A Land of Bastards! (Swords...) – M&B Warband
Now, Mount and Blade was not popular for its Graphics, nor its story (Seeing as it doesn’t really have one...) but what made it extremely popular was its amazing freedom not only to do whatever, and literally WHATEVER you want.
Now if you played it before, you will tell me I am a liar or very weird. Well, that was not its only great selling point. The truth is, what made M&B shine was its amazing Moddability. There were mods for nearly everything, from China during WWII to the Napoleonic era M&B had such variety that most owners poured hundreds of hours into it! But I never really had the complete experience, I was to late and missed the bandwagon. But what I was in time for was its so called ‘Sequel’ Mount and Blade : Warband. Would it live up to our expectations? Is t really a sequel, or just a tiny addon?
Read on to find out!
Factions/Backgrounds
Mount and Blade Warband is set in the fictional land of Calradia, home to 6 very different countries and in varying landscapes each faction consists of 1 ruler, 1 claimant and about 20 vassals.
First up we have the ‘Kingdom of Vaegir’ a large snowy wasteland ruled by, what it looks like, normal Europeans inspired my Eastern traditions. For instance, they seem to dress and fight like the Russians did during the Medieval Periods.
Vaegir = Russia
Secondly, we have the Nords. The Nords take a lot of inspiration from Norse (Hence the similar name) and warriors like the Vikings. You can easily tell seeing as they are illustrated in Longboats and have armour and fighting styles similar to those of Norsemen and also have NO cavalry whatsoever.
Nord = Viking
Thirdly we have Swadia, which seems to be a hybrid of Britain and France. They sport very heavy cavalry (having the best Knights of the game) and prefer Crossbows over that of anything else.
Swadia = Western Europe
Next up we have the Rodok. They come from a Mountainous region similar to Switzerland and sport Heavy Pikemen, no Cavalry, and Crossbows. They seem to be heavily influenced by Swiss Mercenaries.
Rodok = Switzerland
Then there’s the Middle Eastern based faction of Khergit Khanate. Seeing as I don’t know much about the middle east I cannot pinpoint the exact country. They have few to no infantry at all and have very light cavalry, there cavalry mainly consists of Horse Archers and Lancers.
Khergit = Middle East???
And lastly, we have the, what seems to be, the Arabian based faction of Sarranid Sultanate. They mainly sport Heavy Cavalry and Heavy Infantry and are settled in the desert area of Calradia.
Sarranid = Arabia
7/10 – Extremely interesting factions, especially when you get to know all the Characters.
Gameplay
Gameplay in Warband varies from riding around pillaging villages to selling and buying delicate furs from different cities to profit, there is ALOT of things to do. Basically you start off after creating your unique character with a bit of equipment, some food, and basically nothing to do (Other than an optional starting quest.) So what do you WANT to do? First off you would want to ride around to different towns gathering troops in the cartoonish over world, perhaps fighting off a few bandits and looting them! So like any RPG you level up your character giving them different skills and attributes. But one thing I don’t like about most RPG’s is when youve played a certain character SO much, they become basically indestructible.
Then there are the battles. They have fairly simple controls and are pretty fun. Mostly just riding around cutting of peoples heads, while shouting orders to your Army, then that reminds me, possibly one of the GREATEST features of all is the fact that you can have as many people in your party as you want! Obviously you will need to have the skill of ‘Leadership’ high or have a decent amount of renown (How well you are.) Currently, my highest level character in Warband can have around 150 soldiers. Then I have an old file in which I used cheats, I had around 240 soldiers in my army.
There are quite alot more features, this includes making your own Kingdom and being able to explore cities! Really the possibilities are ENDLESS.
9.5/10 - Really where this game shines!
Presentation
Sound in Warband really ISNT great but it gets the job done! The music track I believe is originally composed for the game, its a pretty nice and soothing song, but once you play the game aslong as I have. You just want to turn the music OFF. Now to Graphics, well, this is one of the games where certain textures are amazingly shiny and beautiful, and others are just plain PATHETIC. This is really sad considering its a 2010 title...
6/10 – Gets the Job done, but still kind of meh.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer in this game is very fun, From defending an entire castle to being given orders in a line battle, the Multiplayer can be very satisfying when you have a good team. Nothing is more fun then being at the front of the battle with your team mates slashing mens arms off or decapitating prisoners. Or just mowing downh hordes of enemys from an Archers tower, Warband multiplayer is VERY addictive, but even then STILL not the Highlight of this game.
7/10 – Great and very Innovative Multiplayer
Replay Ability
The replay ability for this game is really amazing, I am only on my third character and I have played this game TONNES! Theres just so much to do! Really, you could spend an entire play through just trading! Even TRADING is fun. Even after you have made your own faction, you truly won’t want to stop playing until you (or your faction) is in control of ALL Calradia.
Final Verdict
Mount and Blade Warband is an addictive and extremely fun game, though it only adds a a few new features, it is STILL worth the buy and an excellent game either way. From great mods to Playing with friends, Mount and Blade Warband gets a Solid Score of
7.25/10
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: