The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep

 PC
User Score
6.5

Mixed or average reviews- based on 101 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 59 out of 101
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 101
  3. Negative: 31 out of 101

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  1. RolandofYew
    Sep 18, 2018
    10
    Bards Tale IV has all the elements of previous games as well as introducing elements we take for granted in the 21st century. I say go ahead and buy Bards Tale IV Barrows Down you will not regret your purchase and remember, the Google analytics engine has scrutinised every written word available on the web about the game and subsequently rated it as the number one 'Steam Game of 2018'.
  2. Whytepathe
    Sep 19, 2018
    8
    BT 4 Barrows Deep is a combination of the past and present. It has personality and atmosphere with good rpg elements. As I see it so far, the negatives are uncalled for as I have a pretty low end rig and it runs well enough for me. Others think it's not enough like the originals. Good, as those were great for their time but Barrows Deep's combat has been updated while maintaining the feelBT 4 Barrows Deep is a combination of the past and present. It has personality and atmosphere with good rpg elements. As I see it so far, the negatives are uncalled for as I have a pretty low end rig and it runs well enough for me. Others think it's not enough like the originals. Good, as those were great for their time but Barrows Deep's combat has been updated while maintaining the feel of the BT series and in my opinion does so successfully. Barrows Deep is a fine addition to the BT series. Don't let the famous score lowering Metacritic zeros put you off. Bottom line is that it's entertaining and funny.… Expand
  3. sweredrim
    Sep 20, 2018
    9
    Despite some performance issues which were not so much of a problem for me, the game is quite nice. Graphic is decent, story is ok, combat is refreshing, and there are many nice puzzles that will keep you occupied. Overall i recommend it.
  4. didactickatydid
    Sep 20, 2018
    10
    They got this one right. As a big fan of the original series, I think a complete retread would have pleased me at first but quickly lost its shine, so I'm very happy with the way they sustained what I love but developed beyond a simple sop-to-the-fans profit-maker. Victor Minor may be in the vault, but I'm gonna be spending a lot of time with this one in the near future.
  5. maxheadroom
    Sep 19, 2018
    8
    Some of the user reviews on here are complaining that it's "turn based" and "nothing like the original" in the same sentence. I can only assume they think this is a sequel to the god-awful 2004 'funny' Bards Tale which shares only a name with this game, and the classic trilogy that came out between '85 - '88

    This game isnt perfect, there are a number of bugs and optimisation issues    Some of the user reviews on here are complaining that it's "turn based" and "nothing like the original" in the same sentence. I can only assume they think this is a sequel to the god-awful 2004 'funny' Bards Tale which shares only a name with this game, and the classic trilogy that came out between '85 - '88

    This game isnt perfect, there are a number of bugs and optimisation issues (which the developer has acknowledged and are working on) and if im honest it strayed a little 'too' far from what made the original games classics 30 years ago, but still a solid AA old-school RPG. Idiots giving it 0 because they're confusing as a sequel to an entirely different game not withstanding    … Expand
  6. socokid
    Sep 21, 2018
    9
    This game is FAR better than the current 6.2 user score due to performance issues I'm just not seeing. Click on the people leaving 0 scores. They are almost all one-offs by anonymous people just to vote 0 on this game alone. The combat is great and gets more complex as you play (turn based in small grids). Otherwise it's a 1st person RPG with loot, armor, weapons, magic, collecting,This game is FAR better than the current 6.2 user score due to performance issues I'm just not seeing. Click on the people leaving 0 scores. They are almost all one-offs by anonymous people just to vote 0 on this game alone. The combat is great and gets more complex as you play (turn based in small grids). Otherwise it's a 1st person RPG with loot, armor, weapons, magic, collecting, recipes, equipping your gained party members with what you want depending on how you progress the characters through advancement selections, etc... I'm 15 hours in and have experience a single crash, but otherwise am having a lot of fun, which is the real test.

    It's a wonderful game that is definitely worth the $35 for this long time gamer. I played the original games but it's been so long I have no idea what they were like. People complaining that it's not the same as those games is beyond silly. On it's own, it's a very good game, good story, side quests, etc..    … Expand
  7. smax
    Sep 20, 2018
    10
    The game is very-very old school in terms of the gameplay.
    There is a mix of exploration, quite challenging battles and nice music.
    The graphic aspect is pretty crappy but I don't really care.
    Hope the developers would fix all the lags soon.

    Giving it 10 flutes out of 10 for now to balance the undeserving bad reviews
  8. MacHarper
    Sep 25, 2018
    8
    Thoroughly enjoying myself. I had not played the old games so there's no nostalgia here. I've not run into any performance issues or bugs at all - my system is a GTX1080 on an I7 8700K. I love the music and the overall ambience of the game. The story is interesting so far and I'm enjoying the combat strategy. Don't go in expecting an action game, the combat feels like a board game. There'sThoroughly enjoying myself. I had not played the old games so there's no nostalgia here. I've not run into any performance issues or bugs at all - my system is a GTX1080 on an I7 8700K. I love the music and the overall ambience of the game. The story is interesting so far and I'm enjoying the combat strategy. Don't go in expecting an action game, the combat feels like a board game. There's a risk to playing with the save stones - although there is a workaround apparently to exit the game. I backed the game on KickStarter - got digital stuff on time. The physical edition is delayed which is a shame. I'm a couple of hours in.… Expand
  9. iancurtis
    Oct 3, 2018
    10
    Beside of the Bugs its a great game overall. Atmosphere, Sound, Character Creation. Unfortunately the most players don't get more than 5 hours into it and blame technical bugs for it to be a bad game. The game gets better after 10 hours. If you like dungeon crawlers like legend of grimrock 1/2 and older ones like stonekeep go play it.
  10. FooJones
    Sep 28, 2018
    8
    I wanted to give this game a 10, but I have to be fair and give it a very solid 8, because there's always room for improvement. That being said...

    The Good: The gameplay is fun and I actually really enjoy the combat. There are waypoints you can unlock for fast travel as you progress. The game comes with two difficulty modes (normal and hard) that can be adjusted at any time. The    I wanted to give this game a 10, but I have to be fair and give it a very solid 8, because there's always room for improvement. That being said...

    The Good:
    The gameplay is fun and I actually really enjoy the combat. There are waypoints you can unlock for fast travel as you progress. The game comes with two difficulty modes (normal and hard) that can be adjusted at any time. The puzzles aren't that challenging when you think about them. And for those who hate puzzles, they did include a digital guide. The soundtrack is one of the things that hooks me. Those who loved the trilogy will probably find more gripes with the lore and some retconning, but I personally am not bothered by it. I've been watching the story unfold in my 13 hours into the game. Character customization is fair as there are four classes to choose from and many skills to develop. You can also choose from several races. You can swap out party members in town and create your own with mercenary tokens you acquire. The characters will also have witty banter with each other randomly. Kind of reminded me of Wizardry 8. Combat is pretty cut and dry as far as mechanics go, but you can definitely add for some customization and change things up with swapping out skills. While the graphics aren't top notch, they serve very well for a game that was funded by a kickstarter. The map comes complete with many icons to help you remember where and what things are. The compass that shows your location in the minimap can have the rotation turned on and off. For those who want grid-based movement, you'll have to wait. That wasn't implemented at launch and is coming with a mode for that later.

    What needs improvement (i.e. the bad):
    Performance is a bit lacking. Running the game with a 1080ti, I'm finding a few huge performance dips in 2K. For the amount of GPU power this game requires, it shouldn't be an issue. I see some heavy frame dips in places, even with shadows and AA turned down. InExile has patched out some of them, and I believe they are doing more in the next patch. I have noticed a big difference since the first patch, but more needs to be done.

    Character customization could be better. There aren't really enough portraits for my liking, and the Elves, Dwarves and Trow portraits all look male. I also don't like that I cannot create a full party from early on. The maximum amount of characters you can have is 6, and currently I'm only allowed to have four. This is a personal pet peeve of mine. The slots unlock as you progress.

    Normal combat kind of disappoints me a bit. There are times that my characters are near death and the AI stupidly ignores them and just attacks the nearest target, instead of strategizing. I imagine this would change if I bumped my difficulty up to hard. I'll do that next playthrough. Although there are times I don't feel like doing things again and with the save system of this game, that's a blessing. To my next point, the save system is kind of iffy. You have to save only at markers (or when you quit the game). You can choose to consume the markers (which destroys it) for extra XP, or you can choose to bind it and use it as a save point. While this isn't terrible or anything, it's just not what I really like - personal taste and all that.

    Lastly, the mastery system bugs me a bit. You can only have up to 4 combat masteries at a time. When you are in combat, you get six total: four skill masteries, one trinket mastery and a move mastery. These are all you can use and you cannot swap them during combat. While it's not a deal breaker, sometimes it can be annoying and I wish it could be handled differently. I'd like to be able to waste opportunity points (what you use to take actions during combat) to swap skills in combat. I think that would be a cool option. Would help with the micromanagement, or have the option to be able to have more than a max of four skills for use at a time.

    Overall, I think the game is solid. It looks great for what it is, the characters are charming, you do have options for character customization, the combat is pretty much just right, the puzzles aren't unbearably boring and the game is overall a lot of fun. I would highly recommend giving it a try, even if you wait a month or two for the patches to stop flying.

    Bonus: Mean Drunk is just one of the favorite Bard talents you can choose from, in my opinion.    … Expand
  11. wrf101
    Sep 18, 2018
    8
    Good game, lots of atmosphere. Medium depth for an RPG. Some Bard's Tale purists are **** that it didn't carry enough gameplay mechanics over from 30 year-old games. I played the originals, and their game mechanics are dated and combat was pretty shallow, so InXile wisely made some major changes. The mechanics as a modern game are just fine. The attribute system is streamlined/dumbed-downGood game, lots of atmosphere. Medium depth for an RPG. Some Bard's Tale purists are **** that it didn't carry enough gameplay mechanics over from 30 year-old games. I played the originals, and their game mechanics are dated and combat was pretty shallow, so InXile wisely made some major changes. The mechanics as a modern game are just fine. The attribute system is streamlined/dumbed-down but the combat is much more strategic and there's a new skill and crafting system. The positives are good graphics for it's price point ($34.99) - not cutting-edge but decent and lots of atmosphere and variety. I love the Scottish accents. People are whining that this is "new" but there were NO VOICES in the old BT games, so how do you know they didn't have Scottish accents back then? I like the new free form 1st person movement, you can switch to grid-based if you like. Combat is grid and turn-based with medium complexity. Good occasional puzzles, good atmosphere, voice acting is cheesy but very colorful so overall a plus for me. Not a super-deep RPG but not shallow either. Overall I'm really enjoying it, it's a good game for those who like some depth without getting bogged down with an extreme amount of stats. Has a light-hearted tone and a sense of humor without being clownish. I recommend it unless you're a very hardcore RPG fan a la Pillars of Eternity or Baldur's Gate. BTW this runs butter-smooth on my GTX 970 on highest GFX settings.… Expand
  12. FalkonSwift
    Sep 20, 2018
    9
    As of this writing I'm about 25 hours into the game, and feel like I'm about halfway through. Overall I'm having a blast. I have only encountered 1 game crash and minor bugs at best 2 other times. The best part of the game for me is exploration.

    There is so much stuff in the game you could miss if you rushed it. Tons and tons of secrets. Which is sometimes one of the thing's I did not    As of this writing I'm about 25 hours into the game, and feel like I'm about halfway through. Overall I'm having a blast. I have only encountered 1 game crash and minor bugs at best 2 other times. The best part of the game for me is exploration.

    There is so much stuff in the game you could miss if you rushed it. Tons and tons of secrets. Which is sometimes one of the thing's I did not like about it. Some puzzles are so vague you have no context of what the game is asking for you and it's tough to progress.

    I find the combat system unique and fun mixing team dynamics and using combos and synergies from other heroes in your party. Some loot feels like you might never find an upgrade for a long time, other times I felt like I got too many of the same thing. The gear is usually unique in giving you special perks in your fights.

    The companions seem very interesting to me and I'm enjoying the banter between them. The only part that is a little bothersome is I find sometimes the game offers to add new party members into the group too soon after you have someone already such as having 2 or 3 rogues or 2 mages, etc so you don't get to really see how one person performs over another as much as I'd like.

    Also as of this writing one of my only complaints in the game there is no way to respec your hero. The only way is to create an all new hero at the guild. so I'm forced to use a bunch of skills I don't want to to progress the talent tree until the review board will open up more slots.

    The music in the game is SO GOOD! Also the voice actors are very good too.

    I've only played the 1st Bards tale and there are some call backs to it in the game, but it's not fair to compare it to this. The lore is in there, but the game play and classes are missing. I personally am fine with no random encounters and I'm okay with random loot drops. I like that some places have really tough fights mixed in with easy fights.

    I wish there were more classes in game. My personal favorite was the monk, but monks are not in the game as of now. I'm hoping they come later on.

    Other than the starting dungeon I find the world to be really beautiful. Some places I find myself just taking in the ambience, while others there's a real sense of danger, if you stand still and a monster walks by you might be in trouble!

    Overall, I think this is well worth a play through, and don't let the horrible hero models give you a false impression of a poor game. There's enough content that makes me feel like I'm def getting my money's worth, and I could see some replayability using different team make ups.    … Expand
  13. dpisacane
    Oct 10, 2018
    10
    In my estimation, inXile has managed to do what so many creative people fail miserably at. They have taken a beloved classic property (personally, I played the classic games on my Apple II back when they came out), updated it, made it different enough to be fresh but clearly in the spirit of the original games.

    This is obviously an update and a reimagining of The Bard's Tale, but not in    In my estimation, inXile has managed to do what so many creative people fail miserably at. They have taken a beloved classic property (personally, I played the classic games on my Apple II back when they came out), updated it, made it different enough to be fresh but clearly in the spirit of the original games.

    This is obviously an update and a reimagining of The Bard's Tale, but not in the way that the 2004 Bard's Tale tried to do something completely different. This is a dungeon crawler in the spirit of the classic games, only with interesting, new and updated gameplay systems and absolutely gorgeous visuals. I am consistently amazed by how good this game looks, and I have to keep reminding myself that this game was produced as the result of a Kickstarter. You WILL be impressed when you play it, I promise you that.

    Simply put, if you like dungeon crawlers like Legend of Grimrock, Eye of the Beholder or Ultima Underworld... this is a game you will really enjoy. I would also like to point out that the turn based combat is a breath of fresh air in this era where everything is so "twitchy". I don't mind real-time combat, but I chafe at the realization that I can't even find a good turn based RPG nowadays without resorting to playing games I never got around to fifteen or twenty years ago.

    Basically, I am loving The Bard's Tale IV. If you enjoy dungeon crawlers, and particularly if you have fond memories of The Bard's Tale from "back in the day" I highly recommend that you give this game a try.    … Expand
  14. yellowfinch
    Sep 30, 2018
    8
    I am enjoying the game despite the tech issues. It is a unique game and is entertaining in two fronts, the dialog and the puzzles. I have an older pc and it is kind of difficult to control the first person view. I get a lot of satisfaction out of solving the puzzles and finding loot in different locations.
  15. MechZahnSlayer
    Sep 25, 2018
    9
    The idea that this game deserves a 0 is criminal. I get that some of you don’t like it but purposely trying to torpedo the over all score is petty & insanely selfish for people who love the game like me. At least they did something different by going back again to old staples long gone. The sound track alone is vibrantly full of memorable moments. The combat is hard and reminds me of earlyThe idea that this game deserves a 0 is criminal. I get that some of you don’t like it but purposely trying to torpedo the over all score is petty & insanely selfish for people who love the game like me. At least they did something different by going back again to old staples long gone. The sound track alone is vibrantly full of memorable moments. The combat is hard and reminds me of early Dragon Quest titles. And the puzzles? Still better then the Witness and it’s off putting one note type of puzzle on endless repeat. Voice acting top notch. A lot of this anger is coming from people who don’t know how to optimize their workstation, I do a lot of I.T. Work over the years. Most people act like it’s so hard when in truth it’s literaly a handful of YouTube videos away. This being said it will be patched more in the future for better optimization which is what keeps me from giving it a higher score. Otherwise, some of these reviews you’d have to be drunk with anger to write with a strait face.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

83
#83 Most Discussed PC Game of 2018
32
#32 Most Shared PC Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
71

Mixed or average reviews - based on 42 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 42
  2. Mixed: 17 out of 42
  3. Negative: 4 out of 42
  1. CD-Action
    Feb 13, 2019
    80
    The Bard’s Tale IV is like a beautifully composed song performed on out of tunes instruments. There are moments when it borders on genius, other times it actively encouraged me to uninstall and forget it. For every strength it has a weakness. Good writing, superb puzzles, great music, outstanding voice-overs and solid mechanics are counterbalanced by quite awful visuals (how can Unreal Engine 4 look so bad?), some examples of bad design, a truckload of bugs (how about skills that don’t work or the ability to loot a chest through a ceiling?) and frequent crashes. For me the advantages were what mattered more, but I completely understand scores in the region of 4/10. [12/2018, p.58]
  2. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Dec 31, 2018
    80
    An adventure in which lute is played and songs are sung just can’t let you down. Bard's Tale has a lot of flaws, but it finds a way to the player's heart. However, the game is pretty far from its original trilogy. [Issue#290]
  3. RPG Site
    Dec 4, 2018
    70
    The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep has a satisfyingly deep and flexible battle system, surrounded by heavy puzzle exploration and a narrative that doesn't manage to stay interesting. There are some really neat systems at play here for those looking for intricate combat, but performance issues and a lacking storyline make it a hard sell to a larger audience.
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