So - Bards Tale series - good games for their time. At least for BT1 so far.Īnd not being able to save at anytime - I am not going through all that again - don't have the time to lose hours to gaming with no progress to show - it's not the eighties. The encounters system was great when wanting to level up and gain XP but made you want to smash the PC when trying to get somewhere quick. So, a bit surprising the BT series not mentioned but are they better than any of the games listed - of the ones I know and have played - no. Then you have Dungeon Master in 1987 producing a first person experience that was even called "Dungeon Master" - what could beat that? I remember spending a lot of time on a game called Alternate Reality (AR) - The Dungeon which knocked my socks off at the time (1987). Ultima IV was published in 1985 and Wasteland in 1988 just kicked them out of the water giving enhanced gaming experience. I am afraid even in their own era - in my opinion the BT series could not match progress and development happening elsewhere. How about those Chronomancers? Entering those Temples in BT1 and seeing the hooded monks with their creepy chanting was enjoyable.īT1 was published in 1985 and I think the only game on the top 71 list published before then is Wizardry 1, from 1981. Of the trilogy I preferred BT3 - seems more scope to develop your characters and more space to explore. Recently bought the new Bards Tale with the sole purpose of going through the original trilogy again - at the moment I have nearly completed BT1 but due to PC crashes can't seem to progress any further - oh those memories fighting 99 Berserkers or 99 Skeletons etc. Out of the top 10 list published I would have put Morrowind first then then Fallouts 2 and 1. Was quite interested in the RPG all time top list and very keen to see the possible follow up book being produced. Ultima IV (1986) was the first of that series I owned. Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge (1990) was the first of those series I tried and Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen (1992) the first M&M. I purchased Bards Tale 1 to 3 as they were published. What the heck was a Bard anyway? He could use a horn if you found one and wasn't a great fighter - quite a liability if you ask me. Rolling characters for the first time on screen - wow, that was incredible. It was in that game that I first saw things like ST, DEX, Monk, Paladin, Scarlet Monk, Doppleganger, Jabberwock etc. Although there was the odd graphic action adventure - Knightlore for example. I had the BBC B computer before that - most adventure games on that machine were text based. The Bards Tale 1 (1985) was probably the first computer RPG I played - that was on the C64. If inXile decided to make another BT game as a kickstarted project - and the recent spate of blobbers/crawlers ala Grimrock reveal there is still an audience for these games - I think they could do pretty well with it. Overall, though, a pretty fucking awesome game. And finally, the randomized encounters could get ridiculous. ![]() For example, to this day I don't know why a Paladin was better than a Fighter, or vice versa. And there was no clarified benefits to using certain classes. There was no real way of knowing how great a weapon was except for looking at the gold value. The game punished you for recklessness, which is something you don't see very often. Even back then, the dungeons were incredibly hard, and good portions of the game were essentially spent grinding out levels so you could go through the dungeons and actually survive. ![]() If anything, it is that last piece that made it a sort of impenetrable game for a lot of people. It was the pinnacle of a dungeon crawler for its time, and light years ahead of any other game on a variety of fronts: better graphics, a "3D" interface, and a difficulty curve that was nothing short of punishing. Like some other people, I played the Bard's Tale on a Tandy (1000 HX) and loved the crap out of it.
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