Mount & Blade: Warband

I bought M&B and Warband directly from Taleworlds, but bought them again from GoG. Mount and Blade Warband is not so much a sequel as it is a standalone expansion to the original. I do recommend getting both since they are cheap, to support the developer (who made it DRM free from release), and for the number of mods for each making it worth it alone. It is a medieval simulator with real-time combat, mounted combat, and castle and city sieges. It's basically the game I was waiting for my entire life! Warband has various updates and upgrades to the original game including the ability to marry, start your own faction, and more. It takes place in a fictional world of Calradia, which mirrors Europe during the middle ages. Each faction has strengths and weaknesses, and are developed to resemble a real faction or nation from the time. For example, one faction has very heavy infantry, but their archers and cavalry aren't the greatest. Another faction has great cavalry, they excel at archery, but they have only little to no armor. There are castles and towns. Towns serve as your hub for finding quests, hiring mercenaries, taking part in tournaments and arenas, finding information, finding companions, and meeting with faction lords. Castles are more of a military outpost that extends the faction's influence. There you can really only meet with the castle lords. Both towns and lords can be seized for your own faction, and then the king of your faction distributes fiefdom as he sees fit. Throughout the land there are various unaffiliated groups such as bandits and deserters that will attack you if they think they can take you. The world map represents armies with a single unit and you point and click to move. Once you go into combat or into a town or castle, it switches to glorious 3D (3rd or 1st person view). It is a true sandbox RPG. You recruit troops and companions and create your own army. Equip your character's armor and weapons, and assign skills as you level. You can decide to join a faction and become a lord, battling for your king and kingdom. You can become a peaceful trader and only fight to defend your company. You can become a bandit and prey on caravans and villages. There is somewhat of a story or main questline to follow, but you don't have to. Whatever you do is completely up to you. The graphics are not the greatest and weren't even when it was released. It was made by a very small team (husband and wife I believe). The sound is great and immersive. This is THE game to make you feel like you're back in that time and to fulfill your desires to conquer a kingdom! I highly recommend it, even with its grossly outdated graphics, nothing comes close to comparing to it today. It's quite clear this was made by a small team that always dreamed of this type of game like many of us and not some mega corporation only worrying about the bottom line. They clearly had passion for this game and it shows. Don't forget the mods!!! The game has full mod support and there are a ton of great mods out for it!

This is a game that can make you tear your hair out, absolutely frustrating, and at times, downright cruel. So then, how can such a game warrant 4 out of 5 stars? It is cunningly addictive, in that you are invested in seeing through a goal that you set for yourself. In many ways, your experience is a reflection of how effective (or ineffective) your strategy and/or goal is. But invested you shall be, as you must define what your goal is and what you want to achieve in what you are playing. This is a game that has all sorts of features that will take well over 100 hours to learn and to even know they exist! This is a game of patience, of time. This does not excuse entirely the distractions: strange battle maps with excessive hill height, hit boxes that are frustratingly precise as you could be swinging a sword at an enemy's head next to your knee and somehow it does not connect(!), random glitch quests that cancel at will or run counter to each other, etc. Yet, these distractions do not lose the love of the game, but endear it, for, at its core, it is a game for you and determined, by you. In a way, it is a marvel and a love note that is not known enough. MB&W is packed with more features, world-building, and astonishingly dovetails several different kinds of games into one. It is, at once, a role-playing game, a tower defense, a real time strategy, an adventure, etc. To be able to pull all these elements together and not have a machine running on fumes, is a few unto itself. I've played Skyrim, the Civilization series, Xcom, Fallout series, and other games that only focus on certain elements present in MB&W, but none have been able to be as invested as this game is. If you want a real challenge and a love of video games, this one will challenge the noggin!

One of my top 10 games of all time. The only thing that annoys me about it are the terrible missions you get from lords and guild masters.

This is a great game, even many years after it's release. It's the strategy game you've been looking for. Medieval tactics strategy game with bloody battles of a couple hundred units going head to head, with you right in the thick of the fighting. Cavalry, Archers and Melee units will litter the battlefields on plains, mountain slopes, deserts, and in sieges and village fights. Battles against bandits, looters, enemy kingdoms, raiders, deserters, and more. User interface is very simplistic and can be challenging to figure out how to play. Don't hesitate to look up some how-to videos, and setting up custom controls for yourself(all done super easy through in-game menus). Fighting well and not getting destroyed at first can be tough, so there's that (it's all about the timing!), but I found it awesome just for the stories I got out of it (Captured a castle in a siege as a mercenary working with a local kingdom, got wiped out by the enemy counter attack and taken captive, ended up in the desert markets, escaped, gathered local villagers, raided a raider camp and stole their horses, rode off and had merry adventures). The game feels very realistic in it's medieval world setup, and has an EXCELLENT economy. Gets better the more you play as you win battles, gain fame, get better gear, rally more allies, and find out what weapons and tactics best suit your play style. This is a game that has alot of features, many of them not directly apparent or available from the get-go. The game A.I. is good enough that one slip up and you will taste the bitter sting of defeat! A ton of exciting times to be had here.

f