Mount & Blade: Warband

Why are you arranging feast when half of your kingdom is under seige??

It's amazing. I'm not into strategy games but this is a certain mix of strategy, adventure, rpg etc. that really got to me. You can be in the thick of the battle with your troops and that's what's very important to me. If you're not a fan of that you can always use the auto resolve option but I don't recommend it. Not a game for everyone but it has a lot to offer. If you don't like the original, Native module, check out some other ones, there is thousands of them out there to fit people's desire for a custom world. I've poured about 2.5k hours into this game if we count Steam+GOG+offline so I think that should be a good point on how much content you can get. And there are many mods I've not played yet.

The game has no set goals and zero plot beyond a little tutorial mission at the beginning, so if you need a framework to play within this is probably not for you. If, on the other hand, you are content to make up your own narrative to the tune of ringing steel, pounding horse hooves and swishing arrows, make yourself comfortable: you'll be here for a while. The long-term empire management bogs down the gameplay a little, the interface is clunky-ish and, yes, there are days when I simply don't feel like doing the same x-amount of activities that the game has to offer... But I've had this installed for a goodly while and I keep coming back to it. There is simply nothing better for large-scale, medieval combat.

Like first person action and turn-based strategy? Like medieval settings with sandbox-freedom? SHAZAM! Here's your game. I've been playing a couple days now and I'm addicted. I bought it on sale, but it's worth the normal price. My likes? - Sword fighting and archery are intuitive, but still challenging. - Travelling from city to city trading to build enough cash to begin hiring fighters. If you run out of cash you can take part in arena fights. - Recruiting a band of 50+ horsemen and stomping opposing armies of 60-100 footmen. - Working your way up to being a vassal to a king and laying siege to opposing castles. - Getting hunted down to the village you own and annihilated by an army of 200+ led by five lords you each already defeated individually. My dislikes? - Getting hunted down to the village you own and annihilated by an army of 200+ led by five lords you each already defeated. None of the lords in my kingdom tried to stop them or help me. - Slowing to a crawl while climbing a hill. My horse can climb a sheer cliff, but it'll take a long while. - Accidentally clicking on something other than my target when trying to catch bandits or a liege lord on the map. - Trying to get involved in a battle, but you can't reach the enemy for the huge pile of your own horse-mounted troops who can't hit the broad side of a barn with a sword.

This clunky looking mess grabs you with so much detailed content and quite deep RPG mechanics. The dynamic nature of the world, its inhabitants and te political scene makes every game different. The ability to import character stats into new game saves and modules allow you to play around beyond the massive clunky yet amazingly busy battles, with the ability to tear factions apart and turn vassals against their lieges before supplanting yourself as the sole ruler of Calradia. Mods are readily available, and they can do small things such as improving environmental detail to significantly overhauling the base experience or completely transforming the game into something vastly different. Then the multiplayer takes the massive battles from single player and replaces all the AI soldiers with responsive human allies and opponents, which overwhelms someone like me but can be insanely fun with the right gathering of people online.