On the 30th anniversary of the original Bard's Tale, what better time than now to go on an adventure worthy of song?

The Bard's Tale IV will feature labyrinths and dungeons chock-full of dangerous traps, puzzles, and challenges, as well as the winding streets of the city of Skara Brae and its outlying environments. Exploration will take place in the first-person dungeon crawler style of the original trilogy. With full rights to everything from the original games, the story of The Bard's Tale IV will center on a new Skara Brae built upon the ruins of the old, returning familiar gameplay concepts such as No-Magic Zones and Magic Mouths.

Utilizing the Unreal 4 engine, The Bard's Tale IV will also represent a graphical leap forward in the genre, immersing you in a highly detailed and lush world you'll want to map to its farthest reaches. The Bard's Tale IV enriches the setting from the original trilogy with Scottish culture, including a soundtrack inspired by Gaelic music.

This newest look at the game provides a thorough overview of its dynamic turn-based combat.

Tactical positioning can spell the difference between winning and losing in The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep. Every adventurer is equipped with active and passive abilities, making each a vital part of your band of warriors. You can use unique skills that synergize to create devastating combos: for example, Bards can sing songs to make enemies more susceptible to damage. Charged attacks offer another effective means to finish off enemies, but watch out, because they can be interrupted by foes with similar attacks. And that's just the beginning! As you travel through Caith, you'll discover new enemy types, offering uniquely different challenges that require new tactics. There are countless ways to turn defeat into victory depending on how you approach each situation.

inXile plans to use photogrammetry to create in-game 3D objects from photos of architecture, taken right in Scotland. With such detailed assets, The Bard's Tale IV will have intricate interactions, allowing for detailed physical puzzles in the game world, or while inspecting your own items in your inventory to find hidden compartments, latches, and more.

Of course, Skara Brae is not always a friendly place. The Bard's Tale IV will update the classic gameplay of the originals, featuring a dynamic phase based combat system. Combat will utilize the complex decision-making opportunities of traditional phase based combat, but with a constantly evolving enemy strategy and a pacing that keeps you on your toes.

Key Features:

• Return to a Land of Magic and Mystery: 100 years after The Bard’s Tale III: Thief of Fate, Skara Brae is once more in danger from shadowy forces. Recruit a party of renegade heroes and rise in defiance of the dark powers that be to save the world from its greatest threat yet
• Build a Team of Heroes: Assemble a party of up to six adventurers tailored to your distinct play style. Level up your companions and customize them with new skills and gear to survive
• Multi-level Tactical Combat: Fight cultists, goblins, giants, wraiths and other mythical creatures in turn-based battles that reward strategic positioning, clever thinking and masterful combos
• Delve Deep Into Deadly Dungeons: Journey to ancient ruins teeming with creatures, traps and mysteries. Unravel over 200 challenging puzzles and reap the rewards for your advantage
• Solve Riddles to Upgrade Your Weapons: Hunt for legendary artifact weapons whose true powers can be unlocked by solving the many clever puzzles etched into them

Fans can pre-order one of four special editions of the game, each including loads of exclusive bonuses, particularly guaranteed beta access for Platinum Edition owners and access to both the alpha and beta for Ultimate Edition owners.

The Bard’s Tale IV: Barrows Deep will launch for PC on Sept. 18, 2018, and is expected to arrive later this year on the PS4, Xbox One, Mac and Linux.