Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

If you like the original Mount & Blade / Warband, just get this. The gameplay in Bannerlord is not identical, but the spirit of it is true to the original. If you haven't even seen the original, this one can be a bit tricky to explain, because it is unique, and doesn't really fit any specific genre well. It's a bit like X-COM in that there are several very different games here, combined into a seamless whole. The most accurate description would probably be "feudalism sandbox". The sandbox here is a vaguely Eurasian landmass with several major factions and a bunch of smaller ones, like mercenaries and religious cults. It's peppered with towns, castles, and villages, which participate in a functioning economy - the villages produce food and raw materials; villagers bring them to towns; towns process the raw materials into goods; and caravans trade between the towns, trying to make a profit. Every settlement is owned by some lord, and the taxes they collect fund their armies for incessant wars. And wars, in turn, affect the economy - caravans get robbed, villages are burned, and towns starved in sieges. What you make out of your character and clan is up to you. You can be a merchant, running another caravan around. Or a bandit, robbing caravans and looting villages. Or a bounty hunter, capturing bandits and selling them into slavery, taking quests from town notables and village elders for an occasional extra bonus. Or you can join one of the factions as a mercenary in their wars. Once you get enough renown, you can become a lord in one of the factions. Eventually, you can found and rule your own kingdom. And it's a true sandbox - you are not special! You can be taken prisoner, and even executed. Other lords also earn XP, level their stats, and upgrade troops. Other caravans trade just like you do. You can literally just camp in the starting town with enough food (popcorn?), and watch the world change around you - NPCs' actions matter as much as yours.

Have about 600 hours in Vanilla Warband, while this clearly improves the visuals of the prior game, this feels like an alpha rather than a beta. Even with all the patches, the game system is flat out broken in many areas, and the rest of this feels like Warband with a graphics mod. I realize it is EA, but the price they want for this and the 8 years it took to make the game, feel a little empty. The core system of having a dynasty is totally borked and that is what they really tried to sell this game on. The main quest is garbage, which wouldn't be a problem with the regular sandbox mode implemented (which it isn't). I imagine this will be great a couple years from now with mods, for now just play Warband with mods.

If you want to play against a computer that can: - Have an infinite amount of manpower - Have infinite funds to recruit said infinite manpower - Have infinite lords in which to command infinite troops - Have no restrictions for upgrading troops (no horses/war horses needed) - Have far reduced XP requirements for upgrading troops Then this game is for you! There is no beating the AI with attrition. You will never gain an advantage in a war for longer than it takes the AI to magically respawn strong, experienced armies. No matter how many heads you lop off, more will come whether the AI faction commands 1 city or 10. Conversely, a loss of your army is debilitating and effectively ends the war for you as it's impossible to replenish your army and regain it's experience at even a fraction of the speed that the AI does. So, eventually, if you decide to press your perceived advantage in a war, the AI will wear you down no matter what. My bet is that these "cheats" are used in order to prevent a stronger foe from completely steamrolling a weaker faction in one conflict, but it just delays the inevitable and makes the game play an unending slog.

Oh man, I wish I had waited and got this on GOG! The game is in early access but there's so much to enjoy already. They're still implementing the story but you have a big sandbox here where you can join a kingdom or start your own and fight for domination. The fighting is amazing both the 1-on-1 and large battles commanding your troops. Sieges are a great experience as well. Currently you'll mostly experience these as the aggressor but work is being done to make the AI less shy and give you some battles defending your castles or settlements as well. You have some RPG elements here, implemented sort of like elder scrolls does them (or earlier Mount and Blade titles, I suppose). The more you use a skill (one handed, scouting, leadership and many more) the more proficient you get in them. You can assign focus points to accelerate your learning a bit. Every 25 points you get to choose a perk for that skill. There isn't a whole lot of story in there at the moment. If you're into story-driven RPG you may be better off waiting a little longer but if you're happy enough to make your own story you can have hours of fun with this game. I've put over 500 hours in this game so far (thank you, corona). Winning battles is addictive, winning tournaments is addictive. Trying to dominate the map is addictive. Furthermore, Mount and Blade is somewhat famous for being mod friendly and it looks like this one may become the best of the lot. Can't recommend this enough!