Completely unlike the classic Bard’s Tale games, this game is in a 3D environment with the player watching his only controllable character from an overhead vantage point, and it is better described as an action-adventure game than a traditional role-playing video game (i.e. there are no character classes or inventory management).
The player’s character, The Bard, has magic and weaponry at his disposal to complete the task. The more the player accomplishes, the better his skills will become. The appearance and gameplay is much the same as the Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance series, which shares the same graphics engine.
The game uses a “snarky or nice” system of dialog that allows the player to change the outcome of many situations by deciding how they want to respond. Some choices, such as being snarky to the dog at the beginning of the game, have game-lasting consequences. The first decision is whether to be nice or snarky to the barmaid in The Drunken Rat. Being nice to her gives her the impression the Bard’s a gentleman and she leaves him alone, being snarky ensures the Bard doesn’t spend the night alone. For example, near the beginning of the game you can find a dog. If you are nice to the dog he follows you for the rest of the game and gives you a few other skill options such as training it to fight. Also, you meet a farmer later in the game in order to obtain a certain quest item. He’ll only give you the item, however, if you choose to be “snarky” to him. Normally “nice” answers could get you better results when not dealing with female NPCs (with the exception of some cases like the former one). “Snarky” answers, however, are often more comical and entertaining for the player.
Source: Wikipedia, Game’s homepage
Minimum system requirements
Windows 2000/XP
Intel Pentium III 933MHz Processor
256MB RAM
GeForce FX 5200 or ATi Radeon 8500 Class Video Card
DirectX 9.0c
12X CD-ROM Drive
DirectX compatible Sound Card
6GB Hard Disk Space
Keyboard
Mouse
Recommended system requirements
Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz Processor
512MB RAM
GeForce FX 5700 Class Video Card
