The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep Reviews

The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep is ranked in the 28th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
6 / 10
Mar 21, 2019

The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep is a frustrating mix of brilliance and bad design. Future updates may elevate it to something more but right now it, sadly, suffers from some broken strings.

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B-
Dec 11, 2018

Overall, The Bard's Tale IV, after a few updates, is a solid game. A well-done story backed by amazing voice acting and soundtrack makes this game a must for The Bard's Tale fans. Newcomers to the series should enjoy their time as well. Finding it on sale should help seal the deal.

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RPG Site
Top Critic
7 / 10
Dec 2, 2018

Although it doesn't quite all come together, this RPG has some robust mechanics and comber that set it apart.

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6 / 10.0
Nov 24, 2018

I've been underwhelmed by inXile's previous nod to nostalgia, Wasteland 2, and everyone else in the universe seemed to adore it, so maybe it's me. Your mileage, as always, may vary. But if you're looking for a rock-solid, incredibly challenging nuts-and-bolts RPG with all of the quirky flair of the original trilogy, this isn't quite it.

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7 / 10
Oct 26, 2018

Overall, The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep gets a 7/10, it is an enjoyable adventure with engaging turn-based combat and puzzle solving but fails too harshly in other areas. Combat can become repetitive at certain points where you fight the same setup of enemies 5 times in a row when it doesn’t glitch out. Some puzzles are overly easy, while others are overtly vague without reason. The difficulty is great throughout, aside from some areas that take a drastic leap. The long list of glitches and bugs ruin an otherwise amazing experience as they plague every corner.

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8.5 / 10.0
Oct 25, 2018

The Bard's Tale IV is a game that puts "fantasy" in fantastic. With its rich atmosphere, charming visuals and medieval aesthetic, it affords a deep gaming experience.

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7.5 / 10.0
Oct 22, 2018

The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep is definitely for a specific crowd of hardcore RPG and series fans, and for those, it caters wonderfully. It features a fascinating world and one of my favorite turn-based combat systems in recent memory. That being said, it may not be as appealing to a mass audience due to its complicated nature and glitches. For a franchise that hasn't been seen in 30 years, that may not have been the wisest decision. However, I do hope The Bard's Tale series sticks around because the core experience is great, making the game one of the most interesting RPGs I've played in 2018.

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Not Yet
Oct 20, 2018

Despite taking place in a marvellously detailed, humorous, and lively world, the story of The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep is rather by-the-numbers, and a lot of the game’s design harkens back to the old games in the series in the worst, most rigid ways possible. Further to this, even after a few updates, the game is still fraught with technical issues, but it is slowly being patched, and inXile has a good track record for working on their games to improve them. And the good things that are still present in this game are excellent, like the fantastic writing, refreshing approach to puzzle designs, and beautiful music present throughout. The design could also be tweaked to remove the sting of a lot of the older design tropes that cause the most grief. As it stands, the game in its current state is rough as guts, but there’s a lot of room for improvement, and I’ve faith that it will improve. It will just take time.

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8 / 10.0
Oct 19, 2018

Overall The Bard’s Tale IV is a great title. Well drawn environments, dialog and an awesome accompaniment of bardic music make it worth playing for long stints at a time. Adding in elements such as a customizable leveling up system in order to style your characters just right, and the rest of the adventure is simply waiting for you to explore it the way you want to.

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7 / 10
Oct 11, 2018

The Bard's Tale IV is a mixed potion that can offer a very fun gameplay experience as well as seriously damaging your nerves! It offers more than 30 hours of gameplay for just 35 dollars, and when all elements are working, it can be fun and enjoyable. But then technical issues kick in and along with a very strange save mechanism, ruin your day! The Bard' Tale IV is surely a charismatic title and if you can cope with its flaws, you can have great fun; but it still has a lot of issues to address in order to be considered one of the elite titles of the genre.

Review in Persian | Read full review

Ofisil
Top Critic
4 / 10
Oct 9, 2018

Without the problems that stem from the, evidently, rushed production, The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep is a mediocre-to-good dungeon crawling RPG that's reminiscent of the genre's humble beginnings. With those problems added, however, this is downright annoying, and even unplayable.

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PS4Blog.net
Dusk Fox
8 / 10
Oct 9, 2018

The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep is certainly a game awaited by many of those who loved the original trilogy, and truly wants to keep the identity of the series in its core while making it modern and welcoming to all the people who have never heard of the saga, or even the genre. Whether or not they have succeeded at keeping the core of The Bard's Tale in this title is still up to debate for veterans, but it cannot be denied that at is price, it's an enjoyable experience that will bring you 40+ hours of entertainment.

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5 / 10.0
Oct 8, 2018

The Bard's Tale 4 has some positives and a whole lot of potential but it's also dragged down by a number of design and technical issues. Hopefully, a revamp and optimization helps it realize the full extent of its charm.

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Recommended
Oct 4, 2018

An eccentric and charismatic B-movie of a game. The Bard's Tale 4 is an ideal place to puzzle in.

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Oct 2, 2018

Barrows Deep is a shaky throwback that, despite occasional success in its stripped-down, straightforward approach, suggests that maybe simplicity and escapism has limitations of its own.

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Oct 1, 2018

Overly linear and with a lackluster combat, Bard’s Tale IV is anything but an “old-school” RPG. Worth it if you’re deeply interested in puzzles.

Review in Portuguese | Read full review

4.5 / 10.0
Oct 1, 2018

Listen, if you're reading this in the future, go and check the recent Steam reviews. My guess is that they will be rather positive on the game. A lot of the issues are tech-related: crashes, geometry bugs, load times, and framerate can all be fixed with patches. As of now? The interesting puzzles and fantastic music are not worth suffering through the bugs, lackluster models, and mediocre combat and skills. If your interest is piqued here, wishlist it and come back at a later time; I have no doubt that this game will reach its potential, but it's just not even close right now.

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4 / 10.0
Oct 1, 2018

The poor save system and technical issues combine to create something more frustrating than the sum of its parts. Combat is decent and the music is fantastic, but overall not worth the time spent in the rest of the game. You can instead just listen to the OST.

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GameSpot
Top Critic
4 / 10
Sep 30, 2018

You'll need a lot of patience to make it through InXile Entertainment's nostalgic RPG, The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep.

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65%
Sep 29, 2018

The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep couldn't escape the shadow of its predecessors and it also has some unnecessary technical flaws. Ultimately not just younger players that are used to modern games, but also the older players, won't be completely satisfied.

Review in Slovak | Read full review