Mount & Blade

Mount & Blade(PC)
- i played Warband only, but this review can be easily applied to both the original and "With Fire & Swords".


Story and Setting: 1/3
non existing story and quests so generic that they seem like they were takes from a MMO.
the setting is fictional medieval war torn world that serves as battlefield for 6 warlords.
nothing special.

Gameplay:
very interesting hybrid of a strategy (or at least tactics) with an action RPG.
i'll break it into the separate categories.

Personal Combat (a.k.a action) : 7/10.
standard go-to-someone-and-whack-him deal. with a twist.
you can attack in one of 4 directions (overhead strike, low strike, left/right strikes).
blocks work the same way, unless you selected automatic from the options. (i did).
you're supposed to observe your opponent, look for an opening and strike there.
sadly the AI is kinda dumb and easy to exploit.
another important factor is momentum. you'll do much more damage with your thrust of spear while charging on the back of a horse compared to waking backward, attempting to kite.
those two try to make the battle smarter then some button masher and succeed.. to some degree.

World Map, Leveling System and Party Mechanics (a.k.a strategy): 8.5/10.
You walk around the campaign map, and do.. whatever you want really.
want to be a trader? go around the cities and villages looking for goods deals.
want to be a bandit? raid the villages or the trader.
want to be a headhunter? go for the bandits and their loot. maybe pick a quest or two in town as well.
want to be a mercenary? enlist for one of the warlords and battles his enemies. if you're good, you'll be promoted and even made into a lord.
want to be an emperor controlling the whole world? .. you are playing Warband right? good. because otherwise you can't.

hire and train units, gain renown gain relationship with the lords of the land, the guilds and the commoners, gain experience from battles and quests and use those to tailor yourself and your companions to complete <i>your</i> goals.
the leveling system is simple but holds quite a few distinct playstyles and interesting skills. starting from simple melee combat and trade to strange things like inventory and prisoner management.


Tactics: 5/10.
you control your ever growing party (mine now has over 100 troops) by giving them simple orders in battle. charge. stand. follow. hold your fire. fire at will. fire at steve. ^^
the interface in clunky and and AI problems of your opponents apply to your allies as well.
one of my most used strategies is to put my units as a wall up front and the archers on the back. then when my enemies busy hacking the from line (not even thinking about flanking it) i just go and back stab all of them. few of them turn to face me, so i just avoid those and wait till my units get to them. (because if their facing me, their back is facing 100 raging knights).


Graphics: 1/2
outdated. but not outdated enough to make me care.

Replayability : ?/?
as there is no discrete goal (except for being king of the world, if you're playing Warband) it's hard to talk about replayability.
you'll pick the game. sink quite a few hours into it. then probably don't touch it ever again.


Final score: 7/10.
some great ideas. worth checking if you're interested in more realistic medieval combat simulators and interesting hybrid of 3rd person action game with a strategy game.
sadly, the fact that this one was made by a very small team is clearly shows. on the bright side. M&B2 was recently announced. they'll probably fix the limitations of the first game in it.
if the last sentence left you confused, you can think of Warband and With Fire and Sword as stand-alone mods for the original. they add lots of neat stuff but does not change its foundations.