The Bard's Tale App Reviews

Ive played this game on the Xbox, PC, iPad and now OSX! I specifically bought it to support the further development of the franchise -- but the efforts of the iOS and OSX teams are an extremely welcome surprise! Using iCloud features to make the saved games portable is original and a great example of what teams could do with Apple technology. This is NOT just a simple port. I hope more teams/developers/publishers see this and realize what they could do (even with their old C code-bases). Fortunately, I have not seen the issues that others have reported -- due to using my iCloud saved games (which are well past the reported issues). But, I cant imagine this team letting these issues rest long. Bravo.

Love the satire. This game openly makes fun of many of the quirks of the fantasy rpg genre (things that we seem to accept without thinking about, but that really make little sense). For some reason, I am not getting the bug that everyone else seems to get. The response icons show up for me, and I never had to use the work around. I wonder if it has something to do with my screen resolution. I am using an 11" macbook air (2010 model), have all of the settings on high, and it plays without any problems. On another note, I wish that there was an option to use WASD for movement (instead of camera control). I find the current click-to-move controls to be anoying, especially when in battle. Since a right-click is used to attack, it is virtually impossible to move backwards and fire a bow at an enemy at the same time. Using a sword is similarly frustrating. I have gotten used to it, but wish it were different.

I have both the Mac version and the iOS version. The ability to save your game to iCloud on one device and pick up where you left off on the other is a great feature. However the controls are different enough to cause confusion for a little while. The other difference is that the iPad version includes the original 3 games not included in the Mac version. However they do say that they may be available in a future update. There are several bugs that need to be worked out. The first one came up less than 5 minutes into the game. You have an interaction with an NPC and there is no way to have a dialogue. A little research show that this is a known issue with some video cards and there is a "cheat code" on their web site that is a "work around" until a patch is released. It does work but now I get flickering. Another bug is this thing seems to be a huge memory hog. After about an hour of game play thing slow down and the graphics get slow and jerky. It helps to close all other apps but I have a late 2009 i5 iMac with 16 gig of RAM and that should be enough memory for anything. My Macbook Air fares even less. I have a 2010 Macbook Air with 4 gig of memory and a 256 gig SSD and the game is pretty much unplayable. Slow, jerky graphics, and the same "work around" is required. This is a bit odd because everything else is smooth and fast because of the SSD. I gave this one 3 stars because it is a fun game but unless you are going to get the iOS version and want to play on both devices then I am not sure that it is worth it. $9.99 is a bit steep when there are other, less buggy games for the same or less. I am hopeful that they will get everything worked out quickly.

really good game, the dialog is very funny and the adventures of the bard are quite amusing

I liked the game played through no with only minor problems on Macbook Air. I wish they would include the original games on the Mac version would be great to play them on the Mac. I have all three originals still from my younger years. Just no machine to play them on.

Well its a great game but with the newest update my game save is now missing and iCloud saving is greyed out. Hope my game save is up in the cloud but Im not about to start the game from scratch again. If they dont fix this I want a refund as Im not about to start over again and at this point Im not playing it.

This game is FUN from the get-go. It lives up to the billing of humor and satire, without breaking character. In-game tutorial is nice, but would be better to have a MacOSX manual available. The IOS page on the web site helps but little.

Fun game to play and I did for about 3 days after which I installed the update and it wiped my previous save game data… Great fix guys… NOT!!! Hope most of the bugs are now smoothed out as I play the first half of the game AGAIN! Good thing its an amusing game but still… annoying!

I am a major Bards Tale fan. I had it for the PS2 years ago and loved. So I got it on my iPad the day it came out, and have been waiting for it to either hit the PS Network or here. So I got it for my MAC as soon as it was available, desipite the poor reviews that mentioned glitches. But now with the update my saved progress is gone. I do not want to have to go back and run around in that first forest over again. If it is not fixed Ill be looking for a refund

i am running on leopard and as soon as i start the game it "quits unexpectedly" please reply...

Sorry developers, but this game runs a little too slow … Should be 2 bucks instead of 10 Is a good Idea… but I wish I could get some kind of refund. :)

I love this game. It is entertaining. I wont try to dazzle you with technical stuff. I remember the old BT games on my C64, and this is a good continuation. Great job.

The controls are not very intuitive, but whatever. The big problem is they often dont work. I have to right click over and over and over before the stupid bard moves. This makes fights a losing proposition: you just kind of stand there and get pummeled while you slash aimlessly because you cant do much else.

Others have said the same, but I just want to post another review to make it very clear that the control issues are very problematic. In particular movement relies on secondary click, which becomes cumbersome on trackpads. If you intend to play with a mouse, I think it would be easy. Also the lack of labels on the UI combined with lack of manual makes it a bit obscure. Surprisingly slow even quad core MBP 15" with 8 gig of memory.

A simple yet stimulating RPG. This is no Diablo or Torchlight, but there are certainly enough abilities, weapons, quests, secret areas, etc. to keep you entertained for ~20 hours of gameplay. I played it on the PS2 years ago and am pleased to see it has been adapted for OS X. As previous reviews have noted, movement controls rely on right-clicking so a USB mouse is a must. The story seems a bit cliche at times, but the game thrives on satire and that is often the point. As for performance, the game runs smoothly on my stock 2011 MacBook Pro with Intel HD 3000 graphics with all graphics settings on medium. If I try to turn up the graphics settings, the game lags consistently. The graphics are not dazzling by todays standards but the game is certainly playable and enjoyable.

This would be a 3 star game for $50, but for $10 its (almost) 5 stars. Some people are complaining about the controls. I dont see a problem with the controls. Certain actions & spells can take up to 3 key strokes, but it pauses the game after the first one. The main problem that keeps them from getting 5 stars in my opinion with this game is the cutscenes. There are a LOT of cutscenes. The problem isnt with the cutscenes themselves, but wiith the transitioning. It takes 4-5 seconds to transition into a cutscene (as the camera SLOWLY zooms in from the overhead view to the speakers face), and then another 4-5 seconds to transition back out to the playable game (as the camera SLOWLY zooms back out to the overhead view again).

I played for about an hour and its enjoyable -- the voice acting is pretty good and the writing is better than most games with some actual laugh-out-loud moments. The streamlined loot collection is a nice touch, though I spent a very confused few minutes at first trying to find the diary Id just picked up (presuming Id find some hint in it about killing the rat) and the map is unobtrusive yet easy to use. In short: the creative side of the game is very well done. But the actual gameplay is lousy. The interface is clunky, its downright tedious to "run" through the large maps (also, the running isnt smooth, which makes it even more painful to it through), and finally I hit a bug where it keeps making my character move up on the screen when Im not pushing anything, leading to an endless loop with a shopkeeper that I eventually had to force-quit out of. At that point, though, I was more than ready to stop playing and go do something else. Its just not worth fighting through the slow clunky interface. Ill give it another try when its next updated, but for now its just not working for me.

I liked the idea of the game - I like RPGs - I thought i would love this one…not so much. Very hard to get around, kill enemies, glitchy all over the place. I tried giving this game a chance - I played almost 5 hours, but I just gave up after dying so much because my character ether would not shoot or would get stuck in a glitch. If I could rate this game out of 10 I would give it a 6 at the most. Very unsatisfied - wish I could get a refund for this game.

"Acting" is entertaining, interface easy but a bit cumbersome. HATE the puchasing of in-game items with cash that are not available with regular play.

i bought bards tale for mac on sale for $2.99 and i now comes with the original bards tale 1 from the 1980s with bards tale 2 and 3 from the original trilogy to be added soon and i can game on the mac and continue on my ipad and vice versa! excellent graphics and good gameplay. a good rpg on the mac.