Mount & Blade - PC
Taleworlds Site
Introduction
It's hard to pigeon hole Mount & Blade into any particular genre as it's a hybrid of strategy, RPG and first/third person hack and slash. Set in the medieval semi-fictional (not fantasy) land of Calradia, you are pitched into this adventure with nothing but a trusty steed and a sword at your side. Through a combination of questing, trading, political intrigue and not a little fighting, you build up an army and take control of...well, whatever you want really.
And that's the confusing thing at the start, because it's all open ended and you've given very little direction what to do. But once you've broken out of your one-track WoW mindset and start thinking for yourself again it becomes almost liberating to be that monkey, and go anywhere.
Gameplay
The main view is a semi-realtime map populated with towns, castles and villages. The game pauses whenever you stop moving or enter one of these locations to allow you time to think, which is good because there's alot going on. The 5 NPC factions (6 if you include the roaming bandits gangs) all have their own armies and agenda and can be seen enforcing their will on other happless NPC's as you move about Calradia. Trade caravans trade, robbers rob, bandits rape and pillage, and peasants get fucked by pretty much everyone.
When you enter a town, village or battle the game switches to a first/third person view, controlled with the same standard WASD/Mouse combo as any normal FPS. It takes a little getting used to because it's not quite simply point and click stuff, but once you get the hang of it you're soon galloping around poking people in the eye with various sharp objects.
The RPG element here is nicely put together too. You have the standard 6 attributes such as Strength, Agility, Charisma, plus a long list of various skills ranging from First Aid to Engineering which buff various aspects of you or your party. If you have any NPC 'hero' companions in your party (up to 9 heroes can join without them bickering so much they emoragequit), their skills will count as well so you can load them accordingly. Finally there are the main weapon skills such as one handers, bows and thrown weapons. You get a few points to stack here at each level, but your skill also improves through use. Spend all your time plinging people from afar and you will become an expert archer overtime, but at the expense of being a tard with a lance.
There's a hell of a lot more to cover about the various factions, like the Swadians (read, medieval heavy cavalry knights), Nords (Vikings) or Kheghit Khanate (Mongols) any of whom you can recruit from, or become vassal to, or just smash into bits and steal all their stuff. But by far the best way is to experience it and relish the depth and richness of the game.
Sights and Sounds
The graphics are a little dated, but they do make good use of what is available. Battling bandits in a village by moonlight with torches glinting off armour, or charging across an open plain with the sunsetting behind you gives a nice atmosphere to the game. A particularly like that the more killing you do, the more blood and gore cakes your armour. And it's not just for effect either, because your horse for example has no health bar, and sometimes the only way to tell if it's about to turn into food for a frenchman is the number of arrows sticking out of it's neck.
The sound is very lacklustre and much more could have been done here to add to what is otherwise a very immersive game. Similarly the music is good, but after a while the synth strings do start to grate on the nerves.
Stuff that sucks
There are a few obvious glitches, like your head not quite sitting properly on your shoulders when you're playing nekkid female with a big weapon, and for some odd reason there's a rare combination of textures in some of the randomly generated maps that causes the game to stutter horribly.
The interface is functional, but lacks refinement. While shortcuts exist for most actions, it gets tiresome having to enter a town and wander around looking for the guild master every time you want to talk to him, rather than having a shortcut to him like there is with the various shops. The combat AI is a little stupid at times and although this doesn't always matter that much, it can get annoying when they continually push you off the scaling ladder during a castle siege. Whilst frustrating I don't feel that they break the immersion of the game too much and it does a good job of letting you sink into the role of a medieval lord fighting the good fight (or nasty evil fight if you prefer).
Conclusion
Mount & Blade is a great all round strategy RPG with a fun element of first person sword slashing fun. The game play is rich and diverse, and there are plenty of ways to occupy yourself in Calradia. Replayability is great too, not least because there are a host of mods, which enhance the sound and graphics or extend the gameplay.
And the good news from a 5punky perspective, the 'demo' is a free download of the full game but limited to 7 levels (a few hours of play) until you plug in a serial code and it's available on Steam.
Score : 7/10
