The Bard's Tale Review from The Tribune

'The Bard's Tale' attempts to parody 'dungeon crawler' games.

The Bard's Tale" is similar in look, play and feel to the "Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance," "Dungeons and Dragons Heroes" and "Champions of Norrath" games. It is a top-down dungeon crawler. Playing as the Bard, the gamer is on a quest to save an imprisoned princess through a vast world that contains evil creatures who want to destroy him.

Through the adventure, the player will collect various items, coins, weapons, artifacts and magical spells to improve the Bard's fighting ability. If this all sounds really, really familiar, it is supposed to be. The game is an attempt to parody the aforementioned games.

Through the game, the Bard actually will complain and argue with the narrator of the story about how predictable everything is. Each time he confronts a boss he interrupts the creature's monologue and cuts it short so he can get to the business of destroying it. While these differences, which poke fun at a lot of really good games is refreshing, I don't think the makers went far enough with it, which is why I only gave it three thumbs.

It seems like the makers didn't want to stray too far from the winning formula, so while the Bard's antics are cute, ironic and sometimes funny, they are not laugh-out-loud funny, which is what I was looking for.

There are a few innovations that I think were good and are worth mentioning.

First, the Bard summons warriors and creatures to fight for him by playing an instrument. Things like this have been done before in other games but not to the extent of "The Bard's Tale." The Bard's servants have a lot of variety and duties. Along with the straight-forward knight, heroine, bodyguard and brute-type creatures, there are a few really cool helpers to call on. The crone heals all the members of the party. The gouger sucks health from the enemy monsters. The elemental throws fireballs at the bad guys, which is really sweet.

My favorite is the explorer. He will wander around your area picking up treasure for you and setting off traps so you don't get stuck in them. I need this guy in every game I will ever play for the rest of my life.

Another nice thing about the game is when the player picks up items from chests and dead enemies they automatically are turned into coins rather than filling up your inventory and forcing the Bard back to some shop to sell it all.

In the end, I liked this game, but it just was not as addictive as the "Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance" or "Champions of Norrath" games.

Jon Britton can be reached at 232-2161, Ext. 366, or $mail:jbritton@amestrib.com$

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