The Bard's Tale First Look

We didn't see it coming, but somehow the early months of 2004 have been marked by a glut of dungeon-crawling action RPGs. As of mid-February, we've already plowed through Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II, and Champions of Norrath. Amazingly, the latter three games are even powered by the very same engine, which gives them an awfully similar look and feel. We recently met with Interplay founder and current InXile Entertainment CEO Brian Fargo to check out an early version of his own dungeon-crawling action game, titled The Bard's Tale, which is a spiritual successor (if not a direct remake) of his classic series of PC RPGs.

Ironically, it was Interplay that spawned both the ubiquitous engine (for the original Dark Alliance) and most of the recent games in the genre that use it. Now that Fargo has moved on to found InXile, the company has licensed the same engine to build The Bard's Tale. But despite the apparent technological similarities to, say, the Dark Alliance series or Champions of Norrath, Fargo assured us that he's tired of the clichés of these games and mentioned that The Bard's Tale will aim to set the dungeon-crawling genre on its ear in every possible way. After a brief demonstration of the direction InXile is taking with the game, we're fairly confident that the company can pull off its admirable goal of making a dungeon crawler with humor and heart.

As you might have gathered from the game's title, The Bard's Tale will put you in control of a wandering bard who's thrust into adventure, though he's not entirely willing to have been so thrust. Fargo described the bard as a wisecracking, Han Solo-style antihero whose primary interests are wine, women, and song (not to mention making money). Unlike the heroes of many recent dungeon crawlers, who seem to be embarking on life-threatening quests for no better reason than because they're "the good guys," the bard will undertake his quest only when he sees the real possibility of personal gain.

InXile is aiming to give The Bard's Tale a humorous tone throughout the game, both in your character's attitude and in his dealings with other people--and in the various situations he'll encounter. For instance, one of the scenes that we saw had the fair serving wench of a local tavern asking you to tackle a rat problem in the cellar. The bard's interest in completing this minor quest seemed to us due more to the bodice-filling nature of the girl than any duty-bound sense of honor, but regardless, he descended the stairs and chased down a single tiny rat. In one anticlimactic slash, the rat was dead, and the quest was completed. Fargo assured us that this jab at rat-killing, as well as every other cliché that pops up in The Bard's Tale, is wholly intentional and will be taken to absurd extremes. This statement was borne out when the real rat problem--a massive, fire-breathing behemoth of a rodent--emerged from the shadows and proceeded to flambé our hero.

The Bard's Tale won't just upend the clichéd storylines of the dungeon-crawling genre; it'll attempt to refine some of the unwieldy gameplay conventions, too. For instance, Fargo talked about the tedium of menial tasks, like sorting through 20 pairs of leggings or returning to town midway through a dungeon to sell off most of the items that are crowding your filled inventory. This game will keep that from becoming an issue by automatically equipping a new weapon or piece of armor when you pick it up (if it's superior to what you're already carrying). Inferior items will automatically be converted to gold right there in your inventory--no extra trips back to town required. You'll also be able to switch between your various weapon categories (such as sword, heavy weapon, and ranged weapon) and magical abilities with an onscreen pop-up menu that will keep you from having to trudge through multiple layers of submenus to access everything.

Most dungeon crawlers emphasize a party system, which often allows you to play with one or more friends in your quest. Due to the character-focused nature of The Bard's Tale, you'll play only as the bard in the game, but he won't strictly be journeying alone. In lieu of a group of fellow adventurers, the bard will be able to use his musical prowess to summon a host of companions (human and otherwise). Some of these summoned characters will work strictly as combat aides, such as a fire elemental that torches enemies or a giant, oafish lout who hurls big rocks at enemies. Others will serve secondary purposes, such as a trap-finding old blind man who taps around nearby areas with his walking stick in an effort to locate and spring traps. As an example of the kind of character InXile wants the game to have, the old man will be comically flattened by any traps he encounters, and then, the next time he's summoned, he'll make some wry comment about your sadistic tendencies.

Fargo also spent some time discussing the way dialogue trees will work in The Bard's Tale. The characters in most action RPGs (and indeed, RPGs in general) will pose questions to you as you interact with them, but your choices rarely have a significant impact on the flow of the game. Rather, either choice will lead to the same outcome, or you'll simply be refuted and asked the question repeatedly until you deliver the "correct" answer. Not so in The Bard's Tale, which will allow you to respond to most queries as either a nice guy or a jerk. This has the immediate benefit of providing some entertainment value, but the game's designers want your dialogue to have a meaningful impact on the actual progression of the game as well.

The tone of your conversation will have very noticeable effects on subsequent conversation, as well as granting you (or robbing you of) the occasional special powers. One example we saw of this was the bard's encounter with a small dog at the beginning of the game. The player was given the choice of being nice to the dog or sending it packing, and after picking the nice option, the dog began to follow the bard around. Fargo told us that the dog would get stronger over time and would eventually become quite a capable fighting companion. However, if we'd been mean to the dog and run it off, it would've vanished for the rest of the game, and we'd have lost valuable backup. If the designers can pull it off effectively, this kind of branching gameplay ought to give the game a considerable amount of replay value, since your experience will vary greatly depending on your actions.

Though the build we saw was early, The Bard's Tale is looking good. Since it uses the same engine as Dark Alliance and Champions of Norrath, you can expect similar technical capabilities and a similar top-down perspective. The art design is skewing a little more toward the outlandish, though, as opposed to the serious D&D-style stuff you'll find in those games. One thing we noted was the way taller buildings and trees reach up to nearly touch the camera, which helps give the environments a noticeable sense of depth. Most of the voice acting and sound effects were simply placeholders in the demo, so we'll look forward to hearing how the final game shapes up. The Bard's Tale is slated to ship later this year, and we'll bring you more on the game soon.