Mount & Blade
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Mount & Blade
The Ballad of Brave Sir Robin... Brave Sir Robin...
If you followed Mount & Blade from its early beta release to the eventual full release you would have seen the game expand from its humble beginnings, to another great innovative indie title that will have its gameplay ‘borrowed’ from the big named developers who are looking for a hook for their own game. Creative combat, unique settings and gameplay are what make Mount & Blade stand apart from the rest of the games out there and as an indie developed title I would again have to say this is one of the best shining jewels in the dusty crown of PC Gaming.
Mount & Blade, from developer Taleworlds, is an open sandbox action medieval RPG, where you can fight with sword and lance against various enemies while helping or hindering the various communities in the world of Calradia. Mount & Blade which is highly mod-able game and it already has a strong community who is doing just that, with graphic and audio changes, new campaigns and much more.
Using swords, mace, lance, bow and many other weapons you travel the land on your trusty horse raiding or helping villages, doing quests for various nobles while the entire world changes politically. The in game quests range from going to a location to kill someone, training a town to defend it self against raiders, collecting taxes and destroying raiders who are terrorizing the country side.
Combat ranges from using the left mouse button to swing your weapon, fire your bow or punch, right mouse button to use your shield to block or block with a weapon like a quarter staff and how you attack is determined by how you position the mouse, it is a little clunky at first but gets very easy and natural soon after. You can attack from foot or from horse and you gain a bonus while on the horse if you are going fast enough, as you can kill with one hit eventually and quickly chop your way through groups of enemies if you are skilled at riding the horse and using your weapon.
When you start the game you create your male or female character, changing the look of your character, and while this is not as deep as Mass Effect, it actually feels just as deep as The Elder Scrolls Oblivion character creation, except you are only building a human. As you create your character you also need to place points in your stats and abilities which will help you during combat, your health and more.
There is no multiplayer in the game and no story per se, and while the game would have benefitted from having both of these added to the game, the multiplayer should only be at max 4 to 6 players and the story would have needed to be kept as open ended as the game is now, so I can see why it was not included in the actual game. There are story based mod’s being worked on though, some based on the 100 Year War and other famous era’s when knights roamed the land and nobles were not so noble.
Graphically the game is good for an indie title and with the sheer amount of graphics needed in the game from the trees, shrubs, towns, castles, NPC’s and more they are better then I anticipated. Level and map design is basic at times, even a little uninspired, the small castles for instance, but there are dozens of places to explore and check out as you search for quests, people to recruit and more.
As a PC game which you can modify the hell out of, Mount & Blade already has at least three mod packs with some serious graphics updates to the game, with high resolution textures for the environment, armor and more. Plus there is a HDR mod, which I never tried, but the screen shots look very good and the mod should be worth trying for those who like to delve deep into tweaking their game up.
Good sound effects and music are the entire audio package in the game as there is basically no actual voice work in the game and while some gamers might have appreciated it, with the sheer amount of voices needed in the game it would have been very costly, and I for one never mind reading, especially the fairly well written in game text. What voice work we do have is not very good and a bit over the top and cliché.
The sound effects are well done, such as the combat and environmental sounds which even during the most hectic gameplay we can still hear screams of the enemy soldiers as we run them down with our swords sweeping through the air. Musically the game could have been done better, but it left me wanting something more at times, but this again could easily be fixed via a mod or two.
While there is no multiplayer, perhaps later in a patch, the overall game has a ton of replay value, with the main game having plenty of gaming to enjoy, the player mod’s add more gaming choices and extends this game even further.
Bottom Line
Very fun combat, mixed into an era we rarely ever see touched in gaming and solid but brutal gameplay and the fantastic community built mod’s, gives this game a permanent place in my gaming library. Buy it.Pros
+ Fun combat system which never disappoints
+ Environmental Audio is good
+ Gameplay is excellent, deep and oh so fun
+ The type of game you hate to put down
+ Deep and well designed game
Cons
- Base graphics are not the best, but it is an indie title and you can mod the graphics
- Music could be better
- No multiplayer
- Controller support would be nice
- Difficult game at times
Final Verdict
Here's a small guide to help you understand our evaluation of games.
PRESENTATION GRADE
Can be from the game's box to the contents of the booklet, and even the game introduction. (Intro, menus, options, etc)
GRAPHIC GRADE
Up to what point the graphics have been worked on my the developper. The design type, the effort used for textures and environments, as well as animations and framerate.
AUDIO GRADE
Is the soundtrack a good match to the game's style, he ambient sounds keeping with the gameplay and the sound effects clear and convincing?
GAMEPLAY GRADE
Placement of the controls and the inferface that the player with be using during the game.
REPLAY VALUE GRADE
The most important factor in the evaluation of a game. It identifies the lifespan of the game and the fun of coming back again and again.
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