Mount & Blade: Warband is it Exciting to Play?

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I’ve been playing Mount & Blade: Warband for many years. It’s a great strategy RPG game where you are in control of your own army. While also being able to fight alongside them. It was developed by TaleWorlds Entertainment and released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Android, Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Macintosh operating systems, and Classic Mac OS. A ten-year-old game that offers a lot of gameplay.

Mount & Blade: Warband Gameplay

At the start of the game you are ambushed and you manage to beat back your ambushers. A local merchant offers you a job, which entails you hiring five soldiers to help kill some bandits. Whether you complete this mission is up to you, as the game then opens up.

What you do next is entirely up to you. You can either strive to be a trader making money from buying and selling either produce or if you are slightly morally corrupt you can ransom prisoners you capture from beating other armies. The majority of the people in the world won’t mind you ransoming bandits, but it becomes an issue when you try to do the same to a general from one of the many factions.

If trade isn’t your thing, you can take part in arena battles. This involves you stripping down to no armour and a basic training weapon assigned at random. You are then teleported to an arena in an everyone for themselves battle. Knocking out more than three earns you gold. Beat everyone and survive to the end then you receive a nice bonus. There are also tournaments in which the participants are split into teams and battle through many rounds. You can bet on yourself to win which can result in a huge payday should you win.

Mount & Blade: Warband No More Mr/Mrs. Civilian

If you prefer a riskier approach you can wage war on bandits. These usually range from a small band of 5 up to 30 soldiers. At the start, the army with the highest number normally wins, so it’s worth taking the scenic route and visit the settlements to recruit more soldiers.

Once you win a fight, you and your soldiers receive Experience. When your soldiers are ready to level up, they can move up the ladder to stronger and better-equipped soldiers. Not only does it cost money initially to upgrade them, but their weekly wage also goes up. This means you need to do more raiding so you can sell more goods.

Yes King

You can align your army to one of the many factions throughout the world. This exposes your army to the enemies of that faction. Which isn’t a bad thing. It means you can attack them, often with backup if you stick to other generals of the same faction. As long as you only attack the enemies of the faction there are no drawbacks.

There is a second stage to aligning yourself to the King of a faction. This will often result in you earning a fief. A small settlement that will pay you tax on the same day you pay wages out to your soldiers. Keep the village safe and it will prosper. If it becomes prosperous the amount of tax will increase.

Get on a first-name basis with the factions King and you may be rewarded with your own Town and even a castle. Which increases the amount of tax you receive. But this will start to spread your army thin.

And More

There is so much more to Mount & Blade: Warband (click here to buy it from Fanatical*.) I haven’t even touched the RPG elements which make each character you play unique. Get to a certain point and losing battles doesn’t become so infuriating.

There is even a romance element, where you can woo a Lady/Lord. Once your relationship is at a high level you can get married and receive marriage bonuses.

If you need a game to lose many hours to this is certainly the game for you. Even at times I felt like I lost interest I changed my goals and it extended the play time immensely. I don’t even think after 20 hours that I’m close to the end of the content.

Graphics

This is almost a 11-year-old game and I wouldn’t expect much. Even on high specs, I found it ran flawlessly on my gaming PC. And the graphics can be improved with mods. This is the only area which could use an improvement.

The characters do all look unique in some way, but since there are so many lords and ladies it’s hard to keep track of them. Then there are the villagers and soldiers who look the same. But for the time I’m sure that was the norm.

Final Verdict

Mount & Blade: Warband is a game I keep coming back to regardless of what genre I’m currently focused on. It can be played at your own pace. You can choose if you go on a killing spree or trade with the locals. Or you may focus on your reputation for one village.

For its replayability and the great gameplay alone I give Mount & Blade: Warband a 4/5. I am looking forward to playing the sequel, but there is also DLC to get stuck into first.

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