Review: Mount & Blade

[Chris LaVigne]

Review: Mount & Blade

Put on some metal pants, mount your horse, and introduce sharp things to your enemies' anatomy. What could be better?

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[Keane Ng]

This is probably my favorite game of the year thus far. Chaaaarge!!

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Mount and Blade is a great indie game, especially for the modding community. I have to admit the "vanilla" product isn't that impressive, HOWEVER it's a pretty robust base for a good deal of mods that are entertaining.

 

[TomNook]

Is there any mace/sword/axe action?

 

[TsunamiWombat]

There's plenty of it. There are all sorts of weapons.

 

[HobbesMkii]

No review of Mount&Blade is complete without a nod to the mods. While I appreciate that this game has a feature article on it (a month late, I might add), you haven't even begun to experience the game unless you played some of the more popular mods. Download .960 and play some. It's basically 1.03 without the polish.

 

[Esthet]

I'd say no review of Mount&Blade is complete without a nod to its community in general.

Not only the modders but also the ones that bought the unfinished beta version and kept this indie shareware project alive till the devs signed with a publisher, the ones feeding back ideas (no wonder so many community members got mentioned in the credits) and the ones reporting bugs...

And talking about bugs - I'd like to suggest the author to remove the sentence of "some never work properly" or at least find an example of it (that all of those beta testers missed) other than the "(spies you're supposed to follow disappear before you can go after them)" because having anyone in your party with a tracking skill makes this quest work perfectly fun enough

 

[TsunamiWombat]

I havn't redownloaded and reinstalled M&B in a while but I still have my old reciept- I bought it because I thought it was neat and wanted to support it.

Hope that Key still works.

 

[gmjapan]

Nice review, really got an impression of the authors exhilaration in the fighting and the rather 'meh' front end its wrapped up in.

The combat really is outstanding; not been this involved in combat since Severance:Blade of Darkness. Best in many years by miles. On horse or foot, axes, lances, maces, swords, javelins... on and on the list goes. The more you equip the more cumbersome you are; a weapon for all occassion and plate armour over every inch of your body or maybe a fast sword and some light leather instead. Gives you plenty to think about. The tournaments are great fun too. Love it.

 

[OrientalHero]

Are

Is there any mace/sword/axe action?

LOLZ! More ways to express your displeasure than you can shake a stick at!
Reads a bit like the D&D Players Handbook with it's Glaives, Volgues, Scythes, Awl Pikes, Morningstars, Mauls, Hammers etc (the ones I have named here are in game).
Of course the greatest variety to be had is within the swords. The basic types are
Great Swords, War Swords, Bastard Swords, Nordic Swords, Scimitars, Nomadic Sabres, Broadswords, Short Swords etc.
Then you get Rusty and Bent versions which are cheaper but obviously tend to do less damage. Oh and there are balanced versions which are a "cut" above the standard ones!
And no-one's mentioned the ranged weapons at all! Bows, pretty cool, but *thrown* weapons too! Axes, Javelins and Knives. The Javelins are pretty scary, especially if you only raise your shield just in time and there's this massive T H W A C K as the javelin impacts your shield. The arrows too make great sound effects whizzing past you or into your shield. Oh and yes you can shiver someone's shield (certain weapon types get bonuses to do this).

Definitely the most visceral melee combat in a game that I've tried. The game very nicely has all the sterotypes from mounted knights with lances to nomadic horse archers and pike wielding footmen to axe wielding viking raiders to experience.

 

[Xelioth]

I've played the vanilla game and it's extremely full of meh. where can I find these mods that make it actually fun that you people speak of?

 

[TsunamiWombat]

I've played the vanilla game and it's extremely full of meh. where can I find these mods that make it actually fun that you people speak of?

The Mount and Blade forums

 

[Yokai]

I have this to say on the subject: the combat is SPECTACULAR. If this were simply a wargame, it would kick every form of ass. The roleplaying elements, however, are often rather mediocre. Towns look very similar, npcs have virtually no personality, and it can be very frustrating. Especially early on, before you have a lot of money or a large army. Chances are quite good you and your group of supposedly highly trained mercenaries will have the shit beaten out of them five times out of seven by a ragtag group of drunken raiders. Not only is this humiliating enough, but you often lose large amounts of money and items after you lose, your enemies take you prisoner and drag you around for a while, and if you REALLY get thrashed, you'll end up with a permanent penalty to your stats. And if you do manage to level up, hire a proper army, and become a lord, it's only a matter of time before an enemy commander shows up, laughs while he informs you you're going to die, stomps all over you with his cavalry, kills your troops, takes your equipment, loots your castle, burns your village, imprisons you, then releases you a week later to be walloped by the next group of drunken raiders. The trick is to be VERY CAREFUL and DON'T RELY ON YOUR ALLIES.

So basically, combat = epic, roleplaying = meh, odds of doing well = a snail's chance in a supernova.

 

[Avernus]

I'm jumping in here, way after the fact, no idea if anyone will ever see it. After having played numberous games I came to the point where I just wanted to find something where I could cut people up in a visceral fashion.

The game is a sandbox, it could stand to have more structure, more story based elements. That said, and as others have stated above, the graphics are alright in the base version, but are easily upgraded due to the outstanding mod community. In fact, I haven't seen a mod community this involved and dedicated since Half-Life... and that says a great deal.

What needs no modification is what comes with the game, the combat. It is the heart and soul of Mount & Blade, and it has sucked me in completely. Tremendous fun, a simple element lacking in far to many heavily budgeted, yet shallow productions.

You need to check out the forums, and download a number of mods to take full advantage of this great game, yet even standing by itself, this game has a lot to offer. If you are looking to cut up some foes, and know that you've done some serious damage... this is what you are looking for.

 

[saiyanwarrior]

Are

Is there any mace/sword/axe action?

LOLZ! More ways to express your displeasure than you can shake a stick at!
Reads a bit like the D&D Players Handbook with it's Glaives, Volgues, Scythes, Awl Pikes, Morningstars, Mauls, Hammers etc (the ones I have named here are in game).
Of course the greatest variety to be had is within the swords. The basic types are
Great Swords, War Swords, Bastard Swords, Nordic Swords, Scimitars, Nomadic Sabres, Broadswords, Short Swords etc.
Then you get Rusty and Bent versions which are cheaper but obviously tend to do less damage. Oh and there are balanced versions which are a "cut" above the standard ones!
And no-one's mentioned the ranged weapons at all! Bows, pretty cool, but *thrown* weapons too! Axes, Javelins and Knives. The Javelins are pretty scary, especially if you only raise your shield just in time and there's this massive T H W A C K as the javelin impacts your shield. The arrows too make great sound effects whizzing past you or into your shield. Oh and yes you can shiver someone's shield (certain weapon types get bonuses to do this).

Definitely the most visceral melee combat in a game that I've tried. The game very nicely has all the sterotypes from mounted knights with lances to nomadic horse archers and pike wielding footmen to axe wielding viking raiders to experience.

Agreed the javelins are scary but I like nothing better than swinging my great sword one handed at heads as I scream past sea raiders with 20 swadian nights at my back.