I have played numerous RPG's in my life and I must say the Bard's Tale 3: Thief of Fate has been one of the outstanding I have ever played.
The Game play is simple, and character development is not overly complicated. Save for the introduction and bard songs, there is pretty much no other audio. The typical 1st person navigation window with a character stat window and dialogue box. Comparable to the SSI Gold box classics that every die hard role-playing gamer is obligated to endure.
With differences being with the actual combat scenarios when you have a third person overhead view of your party members with the gold box games.
Yet that does not take away the challenging and the addictive nature of the Game. I have pulled many all-nighters roaming around the dungeon and catacombs of Skara-Brae (ruins) developing my party’s power. Which is not easy, if you don’t pay attention you will die, especially at the lower levels. Not to mention the added difficulty anti-magic zones and numerous different kinds of traps. So save early and save often. That is just the start, once you think you have progressed nicely, forget about it. Further realizing, you really have not done anything. Your party has the pleasurable opportunity to explore
various dimensions with ever increasing difficulty.
When I beat the game on the C64 , I was actually disappointed because I loved playing so much. I scheduled my entire day around playing until exhaustion. You can be just one battle away from either being annihilated or discovering a cool item i.e. death drum.
Even better recruiting a pretty powerful NPC, the best one’s being healers that restore your entire party during battle. The bestiary is very large, so you’ll have a lot of opportunity for variety. Try to play the game with only six party members so you can do that, otherwise you’ll miss out. Bards Tale III: Thief of Fate has such replay value it really does not matter anyway. Each time you play you can use different races and classes, it creates a need different strategies. It’s like playing for the very first time.
I highly recommend playing this game if you like RPG’s! It’s a must have, I look forward to playing again along with TOF’s predecessors.
