Mount & Blade

[brikis98]

I've always wanted a game that focuses on an even slightly realistic portrayal of the middle ages (ie, no magic, dragons, wizards, etc) and this game looked like it fit the bill. While the reviews I read said the game had a lot of potential, they also seemed to indicate that it was made by some (low budget?) indie developer and was therefore not too "polished".

I tried out the demo and found that this lack of polish hits you in the face right from the get go: the graphics are very dated, the artistic design sucks, there are no voice overs (almost feels like you are playing one of those old text adventures from back in the day), no real story or plot line, and it almost seems laughably bad. In fact, in the early run, you're dropped into the game world with no clear objective or any idea what to do. I was VERY tempted to quit + uninstall 5 minutes in.

However, I stuck with it and found quite a few very interesting and redeeming values. Once you start heading around the game world, you slowly realize that there is a lot to do. There is a large game world with tons of villages, cities and castles and you ride around between them. You can stop at any one to get quests, trade goods and even recruit soldiers. These guys will travel and fight with you, and as you level up, you can increase the max size of your party. I've seen groups of 70+ riding around, which creates an interesting possibility of eventually raising a small army.

Combat could definitely use some improvement, but has a lot of promise. You can use swords, axes, spears, bows & arrows, crossbows, shields, and more. Speed is factored into damage from weapons, so things get interesting on horseback, as you can deal some serious damage when at full gallop. Battles can get pretty large and the game even supports castle sieges (and siege weapons), which makes me wonder if you can raise an army and capture cities with it...

Anyways, this game has a lot of promise and it kills me to see it so hampered by piss poor production values. I'm going to keep messing around in it until the demo expires, at which point I'll consider buying it. Anyone else have opinions to share on this game?

 

[katank]

I've had this for years. It definitely has great combat. However, it simply lacks the polish and story like you said. In essence, it's less a game and more an engine demo. If Oblivion had this type of combat, it would have been truly awesome. If Bioware produces a story line to match, it'd be the best game ever.

Overall, fun little distraction. To really go to the next level, they need to be bought out by a bigger studio, most likely.

 

[JTsyo]

A friend of mine tried it out recently and liked it. He bought the game and has played a few rounds in it. He enjoys rasing an army and the combat but complains about the lack of direction.

 

[abaez]

Tried this game for a bit but that's a good point to bring up about lack of direction. You can basically ride around doing whatever you want and there is no real story to the game or anything.

I got pretty powerful with my own castle, but when I tried to siege another castle it was just ridiculous. You first have to move your siege weapon in place, then siege the castle, THEN attack inside. Each wave has like 100-200 enemies and there is just no way for you to have an army big enough (unless you wait for you to get ~1000 men).

 

[Czar]

That game is awesome, one of the best games I have played this year.


The combat is the best I have seen for a game of this kind, expecialy mounted combat.

The game is a indie game so it is not very polished. The story is pointless, the sieges are realy lacking in detail but still great fun.

 

[clamum]

I played it for a bit. The combat, like others have said, is pretty great. I did not get into it much though.

 

[StevenYoo]

Originally posted by: clamum
I played it for a bit. The combat, like others have said, is pretty great. I did not get into it much though.

ditto.

 

[Auryg]

Originally posted by: abaez
Tried this game for a bit but that's a good point to bring up about lack of direction. You can basically ride around doing whatever you want and there is no real story to the game or anything.

I got pretty powerful with my own castle, but when I tried to siege another castle it was just ridiculous. You first have to move your siege weapon in place, then siege the castle, THEN attack inside. Each wave has like 100-200 enemies and there is just no way for you to have an army big enough (unless you wait for you to get ~1000 men).

Some castles have ladders that are there are the start of the siege, although I prefer the siege tower. Get good with a bow and you can take down 50 guys yourself easily with headshots. Put a contingent of archers near the wall and have the rest of your troops charge - make sure you have types that are good at sieging such as Huskarls, and you'll be set.

However, I find large towns easier to take because they sally out to meet you with half of their forces.

Anyways, I love the game, but it's even better with mods, and some pretty substantial ones should be coming out soon.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

Originally posted by: katank
I've had this for years. It definitely has great combat. However, it simply lacks the polish and story like you said. In essence, it's less a game and more an engine demo. If Oblivion had this type of combat, it would have been truly awesome. If Bioware produces a story line to match, it'd be the best game ever.

Overall, fun little distraction. To really go to the next level, they need to be bought out by a bigger studio, most likely.

yeah it would be awesome if they could put the combat from this into the story and production values of a bioware or bethesda game.

 

[datalink7]

I think of this as a great sandbox kind of game. I run around and do random sh!t in it when I want a break from more serious games. It does lack polish but it still a lot of fun somehow

 

[wanderer27]

This looks like it could be interesting.

How big is the game world?
What are the "edges" of the world (mountains, oceans, or you can't go there)?

 

[mundane]

I picked it up from Steam for $15 - what are some of the recommended mods (as alluded to by Auryg)?

 

[katank]

Try Native Expansion. It's a lot of fun but fairly difficult.

There are a number of mods for older versions which are fun such as The Last Days (a LOTR mod).

 

[Ganeedi]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I wanted to comment on this game. For some reason I never thought this game would be worth playing, but I downloaded the demo & I friggin love it. Its completely open ended, much like the original Pirates from Sid Meier or a Middle Ages version of Elite. But the combat is the heart and soul of this game.

I listed some pros and cons, many of which are reflected in this thread:

Pros:
- Mounted combat is a blast! It is just hard enough to remain fun while not getting frustrating.
- Nice roleplaying elements including levels, ability & skill points, armor, weapon stats galore. Named NPCs that join your party and add their skills is a nice addition.
- The game has a wide range of weapons & you have to change your tactics to suit what weapon you are using. One hander and shield, 2 hander, lance/polearms, bows, crossbows, thrown weapons all use different strategy. In addition, you must fight different if you are on horseback vs. on foot.
- The ability to issue basic orders to your army adds a bit of tactical strategy. The battle maps are a decent size and terrain features make strategy worthwhile. Charge your cavalry down a hill and watch the mayhem.

Cons:
- Steep learning curve. The tutorial only covers the very basics. Theres a lot of nuance with no way to know without reading the forums. I don?t know if the manual would help with the full version.
- Castle siege/defense seems kind of unpolished. Granted I cant do much with this in the demo version. But there seems to be very little in the way of tactics. The AI in castle sieges seems pretty awful to me. The infantry just bunches up in the chokepoints.
- Quests seem quite repetitive. There is no real storyline that I can see.
- Lack of overall polish / just feels unfinished. (Understandable knowing where this game came from ? husband and wife team I understand?).

I hope to see the Mount & Blade combat system more in the future. Anyone know if there is a sequel or new project in the works that uses a similar combat system?

 

[Jinru]

Just started playing a few days ago as well. Currently trying out the The Eagle And The Radiant Cross mod. You should go to taleworlds forum and choose one of the dozens of mods to play from the get go, it really enhances the experience and there are a few that have made a story line for the game.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Originally posted by: Ganeedi
Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I wanted to comment on this game. For some reason I never thought this game would be worth playing, but I downloaded the demo & I friggin love it. Its completely open ended, much like the original Pirates from Sid Meier or a Middle Ages version of Elite. But the combat is the heart and soul of this game.

I listed some pros and cons, many of which are reflected in this thread:

Pros:
- Mounted combat is a blast! It is just hard enough to remain fun while not getting frustrating.
- Nice roleplaying elements including levels, ability & skill points, armor, weapon stats galore. Named NPCs that join your party and add their skills is a nice addition.
- The game has a wide range of weapons & you have to change your tactics to suit what weapon you are using. One hander and shield, 2 hander, lance/polearms, bows, crossbows, thrown weapons all use different strategy. In addition, you must fight different if you are on horseback vs. on foot.
- The ability to issue basic orders to your army adds a bit of tactical strategy. The battle maps are a decent size and terrain features make strategy worthwhile. Charge your cavalry down a hill and watch the mayhem.

Cons:
- Steep learning curve. The tutorial only covers the very basics. Theres a lot of nuance with no way to know without reading the forums. I don?t know if the manual would help with the full version.
- Castle siege/defense seems kind of unpolished. Granted I cant do much with this in the demo version. But there seems to be very little in the way of tactics. The AI in castle sieges seems pretty awful to me. The infantry just bunches up in the chokepoints.
- Quests seem quite repetitive. There is no real storyline that I can see.
- Lack of overall polish / just feels unfinished. (Understandable knowing where this game came from ? husband and wife team I understand?).

I hope to see the Mount & Blade combat system more in the future. Anyone know if there is a sequel or new project in the works that uses a similar combat system?

I believe there is Mount and Blade 2 starting production? Hopefully they keep the same combat machanics and make enough money from Mount and Blade to do the next game professionally.

Would love to see the game with a fully fleshed out story, better looking and more fleshed out npcs, and improved AI.

 

[9mak9]

I got the demo of it and enjoyed it, when I ordered it online from best buy the game was on back order, so I canceled it and got Medieval 2 Total War

At some point I will probably buy the game because its very open ended and you can do what you please. I just wish they would make more of a story.

 

[Ganeedi]

Anyone have any problems installing mods on the Steam version? I'll probably get that one.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

It's a blast. It's not a plot game, as has been noted, but get enough renown to become field marshall for a claimant and you've got instant over-arcing objectives.

Do with the dark knights were still around though. They always made for a fun time.

 

[s44]

Wonder if they could license some of their stuff to other companies. We need more games with real mounted combat.

 

[dj2004]

Game is now on sale for $7.50 on Steam. It is a weekend sale.

 

[bobross419]

I've been loving this game for a month or so now and I really enjoy the Native Expansion mod. I haven't played any of the others, but NE is very close in feel to the original game, but has quite a bit of addition to it to really flesh things out

 

[Jinru]

http://www.moddb.com/games/mount-blade

Here's a link to many of the popular mods, If you just want to play vanilla M&D then I still recommend getting the Graphical Enhancement mod at least.

 

[dclapps]

As someone else asked: any difficulty between adding mods on to the steam version, since it is $7.50 this weekend?

-Danny

 

[katank]

Don't have the steam version but that's quite a steal. I bought it 4 years ago and paid $12 (The price went up as it got closer to release). Just vanilla alone is worth more than that IMHO.