To those who have played through the storied franchise, it came as no surprise that after years without a game, the Bard's Tale franchise would be reborn. This time for next generation consoles. The XBOX and PS2 versions of Bard's Tale came out some time ago to mixed reviews. The question would become just how well could a straight up console action game be ported to the PC.

You are known simply as the Bard, a hero in the minds of nobody, except maybe for yourself. From your rattle-stealing infancy, to your less impressive young adulthood of chasing rats and peeping in windows at naked wenches, you were seemingly on a clear path to quiet mediocrity. Somehow, despite your apparent lack of talent or intelligence, you discovered some affinity for playing music. So with your pet rat in tow, you set forth to find wine, women and adventure. Well 2-out-of-3 isn't bad anyway.

Gameplay
This style of game has been very common for the consoles. We the gamers have been exposed to these games from the “Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance” games, through to the two “Everquest” titles. As most PC gamers know, all of these games were more or less inspired by the storied Diablo games from Blizzard.

This game supports the use of either a gamepad or the standard keyboard and mouse. I opted for the mouse and my handy Saitek Gaming Keyboard. In the case of this game, the use of the Saitek's separate gaming pad with its 9 macros would make the difference between success and frustration.

This game features fairly standard controls, where right clicking the mouse allows you to move around the screen, while left clicking causing you to engage in combat. The A and D keys allow you to rotate the camera and the mouse scroll wheel zooms the camera in and out. While these seem like fairly basic commands, it is your Barding skills and the quick menu keys used to activate them which become troublesome.

Using the aforementioned Macros, I was able to map most of the major Bard abilities. In this game, your magic is used through your musical instrument. With it you summon everything from fighting allies, to healing crones, to my favorite, the trap detector. These summoned beings are necessary for proceeding through the game in one piece as there are way too many enemies for you to proceed without your allies. To use even the simplest of abilities forces you to press the 3 key, which brings up a menu causing you to activate yet another menu for what type of tune you are trying to play, followed by what specific tune you want to play. Most of your summoned allies require at least 3 key strokes to bring forth and sometimes you will need to do this on the fly. I found the ability to map all 3 keystrokes to one button to be the superior way to play this game. Although as I proceeded I found that certain summonings became second nature after a while and that even in mid combat I became skilled at activating my abilities.

As you proceed through the game, you receive an amulet that allows you to use mystical crystals to activate abilities. These abilities become unlocked as you advance through the plot of the game and range from healing spells to offensive spells used against large groups of enemies. These abilities have three different levels which cost anywhere from one crystal per use up to 5 crystals per use for the more advanced powers.

Equipment is both found and bought in this game; however the way it is utilized is different from how other games in this genre operate. You can decide fairly early into the game what weapons you want to utilize, from swords, two-handed swords, dual wielding the sword and dagger, the bow, and the flail. Each of these weapons has advantages and disadvantages but for the most part you will only use one of the melee weapons and a bow. I personally found the dual wielding to be the more rewarding of the weapon styles.

The game features the usual RPG staples, the map, the quest log and the equipment screen. The map has 2 sizes on the screen and features red dots for enemies, gold dots for goals and silver squares for doors. Some of the game areas are quite large and the map shows where you have and haven't journeyed. When venturing forth from your starting town, you go to a main overworld map where you then walk towards the next landmark, be it a town or a forest. In this overworld mode, you can see enemies walking around which are activated when they touch you or you go near them. This reminds me somewhat of the Chrono Trigger series and is actually much nicer to deal with than old school FF game random encounters.

A large portion of this game involves interaction with the game world and its various NPCs. In the dialogue department you get to choose between polite and snarky choices. Now this game is not like KOTOR, snarky does not mean evil nor does polite mean good. Sometimes snarky will get you free things like passage across a river. Although sometimes you will find that the snarky side has consequences that are not immediately apparent. The polite choices will sometimes get you stuck, so be sure to mix up your reactions. Although there will occasionally be some rather standard puzzles, like finding keys or levers, most of the puzzles are much more entertaining than those clichés.

Finally, a discussion regarding the combat itself is in order. This game has a slight learning curve in the area of combat. While it is often as easy as continuously clicking your left mouse button, it is more involved. As you proceed through the game, you are given multiple opportunities to gain experience points. These experience points lead to levels and after a certain number of levels you begin to develop new abilities. These abilities include various different offensive attacks, from shield bashing to the Zelda-like running sword dash. Simple hacking and slashing will find you dead rather quickly. It becomes important further into the game to start learning how to block. Some of your abilities require you to block before executing moves, such as the spinning slash which knocks down the enemies near you. Many of the enemies need to be dodged prior to attacking them, or else you will quickly find yourself dead after one or 2 collisions. You will also need to find the best combination of summoned allies to aide your character.

From the mercenary to the knight, each unit offers different advantages and disadvantages and I strongly recommend constantly shifting your tactics as you proceed, as certain allies will work better against certain enemy types. Perhaps the most underutilized of the units is the light summoning, it's a little flying dragon that basically lights up dark areas. It also tends to blind enemies during combat and is almost impossible to attack due to a high armor class. I have found that sometimes success relies upon waiting for the enemies to focus on your allies and then attack them from behind. Overall, despite some initial misgiving regarding playing this type of game on a keyboard with a mouse, I found that game to be fairly intuitive, once I had the right hardware at my fingertips. If you don't have a device like the Saitek Gaming Keyboard or the Belkin Nostromo, than I definitely recommend a gamepad for use with this game as the commands can be difficult without them.

Graphics
I have no doubt in my mind that Bard's Tale for the XBOX was considered to have been a very good looking game. It has some decent looking character models, and the lighting effects for magical abilities are also attractive. There is of course only one problem with this…..this version is the PC version not the console version.

Contrary to what I originally reported, the graphics and game resolutions can be tweaked for Bard's tale. You can move the resolution from 640 up to 1280 and this will improve greatly the graphics of this game. While not perfect, they certainly go a long way towards making this game look better. So while not perfect the graphics, when adjusted, will not detract from your enjoyment of this game.

Sound
The sound is where this game truly shines. Bard's tale features the voice of Carey Elwes as the Bard, a choice which helps set the tone for the entire game. With Elwes' personality at the wheel, we are treated to one of the more entertaining jobs of voice acting ever seen. The Bard is easily one of the funniest lead characters ever seen in a game. He is a strong dose of cocky and sarcastic with just the right amount comedic timing to make this game truly entertaining. The voice acting for the narrator often steals the show with some very well placed jibes against the bard. The narration also set up most of the spoofing of the RPG genre which occurs in this game.

The NPCs featured in this game are also well done, particularly in the area of the songs. This game features various songs which aside from being funny are also quite catchy. The trio of fellows who sing to you throughout the game about the bad luck you face are quite clever, appearing in an Oompa Loompa fashion to help advance the plot.

While the games does not allow for EAX support, it is still a wonderful sounding game with solid effects for combat and of course music for the notes of your instruments. With sound being such a strong part of this game, I am pleased to announce that it is presented perfectly and is one of the best things about this game.

Multiplayer
This game, like the console version features no multiplayer component and will not be rated for this feature.

Replay Value
Bard's Tale features various difficulty levels, as well as some unlockable features in the game, such as the ability to play all of the songs you hear in the game as well as some game art. There are various optional bonus areas in the game, as well as some areas featuring hidden doors that only a certain advanced explorer can find. The game is rather lengthy, featuring anywhere from 20-26 hours of gameplay depending upon how thorough your gaming habits are. This game also comes with the fully playable versions of the Bard's Tale 1,2,3 for the PC.

Conclusion
The game is somewhat of rarity in gaming these days, it's actually rather fun, and also comical. I have laughed more playing this game than I did playing Giants: Citizen Kabuto or the somewhat similar but also quite funny game Nox. Bard's tale is a parody of every convention to come out of role playing in some time. From the simple act of killing a rat and getting coins or weapons, the constant robbery of chests in people's houses this game leaves no conventions safe. The bard is constantly trying to bait his main enemies into fighting him right away, versus having to fight his way through a tower of henchman in order to reach them.

The wit present in this game is second to none and I honestly think this is what would have happened had Mel Brooks gotten into game making. I think this game is a solid action-adventure role-playing game, but it's also a very funny experience and worth playing through. In fact, for those who don't like these types of games or find them ultimately monotonous, the good news is that the game is funny and entertaining enough to be worth investing the time required to conquer the game.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I have not actually played through the original Bard's Tale RPGs, the inclusion of bard's Tale 1-3 in this game means that I will be able to finally remedy that. Buying one game and getting 3 full games included is always a nice touch, as is the bargain price of the game, $29.99.

While I would love to give this game a higher score, it did have issues which weighed it down. Certainly the graphics could have been cleaned up somewhat and the interface could have supported more hotkeys, which would have made my need for a gaming keyboard less necessary. Still for the price and the laughs the game is definitely recommended, if with reservations, to all fans of the fantasy genre.

Key High Points
• The game features an immensely funny and entertaining play-through
• Possibly the best voice acting ever used
• Diversity of goals and the way you accomplish them

Key Low Points
• The somewhat clunky interface is difficult to use without some type of game hardware
• The Graphics are clearly console quality and not up to par