At today's prices it can't hurt to give it a go.

User Rating: 8 | The Bard's Tale XBOX
I got this game just recently because I couldn't resist the idea of Cary Elwes and Tony Jay in a game together. It's proved to be worth what I paid ($8) but I'm not sure if I would have recommended it at it's full price. It's quite a so-so game, but it's an entertaining concept.

The graphics aren't particularly top notch, but there's nothing wrong with them either, I'm very used to the 360 at this point so they perhaps look a little worse to me than they should. I'm not fond of the camera angle, I think it gets a little hard to see enemies but it keeps close to the subject matter it's lampooning (ie Baldurs Gate). Still, environments look nice, the Bard has a cool looking character model (when you can see it well), it's really all up to scratch. There are some graphical glitches on the 360, but nothing major to speak of.

The combat in this game is not great, but it's a dungeon crawler and they always tend to get repetative. The summoning of allies can be quite interesting because it lets you fool around with various combinations to better suit the situation you're in. The sword combat is not great though and can be very very frustrating since the game has a difficulty curve almost akin to running headlong into a brick wall. Saves are fairly close together but you can still lose a fair amount of progress by dying.

The sound in this game is what's really great. Cary Elwes rocks hard as the bard (oh yes, I didn't even try to do that), he reallysuceeds in making an already interesting character even more appealing. The late Tony Jay plays the narrator of the story who hates the Bard and the two of them have some of the funniest exchanges of dialogue I've ever seen in a game. It is true that sometimes this game seems to think it's jokes are funnier than they actually are, but there are some real gems in there.

The story's quite typical really and I haven't finished the game so I won't comment much on it, but it's not really the story you'll play this game for, it's the comedy and novelty factor.

So anyway, I picked up this is game for cheap and I'm quite enjoying it, it has it's ups and downs but, as a greater reviewer than I once said (about a different game but my point remains valid) give it a chance, but I don't blame you if you end up trying to fire it into the sun.