Brutal Gamer

Mount&Blade (PC) Review

By Obscx - March 5, 2009 - 16:44 UTC

Mount&Blade released September 2008 is the first game from the independent game development company TaleWorlds Entertainment. This medieval based RPG/Strategy/Action hybrid game has a lot to offer the gamer, such as first/third person action fights, where you can choose your weapon of choose ranging from a sword and shield, to a giant pole-arm you can use to impale your opposition for some beloved XP to go towards upgrading your character.

The innovative game also allows you to travel from town to town, allowing you to recruit and train soldiers from the world of Calradia, who will fight alongside you as your oppositions charge you baring pitchforks. You can also siege towns slicing the farmers of the town’s, taking all the supplies, such as food which will keep your army going as you travel the world, as well as taking their weapons.

Once you have raised reputation with the regional factions within the game you are presented with quests in which take you to other town’s forcing them to pay taxes, or killing small armies that have been terrorizing the town in which you have taken the quest, all of which will raise the reputation you have with the faction further as well as having cash rewards that enable you to upgrade your own gear and allowing you to afford to keep your army running on food supplies as well as the weekly wage you pay out to your rising army.

Graphically, Mount & Blade is very basic, with the battlegrounds looking very similar with only slight alterations to the scenery, and when you aren’t fighting to claim victory against the armies of Calradia, you get to click where you want to go on the world map, and you are met by a simple scenario with an almost 2d character representing you and your recruits as you cross the world.

As you progress through Mount & Blade your army will grow as will your strength in battle, allowing you to challenge the greatest armies of the land. The fighting system within the game lacks diversity once you have played the game for a few hours, with the combat system being as simple as possible, as you have 3 directions in which you can swing your trusty weapon, although you can’t choose the direction as that decision is made up for you by the side in which your opposition is facing you, thus making combat become very tedious. Your army will get stronger as you do, with you being able to train them to become knights, although their pay will rise as you upgrade them, in which they will receive stronger armour and more advanced weapons, you can also train them to become either archers or hand to hand combat soldiers with swords and shields.

The audio in Mount & Blade is very basic, with no voice actor’s throughout the game although you can hear the battle cries as you charge to your enemy, and the sound of your sword striking the oppositions body armor.

Although the simplicity of the combat, Mount & Blade present the gamer with a unique mount combat, whereby you can ride your armored horse throughout the battlefield slicing your enemy, also the faster you are riding your mount, the stronger your hits are to the enemy. The part of the game I enjoyed the most is the tournaments, where you can enter a tournament, place a wager on yourself fight through several rounds claiming victory in each using the skills you have learned to eventually win the tournament.

Whilst playing Mount & Blade, like a lot of strategy games you find yourself playing the game for hours without noticing how much time you’ve spent playing. Having said that the game in the long run really is lacking in  replay-ability, as once you have become the dominant army of the land, there is very little else you can do, especially if you have all the best armor and weapons from the best smith’s in the land, you are left wondering what to do next.

Overall Mount & Blade is an innovative game that really has potential in becoming a great game, although the lack of any real narrative other than, kill armies and become the greatest really lets the game down. But the effective combat system although needing some tweaks to improve, with its uniqueness presents Mount & Blade to be a good game that gamers will enjoy due to it being a hybrid of 3 very successful game types, and the implementation of the 3 game types is successful.

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