Mount & Blade (PC) Review
Posted by Ty Huston on 09.24.2008
The new RPG from Paradox and independent developer Talewords is a different take on the same old medieval warfare scene.
Game: Mount & Blade
System: PC
Developer: Taleworlds
Publisher: Paradox Interactive
The RPG genre is loaded to the gills with quality games. Every year it seems, another game is released that tries to push the envelope of what a sandbox role-playing game can be.
Mount & Blade, created by Turkish independent developer Taleworlds, is unlike what we see these days. They haven’t gone overboard with the graphics. They haven’t spent a lot of time developing storylines. They haven’t wasted a bunch of time on incredible music or realistic sound effects.
Instead, Taleworlds focused on one thing in their game – the gameplay itself. This is a game that literally allows you to do what you want. There are no requirements. It is possible to join a faction and raise an army of peasants from pauper to battle hardened warriors. You can also go alone and try your best against armies of literally hundreds of foes. You can choose to travel by foot. You can also choose to travel by horse – which is one of the true shining gems of this game.
Character Creation.
As with most RPGs, you start out creating your character giving him or her a face, traits and all the usual. Choose the skills, define who you are, all that good stuff. Once you’ve finished with that, then you enter the game as a lone being in a world filled with war and you are just a single person in it.
The game centers itself in the world of Caladria, a once giant kingdom united that has been divided into five factions; the Nords, Rhodoks, Swadians, Khergits and Vaegirs. Beyond the obvious structure of the game, that being war between each faction, your main goals revolve around acquiring money and gaining renown. Money is the basic necessity as with any roleplaying game, you’ll use it to purchase armor, weapons, mounts, supplies and pay your army. That’s right, these guys aren’t into war for the fun of it, you’ll have to pay them for putting their lives at risk. Renown is earned through tournaments which are a lot of fun as well as through your prowess on the battlefield. Each battle has a difficulty rating based on a few factors including the amount of soldiers on each side and their skills. The more difficult the battle, the more renown it is worth. By swearing allegiance to one of the factions’ kings, your renown can earn you vassalage from the king where you can develop and grow the community you’ve been granted.
As you can see, the graphics aren’t bursting at the seams but that isn’t where the meat of this game is.
Gameplay
The shining light in this game comes in the form of the gameplay. You can fight on foot or on a horse, using a wide array of weapons from swords, axes, blunt objects, crossbows, bows and even polearms. Polearms are especially effective whilst on a mount and nothing is more satisfying than wasting some enemy puissant with your couched polearm as you charge at full speed atop your horse. Large scale battles are awesome as both sides charge into battle and you control your character. You can give commands to the rest of your army, but you fight with your very own character in these massive brawls.
Typically these battles can range from twenty people on the field to nearly a hundred, depending on how you adjust your settings. It makes the game very versatile for people who don’t own a Crysis-level PC. Winning battles takes some careful planning though, such as sending in your foot soldiers into direct combat while perching your archers behind for distance firing and sending in the cavalry for cleanup. Failing to use strategy will leave you with a depleted army or even worse – a loss on the battlefield.
Personal combat is a piece of cake and can quickly be mastered using the training fields available in the game. To attack you click the left mouse button and to block you click the right. Pretty simple, right? Timing is of the essence, however, and you must constantly watch your back because the enemy can sneak up behind you easily for a melee assault or pick you off at a distance with arrows or bolts.
The downsides of the game lies mostly in the quests that the lords and kings give you. They are pretty boring and repetitive. That’s not what makes this game fun, though. Build an army and lay siege to a castle and tell me you aren’t having a good time.
The battles are where this game is awesome.
Swinging a sword or jousting someone with a polearm are one thing, but the game features a very innovative approach to distance combat. The use of bows and crossbows takes a good deal of practice as the mechanic forces you to create a skill level with it to actually hit something. Once you left click while targeting something, a targeting mini-game begins where the target icon begins very large and shrinks down as your gain strength with your aim. You have to let the arrow or bolt fly at a certain time to hit your targeted area as well as plan out distance as a factor by aiming above the opponent.
You can go toe to toe on horseback or hang behind and assault from horseback with bows and crossbows.
The other important thing of note, while it doesn’t exactly have to do with gameplay but needs mentioned, is that the game already has a hell of a growing community that are both helpful (thanks to their forums for the tip on the program to emulate the keyboard so I can use my Xbox 360 controller) and quite dedicated to the game as they’ve already created a few excellent mods with the available tools that both add more life to the game and improve the graphics. Speaking of which …
Graphics
Perhaps the biggest detriment to the core game (mods excluded, obviously) is in the graphics. While the scenary is pretty good as are the horse animations, the textures and details aren’t quite up to par with today’s standards. By no means is it an ugly game (as you can see from the screenshots shown here) but it just isn’t up to what you expect from a typical retail release. Then again, when you’ve got developers like Crytek constantly pushing the envelope with what can be accomplished graphically, it is difficult for a lot of developers – especially an independent one such as Taleworlds – to keep up due to the cost.
Sound
Quality music tracks and sound effects are excellent traits in this game. The music score won’t be winning a Grammy this year but it will keep your mood into the game during your time spent playing it and the battles sounds are as good as any medieval combat scene in a movie you’d watch.
Lasting Appeal
The core game itself will surely provide at least a weekend’s worth of entertainment at the least but with the game’s community continuing to develop new mods for the game there’s no reason this game couldn’t be a fun and interesting addition to anyone’s gaming catalogue that enjoys this type of game. The easy battle mechanics and the new take on mounted combat make this game what it is and I would be surprised if other games using a similar mounted combat mechanic didn’t start popping up.
Fun Factor
I am personally a junkie for these kinds of games and found Mount & Blade to be an incredibly fun title. The ease of gameplay, fun battles and tournaments all make this game an enjoyable experience that I will be continuing to play for quite a while.
The 411
Mount & Blade is a bit of a bare bones medieval combat simulation that shines in the gameplay department. Basic graphics and lack of depth hold the title back, but there is no denying that the gameplay is where the meat and bones are at and I can see a sequel to this game coming in the future that will add to the plusses this game has going for it while reducing upon the minuses that it has. I give it a solid recommendation to anyone who likes this sort of game.
The most lackluster portion of the game, the graphics will get you by on this game but won't be blowing your mind.
Gameplay
9.0
Mount & Blade shines in the gameplay department, making it fun and innovative enough to keep you occupied for at least a weekend before you search their forums for some of the quality mods that their community has made.
Sound
6.0
Good music and sound effects, but a lack of any voice acting in a title like this seems to bring it down. Obviously, Taleworlds being an independent developer were likely keeping costs down, but voice work is typically the standard today.
Lasting Appeal
6.0
The core game itself can get boring after a few weeks of play, but the availability of mods for the game make it a more diverse title.
Fun Factor
8.0
For what it is, this game is a lot of fun and will continue to be so as it evolves. As I said before, the mods will continue to grow and I won't be surprised when Mount & Blade 2 is announced.
