I've played this and like what I see so far. It's a Dungeon Hunter style game for those that aren't as familiar with Baldur's Gate or Diablo. I haven't played this before on any consoles so have not real backround as to how it played or what it was like, so I'm basing this on the merit that it's an iOS game. Pros: + Good graphics, great sound and atmosphere. Dialogue is all spoken and is sometimes humorous + Controls work well - responsive and fairly intiutive + Seems like there is long gameplay - from what I've read, around 30 hours(?) Cons: - Text on Menu and in game menus is small - utilizes save points which are annoying if you have to exit - Tutorial doesn't seem to cover some of the iOS specific controls like using 2 fingers to rotate the landscape or pinch to zoom in out Other than this, the game itself seems to run fluid, but I don't think is optimized for Retina displays as far as I can tell. I honestly cannot comment on the deeper gameplay mechanics like leveling up, inventory as I've only just started. Seems like Inventory is icon/menu based and not like Dungeon Hunter where you can see everything you've accumulated. For what you get for the price, this seems like a very good deal. It's a full fledged game with some flaws given what it roots are. I can overlook these for a decent game and really my only gripe so far is the save system. I'll try to update my impressions as I get deeper and can experience more.
I have never seen somebody post so many posts claiming that they don't care or like the game, really?! If I played, let's say a hockey game, and some punk kept yelling "Boo! Hockey sucks!" I'm pretty sure he would get his teeth knocked out, but when you hide yourself behind a computer... Don't feed the troll! Great game, as good as I remember, keep them coming!
Thanks for the review... I think I have decided to grab it. I will post my own review after i give it a few hours of play. Edit: It might be a while... this thing is 1.34 Gigs!
Aw man I was just bragging that infinity blade 2 works great for me on iPod 4g and then I buy this game and guess what.......not working as of yet. Bummer as u really wanted to play this and relive some old memories form a good game. Here's hoping all these games we having trouble with get patched asap. Best of luck to you all. This game is hot though and worth te trouble if I get it working.
Played for a bit and have good impressions eniugh to recommend this. On iOS $5.99 for a game of the quality is a steal relative to what passes for "gaming" on the format egen with it's large file size. The controls are smooth with a virtual joystick on one side and attack/block/song buttons on the other side. The control layout strikes me as more sophisticated than most iOS products. For example blockage required timed shield taps. When attacking there is no lag. If anything the controls set up might be overly complicated utilizing a number of spell/song symbols that might require some memorization/recall. For songs there is an instrument button whih opens a series kf submenus to select melee/elemental/etc summons whi each seeming to have 4 classes kf items; an early unlock is the elemental spider. These seem to act as NPCs that follow and aid. To interact with non-destructive objects appeach and often a command box will display interaction option (i.e. talk). When talking to significant characters you can determine response style by selecting either happy of sad masks. At times early on the game feels too vocal and less interactive launching into gags that take longer than I prefer. I did nit find the humor to be too juvenile and there are some nice riffs in RPG cliches (i.e. rat in the cellar quest). I have an iPod Touch 3G so can't comment in high res or 2x but at the 3G level the graphics appear crisp and performancejs smooth so far. The initial cinematic is a little weak but all other dialog so far occurs by clean in-game animation. I had nit previously played Bard's Tale on any other format so can not compare.
Well I bought the game and installed it on my iPad 2 and my iPhone 4. Turned the Battery Saving option off on the iPad 2 to get the HD graphics you don't get on older devices and it makes a difference. Som pics: iPad 2 with HD http://db.tt/dIg1W11v http://db.tt/aEIlF9yj iPhone 4 http://db.tt/WorQn5tZ http://db.tt/ZhN9g9EI iPad 2 doesn't have the same issues with the menu. The words are easy to read and I don't see a problem with it. iPhone 4 is a little different, thoguh I don't find it as hard to read as some others in this forum. Graphics is certainly much nicer to look at on the iPad, and I'm guessing it'll be the same on the iPhone 4S as well? May not have retina smooth graphics on the iPhone 4, but it doesn't get in the way of the game. So far it's definitely worth the purchase.
I got this game this morning. My productivity has gone down the drain. Maybe I'm biased due to nostalgia, but I think this is the single best game in the App Store. Infinity Blade II, Zelda and Skyrim all can wait, I got to beat The Bards Tale! I was afraid this game would also be extremely choppy or sacrifice a lot in the port. At least in an iPhone 4S, the game is silk smooth and way better than the original game I played (PS2.) Edit to add: I will agree with a comment I have seen a few note in the thread: the small font can be problematic in the tiny screen. It seems the biggest issue is when you select a stat or item and it gets "highlighted" They seem to have added a border to highlighted text that messes with the tiny font. Would had been better with a shadow or glow for contrast than a border.
Do saves gate synced between the iPhone and the iPad? Can you play on your phone and pick up where you left off on the iPad? Also, would like to confirm that is runs full screen on the iPad and not letter boxed as it looks in some of the videos. Thanks!
On the online options there's a syncronize button, but it doesn't seem to do anything...the saves to sync or anything, maybe it's for something else? But I don't see any other option to sync save files. Maybe it's a bug they need to iron out like in Shantae's Revenge where the iCloud game syncing didn't work at first. It runs in full screen on the iPad...menus and controls are nice on the iPad as well. Only bad thing I don't like about the game so far is the horrible resolution of the intro movie, doesn't fit in with the rest of the game on the iPad where it's nice aNd crisp, but you get this really low res intro movie. Oh well, not a biggie.
My achievements are updating in Open Feint, but none of my achievements are updating in Game Center. Does anyone else have this problem? Also on my Game Center leaderboards there is no info on any players or myself that is updated, but there is on Open Feint
This isn't a console. This is a completely different gaming ecosystem. The prices are dramatically different here. $6-10 is a PREMIUM on the app store. IB2, although it is excellent, it's virtually and endless runner that starts over again after however long the gameplay is. The first was what, a 20 minute run through where you slash and dodge, move on, do it again, move on, fight big boss, die, start over. I play many games on XBLA And the PSN - $10 - 15 will get you some epic games. I bought Odin's Sphere for all of $10 on an ecosystem that requires a lot of licensing fees. But we are talking about the iOS platform, so technically none of that is relavent is it? This game is reasonably priced, but it's "expensive" in comparison to other games, and that's what it has to stand next to. You don't pay $60 for a DS or PSP game, or $60 for a wii game. If they released a game for that price, they'd be laughed off the block and not would flop. iOS, like it or not, is a platform that is best known for casual gaming under $4. To change it up over the last year or two is a hard sell for many people, because they are used to buying stacks of games to play, whereas now it is very different, so I don't have a problem with people having issue with pricing. It's expensive, relatively, especially if this is your exclusive gaming platform. On topic, I'm torn on buying this. I've just recently loaded up my iPad and console gaming plate with too many games that I am not playing. Oh, and for the record I don't have a problem with the premium prices. I'd like to see a few more reviews on this. I do like the style, but I'm interested in how it really controls.
Depends on the amount of content in the game really. No, I wouldn't pay a premium price for games like Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, or Infinity Field and can understand the cost argument there. But if, for example, Bethesda were to release Morrowind or Oblivion for iOS, I wouldn't think twice about paying 20 or 30 bucks. For a game that was a full-scale console game less than a decade ago, the price it is at is just fine IMHO. But considering that two other comparably priced games of similar quality were released at the same time (Black Ops Zombies and IB2), I can see why people are wanting to be a bit more careful about choosing which to buy.
The controls work quite smoothly, I haven't had any problem with them. Haven't had any stickiness, and even the in-game summon select screen seems fine to me. There are controls for your summoned pets too, and they're handled by swiping the screen. E.g. Swiping up makes your pet aggressive, swiping down makes him stop attacking. I thought that handled very well - and I'm pretty happy with controls overall. The humor is fine, I think. It's not laugh-out-loud worthy, for sure, but it's good enough for a quiet chuckle or several. Someone mentioned the fact they find it annoying, or something and all I have to say is - when the game came out, in 2004, the perception of things like breaking the fourth wall were relatively new. Sure, NOW everyone shrugs it off, but this is not a new game. What really impressed me are the little touches - the game starts off with you summoning a rat to scare a barmaid in a tavern. Later on, after the tutorial, you get to walk around the bar and if you summon the rat and walk up to the maid, she will say "I've seen that trick before". Summoning other creeps and walking around changes the responses from other bar patrons - and all this is fully voice acted. Oh, this has still been asked a lot - the uncompressed game is 1.68 GB.
It is more than properly priced when compared to Square Enix, Gameloft and Chair games. You dont just compare to every game in the ecosystem, you compare to games of similar quality in the ecosystem. Comparing it to everything in the store is the same as comparing the price of the latest Modern Warfare game with the price of casual PSN games.
Yea, I am a bit of an achievement hunting chick so it's a little disappointing. Enjoying the game though
I actually agree a lot with Gabrien's post and yours as well, and I don't have any issues with the cost of the game at all! I just think that if our devices were capable of having 128 or even 192gb of space, nobody would care about these size issues. With games constantly getting bigger, we simply need more room to put our stuff! To me, THAT'S the problem. Nobody wants to have to sit there and figure out which 40 apps that we like already to have to sacrifice for one big new game! The more room we have to play around with makes it easier to deal with. Apple needs to address that, IMO. I don't care how much more I have to pay for the next unit and I don't like the idea of 'renting' space in the 'cloud', either. And for now, since I don't want to delete so many things I want to keep, I won't be picking this game up though I liked it alot on the console.
Yes, actually that was my other point too: until Apple allows us 3 - 4 times more storage space on our devices, sending the message to devs that a 2gb iOS game is "ok" is just silly.
