Currently playing: Nox Archaist

October 11, 2011

Bards Tale III - Not good enough

I have decided not to continue with my revisit to Bard´s Tale III. The short reason is that it is just not good enough relative to the time available I have to play these games. I would have continued for awhile if there where no other games poking for my interest. There are two major reasons that adversely affects the gameplay negatively and that is first and foremost the slow regeneration of spell points. I was warned about that when reading CRPG Addicts attempt to master this game but thought I would try it out myself. It might be that there is a way later on in the game to get hold of a spell regenerating staff but I won´t hold my breath for that.

The other reason which I might have been able to reluctantly accept, is the fact that you get into combat almost every three steps (including changing direction) in the catacombs. The Bard´s song that is said to prevent random encounters have no effect whatsoever as far as I have noticed. This make the progress very slow. The fact that the game boasts of 80 dungeons when I´ve only visited the second one makes me think I won´t be able to complete this game until next year. A thought not very inviting. Not the least due to the fact that Skyrim will arrive in around one month time.

I feel I have not played Bard´s Tale III for more than 8 hours and that is too little time to give it a fair review. I could, but I have already let it diminish at the expense of Crystal Dragon. If I compare it to Dragon Wars I can say that Dragon Wars is the better one of them. It is more polished, has a better story and is a more solid, complete game. What I don´t like about Dragon Wars though is that you have to go back and forth between places you´ve already visited and has to fight random encounters all the way which I really hate.

Another thing really annoying in Bards Tale III is the lack of any shop whatsoever. At least in Skara Brae. It doesn´t seem you can sell your items. You just have to drop them. Your gold could only be used to buy spells. Just like Dragon Wars you never know which weapon is the better one. You have to guess or try them out in tedious combats to find out statistically.

There are other CRPG:s that has grasped my interests also. I am right now putting my energy into Crystal Dragon but has already prepared to start up on Dungeon Master II. I wan´t to compare the two games with each other.

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