Mount & Blade | Great Fun, But Definitely a Niche Game. Please Read

Mount & Blade | Revolutionary indie game, more value than any other in recent memory

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Mount & Blade

	Mount & Blade Windows \| Paradox, 2008 average customer review:based on 23 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great Fun, But Definitely a Niche Game. Please Read

This is without a doubt one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences in recent memory. However, having siad that, this game is probably only for a certain audience. My favorite game genres are RPG and Strategy that occur in either a medieval or fantasy setting. This game combines good elements of both. If you enjoyed the character development and FPS elements of Elder Scrolls Oblivion, then you will like this game. If you like the strategic elements of Medieval II Total War, then you will like this game. Granted, M&B doesnt go nearly as in depth into strategy as MTWII or similar strat sims, and M&B isnt as visually pleasing as Oblivion or similar RPGs, but it is a happy combination of both. Wouldnt it be great to raise an army in Oblivion and assault the imperial city, or fight along side your troops in MTWII. This game allows you to do those things. It is the complete fantasy. You can be the great general and the great warrior all in one.
So, if this review didnt make you foam at the mouth in anticipation of playing this game, then it is probably not for you. But for the those of you that can appreciate the elements this game brings together, this will be an all time favourite.

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Revolutionary indie game, more value than any other in recent memory

To be fair I have been playing M&B since it was in beta 0.610 or thereabouts. It was rough and unpolished then, but it was the first game of its kind, an incredibly immersive and fun steel-and-horses age combat simulator. I bought it immediately, and have never looked back.

This first thing that confuses people including off-the-cuff (Gamespot) reviewers is that this game is not Oblivion. Taleworlds went in a completely different direction, instead of rehashing the same formulaic crap that infests the game publishing world today, and they should be thanked for it. Instead, they get rated down for NOT being boring. This is not strictly speaking an RPG in the way that the industry thinks of RPGs. It is not strictly a strategy game. It is not a shooter. So what is it?

Mount & Blade is a great sandbox game, along the lines of Pirates!, but more interesting (to me, anyway). You get thrown into the game and from there can literally do whatever you want. The game does skew towards combat professions and goals, since its greatest strength is its combat engine, but you can be a merchant, a rebel, a vassal, a mercenary, even a tournament specialist. You can even do several of these things in sequence, defining the career of your character through your gameplay choices.

The combat engine is utterly magnificent. This is one of the rare games where you can come up with a solution to a problem by doing what you would do in the real world, and it works! On foot, you turn your body in the same direction as your weapon swing as you make contact, and you get an increase in damage. Duck in and out of striking range based on the actual length of the weapons you and your opponent are using. Stand on the high ground with your bow for a range advantage that you can see happening as your arrows take a natural dropping flight path. Get back up on the hill to slow the momentum of that gyu riding down on you, step to his blind side, and chop his horse out from under him so you can brain him while he tries to get back up. This is a lot more immersive and gratifying than spending points on various melee skills and hitting control buttons for special moves over and over again while standing in one place.

The political and economic systems in vanilla (un-modded) Mount & Blade are simple, but they work! Build up friendships with local lords by doing stupid errands for them if you like, or else catch them in combat with a superior force and run in to save their bacon, which they'll be grateful for. Build favor with the ladies of the court so they can funnel bribes for you to lords who mislike you. Gain enough renown and favor with your liege to be put forward as a candidate for Marshall, but make sure you can curry enough votes to win the election. Burn local villages to prevent enemy lords from recruiting there, and kill their caravans to stagnate their city's economy.

I have seen lack of a concrete storyline mentioned as a weakness in some "professional" reviews. The game lacks a storyline because it's not supposed to have one! There is a background, there is an ongoing political dynamic, but you create your own story. Honestly, I don't understand the point of "story" based games where you walk through in a linear fashion, click some buttons, and listen to some voiceovers. To me the last great story-based computer game was Fallout, which also incorporated a sandbox play style as part of its dynamic, in addition to some really great lore. Nowadays, if you really want to follow a storyline, you can probably find better and longer-lasting ones in different media. Books, for instance. (If you lack the imagination required to have a rewarding experience reading a book and prefer the multimedia experience brought to you by some hack writing computer games, there is always television.)

The most important thing to me about Mount & Blade, though, is that it captured my attention back then, and still does. I spend many nights not going to sleep because there's one more siege I want to pull off, or one of my rebellion faction lords who needs help, or some juicy enemy caravans waiting to be plundered. I would rate its replayability along the same lines as the original Civilization when it came out (and I basically wasted six months of my life on that). Not many games nowadays can even capture my interest, let alone hold it for longer than a couple of days. It's just that much fun.

There are a lot of videos of M&B gameplay on YouTube, and some of them are mine:

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I can't stop playing this!

I got this game 3 months ago and I'm still playing it with every free hour I get. Mind you I have a career and a family so that's not exactly saying a lot, but it's been a long time since I had this much fun and kept with a game this long.

I agree with many of the other reviews on this site - like any other game this isn't for everyone. However there is a free demo and absolutely no reason to pay if you don't want to. As soon as I hit the level limit I paid for the full game without hesitating one second. The "DRM" simply limits you to 2 activations per month.

What can you expect?

I'd call this a "medieval action RPG". It is an open sandbox type of game like Pirates! You're free to roam the world doing whatever you like and there is no central story arc. There are also no classes, but you are best served by choosing to augment your own chosen skills with NPCs you add to your party and whose skills/equipment you control. It's strictly medieval in the setting with no magic or any other fantasy element. The heart of game is medieval combat and as the title implies mounted combat is a key aspect.

There is a limited strategy aspect in the extent that you can offer a few battlefield commands to up to 3 categories of participants (infantry, archers, cavalry). Commands are fairly simple (stay here, move up, move back, follow me, charge, dismount, mount, use blunt weapons). There are mods that allow more complicated formations and commands, in addition to many other types of tweaks or even alternate worlds. Each of the different kingdoms has different troop specialties that may require differing tactics or use of terrain. They are fictional but you can easily see that they are based roughly on these cultures (English/French, Russian, Mongol, Viking, and Southern Europe).

The graphics are slightly dated, but still very well done with every village, castle, and town being completely unique. There is a spartan 3D map for moving around the game world. You then drop into a real world first person perspective for battles and exploring towns, villages, and castles. There are a variety of equipment options for playing dress up with your dolls... er character and NPCs.

Combat will take a little time to master your weapons and timing - but it's an absolute blast!

I'm on my 3rd character now and found a great deal of replay value in trying to build a different type of warrior and seek a different role in the world.

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Great fun, but know what to expect

This game is great fun, and that's from an older player who's hopeless at 'real-time' combat. It's still a hoot to charge into battle on a horse, using any of a large variety of weapons. Or to storm a castle. Or defend your own. (And at lower difficulty levels, even I can succeed.)

But please understand that medieval combat is the whole point. Yes, there are other parts to the game, but they're not well developed. Not bad, just not implemented anywhere near as well as the 'real-time' (I hate that phrase) combat.

There's also no story. You can - and should, eventually - join a faction and help them conquer the world, but the game is quite open-ended. Combat is the clear focus here, so this IS a niche game. But given that, it's superbly done.

There's a great fan community, too, which means mods and tweaks (and bug fixes) from other players. Independent game developers are doing the best work these days, and I'm willing to grant them some slack, since they don't have the resources of the huge gaming companies. But really, this game doesn't need that. I'm amazed at what they've accomplished here.

This game won't appeal to everyone. So, if you're not sure, then download the demo (which is actually the complete game, so it's a LONG download) and give it a try before buying. It's a niche game, but it is VERY well done. I'm not crazy about 'real-time' games (still preferring the old turn-based games of years ago), but this is just FUN!

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reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4, 5

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