''The Mage's Tale'' is a first-person

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...

dungeon crawler A dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games in which heroes navigate a labyrinth environment (a "dungeon"), battling various monsters, avoiding traps, solving puzzles, and looting any treasure they may find. Video games an ...

role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...

developed and published by

inXile Entertainment inXile Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and a studio of Xbox Game Studios based in Tustin, California. Specializing in role-playing video games, inXile was founded in 2002 by Interplay co-founder Brian Fargo. The studio ...

in partnership with

Oculus VR Reality Labs is a business of Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook Inc.) that produces virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) hardware and software, including virtual reality headsets such as Quest, and online platforms such as Horizon W ...

. It is a spin-off of ''

The Bard's Tale ''The Bard's Tale'' is a fantasy role-playing video game franchise created by Michael Cranford and developed by Brian Fargo's Interplay Productions (1985–1992) and inXile Entertainment (2004–present). The initial title of the series was ''T ...

'', set before the events '' The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep''. It is inXile's first

title.

Gameplay

''The Mage's Tale'' is a first-person

. Gameplay centers on exploring subterranean passages, solving puzzles, and fighting enemies. Unlike other games in ''The Bard's Tale'' series, ''The Mage's Tale'' focuses on a single character and class, a

mage Mage most commonly refers to: * Mage (paranormal) or magician, a practitioner of magic derived from supernatural or occult sources * Mage (fantasy) or magician, a type of character in mythology, folklore, and fiction *Mage, a character class in s ...

. Combat is real-time, using physical gestures to throw spells, and a magical shield to block incoming attacks. The game makes use of a deep spell-crafting system that allows players to mix various ingredients to create different effects. These ingredients affect the element, behavior, and strength of spells. ''The Mage's Tale'' makes use of both free movement and a teleport mechanic for locomotion. Movement is step-based, and confined to four directions, similar in feel to grid-based dungeon crawlers, but without being limited to a grid-based map. This allows players to navigate and dodge in real-time, but the short bursts of movement help to mitigate the sim-sickness suffered by some with smooth movement.

Development and release

''The Mage's Tale'' was developed in parallel with '' The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep'', and the two projects share some assets. Development took place at inXile's

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

studio, and was fully funded by

. The two titles were developed by separate teams, but share some assets and tools. ''The Mage's Tale'' was released on June 20, 2017, exclusively for Oculus Rift, with plans to bring the title to "platforms other than Oculus Touch" in the future.

Reception

''The Mage's Tale'' received mixed reviews upon its initial release. Aggregate review site

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

lists a score of 72, indicating "mixed or average reviews". At the time of release, ''The Mage's Tale'' was notable for its length and depth compared to other VR-exclusive titles.

UploadVR UVR Media, LLC (formerly UploadVR, Inc. and Upload, Inc.) is an American media company that operates ''UploadVR'', a virtual reality-focused trade publication website. The company was founded as UploadVR in 2014 by Taylor Freeman, Will Mason, ...

awarded ''The Mage's Tale'' an 8/10 or "Great" score, citing its "engrossing 10+ hour long adventure" and "addictive spellcrafting system" as well as the many boss fights.

PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...

's Tom Marks touted the title as "one of the first VR games I've played that feels like the full package," but lamented the lack of strategic depth compared to more traditional dungeon crawlers. VRFocus awarded the title 5/5 stars, again citing it as one of the few RPGs of its size and scope available in VR. ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'' reviewed it negatively, praising its tone and environments while criticizing its shallow puzzles, repetitive combat, nauseating movement, and dialogue.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mage's Tale, The 2017 video games Role-playing video games Single-player video games Fantasy video games Windows games Windows-only games InXile Entertainment games Video games developed in the United States Virtual reality games Oculus Rift games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation VR games