Mount and Blade Review

Epic battles, stunning vistas and in-depth character customisation.  This is what I had been told to expect from a friend who had previously played this, but I must say, when I first loaded it up, I wasn't exactly over-enthusiastic. 

 

First thing's first, you load up the game, and on the menu you're given the choice of starting a game, continuing or doing training.  As I had never played the game before, I opted for the training to get used to the games controls and mechanics.  

 

One of the first things I noticed as the training loaded was that the graphics weren't anything special. They are severely outdated and this was giving me a bad first impression for a game that was released only a few months ago.  At the time, I was willing to forgive outdated graphics as long as the gameplay could hold up, but the first thing I was to do was use my sword and attack the single soldier in the room with me.  I drew my sword, and clicked the button to attack.  The wooden animation I saw was beyond outdated, it was laughable.  I tried numerous combinations of direction and mouse click, as this supposedly initiated different attacks, alas they all ended up being more or less the same.  I decided I’d had enough of training and wanted to get onto the main game to see if there was any improvement.

 

Upon selecting a new game, the first thing I was to do was create my character with a rather spartan character creator.  After choosing my skin tone, hair style and colour, I was then presented with an overwhelming amount of stats to increase for my character.  These were interesting, as there are stats such as horseback archery, which isn't something you see everyday in games.  I decided to make myself a long range expert, putting skill points into (horseback) archery and throwing.  I was then ready to start the game.

 

After a brief loading time, I was immediately put into the game, on an overworld map reminiscent of Rome: Total War's overhead map, with a smaller character and oversized buildings/flora and fauna.  After clicking all over the place, I rested on going to the nearest castle, so I clicked on it and off I went.  Moments later, a screen popped up along with a picture of a supposed bandit.  He demanded I handed over all my gold in exchange for passage.  The voice acting here was a little below average, but I could live with it.  After deciding I wanted to fight them off, I selected the appropriate option, and was thrust into an over the shoulder view. 

 

Me and my horse went charging towards the bandit I saw. I was however caught off-guard by the nine other bandits running along side him.  I took out my bow and while running circles around the bandits was able to dispatch a few of them from horseback.  I then decided to get my feet on Terra firma and do battle with my axe the game saw fit to start me with.  After quickly dispatching the few remaining bandits I was given a victory screen explaining to me I had gained a little renown and a few gold pieces.  With that victory, I continued on to the castle.

 

Upon arriving at the castle, I was greeted with a list of options akin to Sid Meyer's Pirates!  The options were enter town centre, barter at weaponsmith/general store/armoury or visit the castle.  I chose the latter, hoping I could get a glimpse of story.  However, when I got to the Lords chambers, he offered me a quest to collect some debt gold he was owed by a fellow Lord in a different town.  So off I went, back to the overworld.  I went to the town as specified, fighting small groups of bandits and escaped prisoners along the way, and once I had got there, I went to visit the Lord and was informed he saw the debt as payment due to him, and was unwilling to hand it over. 

 

I tried using my charisma skill to ask him to hand it over to no avail.  I decided I would do a quest with him in order to gain his favour, which was deliver a letter to another Lord in yet another town, so again, off I went.  Once I delivered the letter and returned, the Lord agreed to give me the 20,000 gold debt, but only if I paid him 5,000 gold.  Thrown by the strange request, I had gathered enough gold over little skirmishes so gave it to him to end this quest.  I returned the debt money to the first Lord and was informed he had another, more important mission for me. 

 

Finally, I thought, some story.  I was wrong.  His next mission for me was to... deliver a letter to another Lord in another town.  As I went on my way, I decided to forget about the Lords “important mission” and do my own thing, and to this end the game really did allow me to do what I liked.  This is where I actually started to enjoy myself.  I spent the next five or so hours going from town to town, pillaging, threatening peasants and stealing cattle from one village and selling it to another.  At this point I was starting to forget about the bad graphics and the wooden fighting mechanics.  I was having fun.  Going around doing your own thing is what this game is all about and where it really opens up to you.  There's nothing quite like amassing a fortune and going to different taverns, recruiting soldiers to your cause.

 

That is one of the big things for the game, recruitment.  With a large enough party, you are able to (note you're able to do this on your own, but it's not advised) siege castles, take over towns and generally cause mayhem.  The sieges themselves can start out pretty slow, but once you've waited the few minutes for your troops to push the siege ladder over to the castle walls, the fun begins.  The games engine can manage a large amount of units on screen at once, and it's always fun to run about the castle chopping them down or shooting them with your arrows. 

 

Once you have successfully laid siege to a castle you get your rewards and are then sent about to do whatever you please again.  This is the problem with the siege element.  I found I could siege a castle, take it over, leave and then come back about two game days later and all was forgiven but the town’s folk were “wary” of me.  There's no real punishment if you fail either - you are thrown back onto the world map and are free to do as you please again.  If there was more of a punishment for losing, the thought that could go into any one siege would be fantastic.

 

As it stands, Mount and Blade is an addictive little game when you give it a chance.  Decide you don't like it after your initial presentation and you're missing out on some good fun skirmishes.  However, this game is one that I can't help but feel has a spectacular premise, but suffers from low production values.  Everything about the game screams epic, but the problems present - bad voice acting, shoddy graphics and bad fighting mechanics - stop the game being as special as it perhaps should.  Hopefully there'll be a sequel on the way, and the premise will be done justice to.