Mount & Blade is a Real Time Strategy game that offers literally thousands of hours of gameplay. The game puts you in charge of your OWN character. You make the face by adjusting sliders, and make the stats the way you please. Taleworlds was kind enough to give us a copy, and as such, we have reviewed it. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did, provided you can get over some odd gameplay features.
STORY
The main feature of Mount & Blade is the fact that it has no story--that is, players make their own stories! I mean that quite literally as well. There is no actual set story. Players go through and decide what choices to make--whether to besiege billions of castles or to make tons of money.
AUDIO
The audio in Mount & Blade is short, simple and to the point. A few moans and screams definitely add to the whole war atmosphere. Arrows that whiz by your face make a short "WHIT" sound that leaves players shocked and relieved that the arrow didn't "WHIT" just a little closer to the player's head. There are no other sounds, really, except for the sounds of horse feet pounding on the ground. Mount & Blade lacks a lot of audio that I think could really add to the game, so it definitely loses points there.
GAMEPLAY
Mount & Blade features a fully functional character editor. Rather than spending points on a few all-important skills like strength and vitality, Taleworlds decided instead that they were going to feature a ton of minimal skills. Skills like "Leadership" and "Quick draw" are all stats that do only one or two things. Every level, the player receives one skill point to use on one of these twenty or so minimal skills, one point to use on the important skills like strength, and about fifty points for use on weapon stats (like one-handed, two-handed, etc). Such a variety of skills can easily intimidate players that are new to RTS games, and as such would discourage any further playing past the demo. This, of course, means less sales for Taleworlds.
Ever play a game and shoot an arrow at somebody, only to have the arrows disappear? I hadn't, but then I played Mount & Blade. It's extremely comical to see ten arrows sticking out of a man's chest--then shooting a few more in, just in case. Arrows also stick into shields--I wonder if it's possible to shoot two arrows at the exact same spot, thus breaking one arrow in half? I'll leave it to Robin Hood. Meanwhile, I'll shoot the horses who have lost their masters. Whether or not the horses have a ragdoll engine remains to be said. A part of me says yes, and another part of me says yes--though I'm not entirely sure.
It disappoints me that Mount & Blade followed other games and used a simple health bar instead of pinpoint...hurting. "Pinpoint hurting", as I like to call it, is basically a health system that impedes a player's ability to function when shot at certain places, until the player finally dies or is knocked out. This would be much more amusing, and it's already being used in a Unity game by Flashbang Studios. The game is called Minotaur China Shop, though it's in closed beta so we won't talk about it here.
Unfortunately, Mount & Blade suffers from extreme repetition. The battles are fun no matter how many times you fight, but gathering soldiers and moving around the map is too boring to be called gameplay. There are also very noticeable pauses between dialogue whilst in towns. Talking to someone opens instantly, yet when you leave the dialogue, it takes around ten seconds to go back! This is something that must be fixed, if possible--it cripples the gameplay experience for those of us who go into town a lot. In addition, most of the gameplay isn't fighting--it's outfitting your character with the necessary skills and equipment needed. After you finally get past that, you also get to hire heroes--who, like you, need to go through the long process of upgrading.
SO while Mount & Blade is incredibly fun in some aspects, it does suffer from some bad choices. Hopefully, Taleworlds will realize their mistakes and fix them--I do look forward to future games from them.
VISUAL
The graphics in Mount & Blade leave something to be desired. Even on max detail, the trees still look very...bad. The dynamic lighting and whatnot looks stunning, I admit. In addition, the shadows do look spectacular--on the highest settings, at least. Though, the trees do look awful. I don't know why, but I have something against developers not paying attention to detail in shrubbery. It makes me mad. I do commend Taleworlds for their excellent work most everywhere else--aside from the facial graphics--but I really do think the trees could be better!
REPLAY
The replayability in Mount & Blade is possibly what the game is about. Players can literally take over the entire land of Calradia--and then do it all over again on a new account. In addition, there is a huge variety of skills available for players to level as they see fit, so no two characters are ever the same. These skills vastly change the outcome of the entire game. I'd like to share my philosophy as to how a small little dust particle can change the outcome of a certain event, but that's for another article.
Taleworlds certainly knew what they were doing with Mount & Blade. The amount of attention to the replayability astounds me. No two games are EVER the same. Some may end up as a rebel, trying to defeat an entire country, while some may end up in possession of an entire country! In addition, players can build mills and whatnot in towns, as an added way to make such a variety in gameplay.
OVERALL
Mount & Blade is an excellent game, well worth a small fee of $29.99--that's not even thirty dollars! Fans of RTS games will not be disappointed, though newcomers will feel slightly overwhelmed. Some annoying aspects are a hindrance, yes, however the game is still incredibly fun nonetheless. I hope everyone has as much fun as I did playing this game.
"Mount & Blade (PC)" is on sale November 3, 2008 and is rated T. Action, Adventure, Fighting, RPG, Strategy. Developed and published by Taleworlds.
