I've played ridicoulous amounts of this game, so let's get that off my chest right away, but I can definitely see how someone would only want to spend a few minutes with the game before getting furious with it and uninstalling. First off, the graphics are pretty bad. This game isn't new by any stretch of the imagination. The A.I. is pretty bad to start off with but it can be turned up in the options menu which I advise everyone to do as soon as they get the game.The game also has no story or direction whatsoever but you are still herded in the same general direction if you want to advance in the game, however, the way you accomplish this is strictly up to you. Should you remain a simple mercenary and fight until you have the best gear and the most well trained troops and slowly work your way up? Should you join a faction only to put it at war with several others and then rebel and slowly eat away at the lands that you had just sworn yourself too? Possibilities are... there but nowhere near endless. However, where this game truly shines is with mods. This game is second only to the Elder Scrolls series is the amount of mods it offers and many of them change the gameplay very drastically or very minutely to the point that you can customize the game to play exactly as you want it. Just a few I recommend are: The Prophesy of Pendor, Native Expansion, Floris Expanded or Gameplay, Silverstag, Gekokoju, Diplomacy or Pre-battle Orders and Deployment (PBOD). All of these are very well rounded mods that add a lot to the gameplay and I highly recommend Native Expansion for those that like the feel of the base game but feel like it could use something extra. All of this said though, it is not a game to just jump in and play. It can be brutally hard and in some cases, nearly impossible if you choose bad beginning stats or have a large force get wiped out. All in all, it's a game I highly recommend, but only to those dedicated enough to put time and effort into it.
