Whatever your emotions on The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrow’s Deep (and opinions had been all over), you possibly can’t deny that InXile’s puzzle-heavy RPG might have used a pair extra months within the oven. Probably for the perfect, then, that they’re relaunching it subsequent month. Due on August 27th (and as a free improve to anybody with the unique launch), the Director’s Cut was as soon as generally known as the v2.zero replace, an overhaul that they’ve been teasing for some time, however appears to have grown past their authentic plans. Below, a trailer exhibiting off the extra polished (however nonetheless offbeat) puzzle RPG.
The Director’s Cut model will add a brand new late-game chapter for high-level characters to flex on, and the remainder of the game sounds bulked up a bit in most regards. They’ve executed a variety of work on the UI, added extra character creation choices and added full gamepad assist, which I feel may match the game properly. InXile boast of “thousands of fixes and improvements”. I consider them – they’ve executed comparable re-releases to this earlier than. The Director’s Cut version of Wasteland 2 was a big enchancment over the unique, too. Personally, I simply need extra intelligent puzzle-dungeons.
While nearer to its supply than that garbage ‘comedy’ hack n’ slasher bearing the Bard’s Tale identify from 2004, the fourth game was nonetheless a distant cousin to the genre-defining RPGs that impressed it. With small-scale battles, an offbeat script and puzzle-heavy dungeons that felt a bit like a mixture of Legend Of Grimrock meets The Witness, a variety of old-school followers ended up bouncing off the game. Still, it discovered some followers, even when it took a number of patches till it discovered its personal place. Perhaps with this new model launching on a number of platforms, it’ll discover a wholly new viewers.
The Bard’s Tale IV: Director’s Cut launches throughout Steam, GOG and the Windows Store on August 27th, and shall be a free improve for current homeowners and £25/€35/$35 in any other case. It’ll even be arriving on Microsoft’s PC Game Pass subscription, so when you don’t personal it, that’s one method to strive it low-cost. You can see a bit of extra on its official page here.
