Posted By: Trail_Mystic
The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep - First Impressions - 09/21/18 12:04 AM
I'm not sure if there's such a thing as being anxiously tentative or tentatively anxious, but that's the best way I can describe my wait for the release of The Bard's Tale IV. InXile is the same development house that brought us Torment: Tides of Numenera, based on the iconic Planescape universe; they promised much, and delivered short. As such, I've been hoping that Bard's Tale would be a more well rounded release that would do it's predecessors honor. I can't fully speak to that point yet, as I've only spent a few hours on the game so far. That said, I think I have a good enough grasp to relate some general information on the attribute of this "new" RPG. I'll be very high level in my descriptions in order to preserve the newness for those planning on playing, and well, because it's still relatively early in the game for me (I think).
Basic Info
The story line is similar to many RPG's, hinging on ancient gods, their creations and battles between disparate races. The first chapter is set up as a tutorial, which is good, because being one of those individuals who rarely reads the manuals unless forced into it, I need some guidance. They run you through the basics of communication, movement, martial combat, magic use and the save system. That last one will disappoint some, and it did surprise me as well - It's a checkpoint save system. More about that in a moment.
Animation, controls and character builds/development
The character models are OK, but could use work. Some models feel more like a caricature and they tend to use the same face or masked face on multiple NPC's in the same scene, which is distracting. Backgrounds, general environment and interactive objects are actually very nice. Character movement, item activation and dialogue is controlled mainly through mouse clicks, with keyboard bindings for some specifics like your Inventory (I) and Character Sheet (C). The inventory is easy to manage and the character sheet seems fairly intuitive. I say "seems" because I've started with a pre-built and have only dabbled with the character options. From what I've seen though, they look meager and basic. That is disappointing for a game that should be full of multiple character races with all sorts of permutations - sadly, that is not the case. Additionally, character leveling happens with little pomp and less reason. New skills are just doled out according to the level and there's little sense in how or why.
Your view is first person and the only time you actually meet a fully animated character in your party is the first time you come across them. After that, they are portraits that come up on the head's up display/battle grid. The only time you see your character is in the character sheet/inventory screen and on the aforementioned. The portraits are dimensional, animated cut-outs; so a step above the vintage games of old that used a static picture. This is a good and bad thing, because as mentioned, the fully animated models need a lot of work. I wish they would have used the grid portrait for the character and inventory screens, because the models shown are built in a rather lazy manner and look nothing like the portrait. Each party member and your character has a place on the front end display, which converts to the old school battle grid when in combat.
Save games are as mentioned earlier, done through a check point system. There are quite a few through the game and an additional feature called a "Luck Stone" that appear near areas of combat, where your character will respawn in case of defeat. I haven't had an issue with them, but really can't understand why they would do it in an RPG like this, unless there was some development time savings involved.
Combat
Confrontations are purely turn-based, using the familiar battle grid system requiring use of opportunity points for attacks (magic or martial), heals or buffs, and movement. A mini-map in the heads up display shows the location of nearby foes as well as quest markers. Magic effects are quick, and honestly not very impressive. Martial attacks look like you're hitting your opponent with your portrait. Other than the statics and some very specific background scenes, the animations are, like the character models, lazily built.
Music and Dialogue
The voice acting is well done, which makes up for the lack of depthy dialogue. The music is also well done, but doesn't make up for plot changes that seem to show continuity issues in the story.
Over all, the game feels like it was rushed. I certainly hope they intend on coming back with updates and additions to the game, but I am again getting the same feeling I had with Torment: Tides of Numenera. I'm becoming somewhat disillusioned with Fargo and InXile Studios. Considering they're history, these lack luster offerings do not do the games of the past justice.
If you are trying to decide between The Bards Tale and Larian Studio's new offering Divinity: Original Sin 2, I would suggest you go with the latter.
Basic Info
The story line is similar to many RPG's, hinging on ancient gods, their creations and battles between disparate races. The first chapter is set up as a tutorial, which is good, because being one of those individuals who rarely reads the manuals unless forced into it, I need some guidance. They run you through the basics of communication, movement, martial combat, magic use and the save system. That last one will disappoint some, and it did surprise me as well - It's a checkpoint save system. More about that in a moment.
Animation, controls and character builds/development
The character models are OK, but could use work. Some models feel more like a caricature and they tend to use the same face or masked face on multiple NPC's in the same scene, which is distracting. Backgrounds, general environment and interactive objects are actually very nice. Character movement, item activation and dialogue is controlled mainly through mouse clicks, with keyboard bindings for some specifics like your Inventory (I) and Character Sheet (C). The inventory is easy to manage and the character sheet seems fairly intuitive. I say "seems" because I've started with a pre-built and have only dabbled with the character options. From what I've seen though, they look meager and basic. That is disappointing for a game that should be full of multiple character races with all sorts of permutations - sadly, that is not the case. Additionally, character leveling happens with little pomp and less reason. New skills are just doled out according to the level and there's little sense in how or why.
Your view is first person and the only time you actually meet a fully animated character in your party is the first time you come across them. After that, they are portraits that come up on the head's up display/battle grid. The only time you see your character is in the character sheet/inventory screen and on the aforementioned. The portraits are dimensional, animated cut-outs; so a step above the vintage games of old that used a static picture. This is a good and bad thing, because as mentioned, the fully animated models need a lot of work. I wish they would have used the grid portrait for the character and inventory screens, because the models shown are built in a rather lazy manner and look nothing like the portrait. Each party member and your character has a place on the front end display, which converts to the old school battle grid when in combat.
Save games are as mentioned earlier, done through a check point system. There are quite a few through the game and an additional feature called a "Luck Stone" that appear near areas of combat, where your character will respawn in case of defeat. I haven't had an issue with them, but really can't understand why they would do it in an RPG like this, unless there was some development time savings involved.
Combat
Confrontations are purely turn-based, using the familiar battle grid system requiring use of opportunity points for attacks (magic or martial), heals or buffs, and movement. A mini-map in the heads up display shows the location of nearby foes as well as quest markers. Magic effects are quick, and honestly not very impressive. Martial attacks look like you're hitting your opponent with your portrait. Other than the statics and some very specific background scenes, the animations are, like the character models, lazily built.
Music and Dialogue
The voice acting is well done, which makes up for the lack of depthy dialogue. The music is also well done, but doesn't make up for plot changes that seem to show continuity issues in the story.
Over all, the game feels like it was rushed. I certainly hope they intend on coming back with updates and additions to the game, but I am again getting the same feeling I had with Torment: Tides of Numenera. I'm becoming somewhat disillusioned with Fargo and InXile Studios. Considering they're history, these lack luster offerings do not do the games of the past justice.
If you are trying to decide between The Bards Tale and Larian Studio's new offering Divinity: Original Sin 2, I would suggest you go with the latter.