The Bard's Tale III: The Thief of Fate is the final game in this first person, turn-based RPG trilogy of magic and monsters. The god Tarjan, thwarted in the first two episodes of the tale, revengefully reduces Skara Brae to ruins. You must now track him through seven dimensions to destroy him and rid the world of his evil intentions.

You can import characters from the two previous games, or create a new party of six from seven races and eight unique classes, although starting characters can later switch to five additional classes as they learn new skills and abilities. The game screen is divided into three sections: a graphical representation of your character's first person viewpoint, additional information in the form of text blocks, and statistical information about your party members.

In typical RPG fashion, characters advance by earning experience points by slaying monsters and finding powerful magic items to equip. In essence, The Thief of Fate is a larger and improved version of its predecessor, The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight. Unfortunately, the puzzles are less diverse, with most falling in the "find and use the appropriate item" or "cast the right spell at the right time and place" category.

Despite the somewhat weak storyline, the game delivers more than enough dungeon crawl gameplay to compensate, and as such, is ideally suited for fans of the The Bard's Tale series.

OVERALL RATING: 6 ~ Kyle Knight, All Game Guide