The Bard's Tale has extremely simple game mechanics and rules. You are fighting in real-time and while doing so you receive experience points which allow you to level up. Each new level gives you two points to spend on your attributes (a maximum of 20 points per attribute can be reached). Every two levels you may choose a talent, a special action which can aid you during the many fights. When picking up loot everything changes into hard cash immediately. Only weapons are 'vast' but from the moment you find a stronger version of f.e. a two-handed sword then the sword you already had just disappears. So your 'inventory' only exists out of the strongest weapons and armor you have found/bought. There are special items, also known as tokens in the game, that improve your attributes. Temporary bonusses exist in the form of different ales you can drink in the local pubs. While solving a quest here and there you gain access to tunes (and the upgrades. These are actually companions you can summon with your lute. Like a charging Behemoth, a useful Light Fairy which can stun all surrounding foes or a Enchantress that can revive other summons.

The strongest selling points of this game are undoubtly the many jokes, there isn't an in-game scene without them. While they may not all tend to work out that well, for the most part they definitely do. Even till the very end of the game; when you are presented three different outcomes to the tale, it is worth asking your summons for some advice (the first time in the game they ever have something to say during a conversation) and to try it again with every summon tune you have. The game is never serious, the conversations themselves contain a lot of gags but I honestly enjoyed the wicked npc's the most. A delightfully arrogant/snobbish shopkeeper, a mad butcher who sees you as his grannie, a fooling duo which could have featured in Allo Allo, ... very funny stuff and perhaps this alone might be worth the purchase if it wasn't for the shitload of boring levels stacked with the same enemies you have to get through just to experience another funny moment.

Yep, combat areas are mazes filled with the same traps, enemies and no puzzles at all. Nothing is randomly generated and thus the monsters are always lurking around the same place and aside from a nice twist here and there (like the 'Obligatory Lava Level') you just don't have a good time here. Rushing through isn't advisable either, if you don't scout every part of a dungeon you won't find extra (and sometimes necessary) goodies like new tunes, tokens or a sidequest. Your foes all fit in the context of the region you are exploring but still you get the feeling that some of them are simply the same basic model with another skin on it. Their intelligence is pretty non-existant, they won't chase you for long and only a Finfolk will seldomly run from you for a limited distance. Once in a while there is a levelboss but I can't say there is one which has been a real pain in the ass. A couple of them required another try but it's easy to quickly recognise the same attack pattern they're using. It's only a matter of choosing the right summons. Once you are past 2/3 of the game you won't necessarily need to use the latter anymore, since certain blocking talents then provide an all powerful way to defeat opponents. Summons only get things done in a much faster way then. If you do get into trouble, there is still the Caleigh artifact which returns you your full health. As long as you aren't doing anything else and if you have enough adder stones (which aren't scarce at all) you can use this life-saving trick every time; with one press on the 'R' quick key you become invulnerable to attacks after which the time stops and an uninterruptable healing animation is played out for a few seconds. Other artifacts and subsequent Power Levels of them exist too and can be gathered from certain levelbosses. It all makes you even more undefeatable and gives you more reason to get quickly bored by it.

The story is quite predictable, linear and as cliché as you can get in these kind of games. That probably was the intention but it doesn't leave much space to go through the game again. Yes, there are a few twists if you act snarky or nice during your talks but such a dual choice from time to time alone won't overcome the boring combat levels you have to complete again. And when you have gotten to the end you have already seen all the summoning tunes, most of the tokens/talents and maxed out a lot of your attributes. Conversating with the npc's is a very passive event for the gamer as the snarky/nice options are the only form of interaction here. It's a matter of 'sit back and enjoy' though. At first, the world map tries to give an illusion of non-linearity but much sooner than anticipated you are already stuck to one path without the possibility to return to previously visited locations. Only right before the end battle can you visit all the locations again but mostly in altered (read: devastated) state. The dangerous encounters on this global map are nothing more than time consuming obstacles. According to the game I needed a bit less than 16 hours to complete it while I tried to complete every quest and check every corner of the game world. Add an hour to that for some tryouts and reloading and you still don't have such a reasonable playlength, even for an 'extra light' action rpg. Although I didn't long for more levels after the end, only for more jokes. Art, (low-res) movies and songs can be unlocked too. While I have read in some other articles that the original The Bard's Tale games are bundled with this PC version, there is nothing that points out that they are present with the European (and thus my) version.

Impressing us with graphics was not the intention of the developers as there are clearly much higher standards on the PC than on consoles. The 3D engine provides enough visual effects but nothing out of the ordinary, the detail of the models is just fine but the environments don't share the same finishing touch. You may feel a lack of overview in the beginning because of the top down view which is close to the ground but it's a matter of getting used to it. The Bard's Tale is a stable piece of software. The only annoyances are the gigantic amount of loading screens because of the small levels. And only once I encountered a bug when the voices suddenly became absent. So the system requirements aren't high at all. Although... with a short lifespan like I mentioned it's pretty unbelievable that this game needs 8 GB of free space (sounds take up for 4 GB and the levels around 3 GB). Strange file format the developers have used, perhaps it's anoter consequence of this title originally being a console game. It could also be caused by the loads of localized stuff that is automatically installed. Ambient sounds are present but they aren't remarkable. There isn't any music I heared too (except for the songs and the main theme). Still, the audio part gets a whole better because of the superb voices. A lot of talking is done and it's a pleasure to listen to the different voice actors (like Carry Elwes and Tony Jay, respectively the Bard and narrator). You'll notice that some entirely different npc's oddly enough share the same (sometimes slightly altered) voice but it doesn't take away from the atmosphere. Another great addition are the songs, like the constantly returning 'Oh, it's bad luck to be you' (every time in a different flavour). Hilarious how you're being encouraged to sing along.