Not many realize it, but it’s true: The Bard’s Tale is one of the oldest franchises in gaming history. The dark-humor adventure/RPG began as a 1985 Apple II title under the direction of Michael Cranford with help from Brian Fargo, and Fargo has carried the torch ever since. In fact, the series has more or less returned from the dead twice: first as a hack-and-slash action-RPG for PS2 and Xbox in 2004, and then again for PC via Kickstarter in 2015 for The Bard’s Tale 4

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That Kickstarter was successful, and now The Bard’s Tale 4 is coming along quite nicely. I got a chance to play a brief alpha demo build, which showcased the Unreal Engine 4-powered visuals (a far cry from the Apple II’s sprites!) and a bit of its humor, but paid particular attention to the combat system. It’s structured similar to a turn-based tactical RPG, with a grid dictating which spaces your three party members can move to and attack from.Naturally, certain attacks have different ranges, so you’ll need to shuffle your heroes around to put them in position to do damage and in position to avoid it. It took me a battle or two to get the hang of it, but before long I was casting spells with my mage before moving her to the back of the grid, and stepping into the face of my foes with my fighter’s two-squares-straight-ahead axe attack while using one turn to power up my third character’s spells. Bad guys come in waves, meaning a battle isn’t necessarily over nearly as soon as you might’ve thought. They’ll also cause bleeding damage with their arrows, which led me to hide my wounded in the back of the party, where I could administer to their injuries.But Bard’s Tale 4’s combat isn’t its only trick. It’s also got environmental puzzles – there’s one in the alpha demo I played where I had to combine gears together in the right way in order to unlock a door, and it’s the very first thing you come to – and it teases its humor, too. I came to a guy with a knife stuck through his eye who needs help extracting the blade. Hilarity ensues.For now, The Bard’s Tale 4’s release date is still a semi-vague “2018,” but from the gameplay demo I played, it would seem like Kickstarter backers’ money is being put to good use. I’m eager to see a more fleshed out version of the whole thing, including and especially the series’ trademark dark humor.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Plaforms. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan , catch him on Unlocked , and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.