NerdishNerd

There's a lot to unpack here, so buckle up. First is the history of the game. Delayed, delayed, and delayed some more. At one point it was delayed for an ill-fated attempt at a VR game which supposedly was going to tie in to this. Somehow. It was never explained how nor was it ever tied in. There were also a few early previews for which feedback was given but never used. Which culminated in the first release over a year ago. Which, like this, imploded on itself. Various errors, numerous bugs, and InXile ignoring the Kickstarter backers who tried to warn them. Then the blame-game began. Most of it was aimed at the people who backed it. Really, such blame belongs at the feet of the director of the game, one Brian Fargo. He has yet to take any responsibility for the failure of the game, for how poorly it launched, and has yet to make any sort of apology for any of it. Instead us backers got this version of the game. And maybe, eventually some DLC. None of which makes up for the fact that this isn't the game that was promised in the campaign, nor for the game-breaking bugs of the first launch, nor for the aborted attempt of a launch. It doesn't go back and undo the fact that InXile ignored the feedback early users, that they changed focus several times during the course of developing the game (through launching new Kickstarters, shuffling staff around to cover on previous projections that were not yet completed, or bringing in new hires who had no idea what this project was about), or for blaming their customers for their own shortfalls. The long and the short of it is this: No one in InXile had any idea what to make of this game. Brian Fargo didn't direct, didn't lead, and certainly didn't seem to give a care about how this game turned out. And now, with a second bite at the apple, they've continued to fall short of any expectations that they set with the Kickstarter. To know this is the case, one need only look at the dated graphics, the lack of optimization in the game, and listen to the overproduced and muddled sound & voicing. All of it adds up to a secondhand product being pushed as a top of the line nostalgia hit. The original Bard's Tales game were about exploration and fun. This is about none of those things.