The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep Reviews
An eccentric and charismatic B-movie of a game. The Bard's Tale 4 is an ideal place to puzzle in.
At its roughest edges, The Bard's Tale IV shows its retro revival roots in some not so positive ways. It may not be special enough for me to easily overlook these technical shortcomings entirely, but it's an RPG that's brimming with enjoyable, challenging fights, elaborate and entertaining puzzles, and plenty of visual and musical flair. And that was more than enough to keep me humming along contentedly to its tune more often than not.
An old-fashioned game in a shiny new package, The Bard's Tale 4: Barrows Deep is a worthy addition to a classic series.
The Bard's Tale IV offers a modern delve into a classic RPG format, but sometimes-frustrating puzzles dim the dungeon dive
You'll need a lot of patience to make it through InXile Entertainment's nostalgic RPG, The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep.
The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep delivers on the faith its Kickstarter backers put into the project. It weaves combat, exploration, music, and puzzles into a game that stands out in a crowded market. It's unlike any other RPG, and with other old-school RPGs finding success these days — Pillars of Eternity, Octopath Traveler, and Dragon Quest XI — I hope InXile is able to come back to this fantastical world, just like it's doing with Wasteland.
A thoughtful, deep and rewarding RPG, with some great puzzles and a story that may not be groundbreaking, but sure is fun.
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.
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
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.
There are one or two missteps here and there, but The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep is a wonderful RPG that has to be explored to be understood for the gem it is.
The few performance issues aside, it's a game that's hard not to like.
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.
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
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.
Although it doesn't quite all come together, this RPG has some robust mechanics and comber that set it apart.
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.
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.