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.
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.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

Sep 18, 2018

Without the bugs, The Bard's Tale IV is okay at best. With them, it's perhaps best to preserve your nostalgia and play the HD remaster of The Bard's Tale I to III instead.

Read full review

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.

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.

Read full review

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

5 / 10.0
Sep 29, 2018

Despite the negatives I found with the game, The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep has incredible promise. The developers are actively responding to all of the customer issues and appear to take these concerns seriously with promptly made patches and ongoing support. I wholeheartedly believe that between constructive feedback from players and well thought out solutions from the developers that The Bard’s Tale IV can become the game it has every right to be.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

50 / 100
Sep 25, 2018

The Bard's Tale IV could be a fun — but seriously flawed — game if it weren't hamstrung by technical problems. Its frequent framerate drops, bugged combat abilities, and crashes are compounded by an archaic save system that makes it far too easy to lose progress. Though it features some great combat and challenging puzzles, they're not without their own flaws, and become extremely repetitive over the game's 30–40-hour playtime.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

6 / 10.0
Sep 26, 2018

Appreciable if you're a fan of the genre but that can be rough or boring for other players. A pretty decent visual and sound section.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

6 / 10
Sep 21, 2018
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

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.

Read full review

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

7 / 10.0
Sep 27, 2018

The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep is not a perfect game by any respect. It's the first mainline sequel to a franchise that is over thirty years old, and this iteration certainly stumbles. However, what is here is a solid game with clever writing, strong characters, and a wonderful world of misfits and misadventures. The game needs patches, and an overall layer of polish, making it feel rushed and shoddy. If you're on the fence, give it some time to get its ducks in a row before you commit to a purchase.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

7 / 10
Sep 28, 2018

The Bard's Tale IV is a little retro pleasure that is hard to ignore. The characters are fun, its universe is rich and the game mechanics are deep. Unfortunately, the game is not up to par visually and looks like something that was released ten years ago.

Review in French | Read full review