Steven Scaife from Slant Magazine writes: "There’s a pub you might stumble across some ways into The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep where you’ll find a writer scribbling in his notebook. He grumbles that he’s writing a world of his own to whisk him away from the troubles of the one where he currently resides. Skara Brae, the Scottish-flavored fantasy realm of the original Bard’s Tale trilogy, as well as this successor from inXile Entertainment, has seen better days: cultists in thrall to an ancient evil wander the countryside, and a fanatical human-supremacist religion persecutes elves, dwarves, and other races. The writer hopes to dodge conflict by creating an escapist fiction of his own, one that he insists contains a better place devoid of knights or necromancers and 'dungeons or dragons.'"
With months of post-launch fixes and changes now in place, is Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep finally worth investing your time in? JDR picks up a lute and sings its verdict.
Bard’s Tale IV’s plot continues in the series’ pre-established universe. Its animated prologue tells a tale of two maddened gods, their brutish apes-turned-into-men, and their attempt to use their barbaric humans to wipe out the ancient races of elves and dwarves.The ancient races triumphed over these gods and sealed them into another realm. As expected though, you can’t imprison any god with lock or key. To prevent their return and to punish mankind, a human princess was enchanted to sing a spell to keep the evil deities contained for all eternity. Her song remained ironclad so long as it was continually sung forever. That, of course, is only what the stories say. The country of Caith certainly knows the legend. Already, three would-be conquers tried freeing the evil gods to win immeasurable wealth and power. Good thing then that they each were defeated by an assorted pack of puny heroes. That’s not to say another greedy bloke wouldn’t try again, and with the sudden violent persecution of non-human races it seems something’s rotten in the city of Skara Brae.
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