos" no less!) how delightfully skewed this game is. Random characters pop up and sing songs. There are grutuitous close-ups of ample cleavage. Your adventure is narrated by an elegantly disdainful commentator. Ah, I just love this game.

It is not, mind you, for everyone--there aren't any loud explosions and realistic machine-gun fire or anything like that. But I must say, it really and truly grabbed me. Love it!4 stars (What a great game.) - The Bards tale made its first appearance WAY back when games still loaded from MS-DOS. The original game was text based with pictures to help enhance the story, which may not impress today's youth but back then it meant hours of past your bedtime fun.
So, being an ole "Bards Tale" Vet I immediately purchased this for my XBox and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. The dialouge, the story, the acting, the music the graphics and the non-political correctness all work amazingly well. Unlike many games where the story seems to be a side attraction, here in the Bards tale the "Tale" takes center stage and leaves you eagerly awaiting to see what's next.
Unfortunately, the main weakness that haunts this otherwise wonderful game is the overhead view of the character while exploring and in combat. It would have been so much better if the game interface was more like Halo, Grand Theft auto and Hero. The whole time I found myself leaning forward to get a closer look at my character who seemed so far away. In fact, the original Bard's tale was a first person view, not an overhead view like this one.
Another thing that would have been nice, though by no means necessary, is to have the original Bards Tale as a Special Feature to the game. It wouldn't have taken much space and would be nice for old farts like me and for newer generations to see where it all began.
Anyway, Cary Elwis and the rest of the crew did a great job and I hope that The Bards Tale sequel (or perhaps they'll do a prequel of when our little hero was a little brat?) is even better than this one.
A must buy for anyone who wants more out of their gaming experience than just button smashing.

Update: Be sure to save this game right before the final battle. Their are alternate endings and both of them, I assure you, are well worth watching. So watching one ending then load from the saved area and do it again, only this time with choosing the other ending. Personally I like the ending where our hero sides with the lady.
The Bards Tale Features:
Video Games
Xbox (x box)
Microsoft
Action
Adventure
XBOX
T (teen)
Adventure

The Bards Tale is the Video Game version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "CLICK HERE TO ORDER" button below for around 19.99USD.