Mount and Blade

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Mount and Blade is an action role playing game that was developed by Tale Worlds and was released for the PC on September 16, 2008.

Developer: TaleWorlds
Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Release Date: September 16, 2008
Platforms: PC
JustRPG Score: 80%
Pros:
+Addictive gameplay.
+Fun combat system.
+Interesting strategic elements.
Cons:
-Controls are hard to learn.
-Dated graphics.

Overview

Mount and Blade Overview

Mount and Blade is an action role playing game where the players takes on the role of a warrior trying to gain fame and recognition. The game has an open world and has no clear direction so the player can choose how their adventure will play out. The combat system is unique and allows the player to control their own army and allows for strategic elements such as higher ground and morale. Overall the game is extremely fun and can provide many hours of gameplay.

Mount and Blade Screenshots

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Mount and Blade Featured Video

Full Review

Mount and Blade Review

Mount & Blade is a medieval RPG where you take on the role of a person with no loyalties. You are of many backgrounds, good and bad. Your life turns around one day, but you find yourself changing to a life of carnage.

Starting a new game will let you choose a set of backgrounds for your character. Depending on what you choose, you will get certain boosts to your attributes. These are a huge help, especially at the beginning.

Once you are done choosing your backgrounds, you will end up on the main map. This is where you will be most of the time. There are five kingdoms that you can either join or have as enemies. So far, I have only joined one kingdom. I don’t know if you can join more than one. A good thing is that all the kingdoms are color coded. The bad thing is that there isn’t any way to tell what kingdom is what until you’ve played it for awhile. You can check to see what cities and castles belong to, though, by hovering over them. In the quests menu, there are also tabs to check out and see the characters, locations, and factions of the entire game.

At the beginning, you will start out with little denars, the currency, and be very weak. Depending on your background, though, your starting equipment will also be different. My equipment was very good and I even started with a horse.

As you go from village to village, you will be able to recruit people, go to the village center, buy supplies, or take a hostile action. Every recruit costs only 10 denars, which is a very small price. Recruits will also be able to grow into stronger units, and at one point will be unstoppable. Buying supplies from peasants can be good if you are not near a city. Your party needs food to keep up its morale. When taking a hostile action, you can force the peasants to give you supplies, steal their cattle, or pillage and burn the town down. Pillaging can only be done to enemy towns, though.

In cities, you will be able to participate in tournaments, go to the castle, walk around the streets, visit the tavern, enter the arena, go to the marketplace, or wait. Tournaments are a great way to make money and to become more proficient in weapons you don’t use.

During a tournament, you can also bet on yourself. You can only bet on yourself, but if the odds are highly against you, you will get more denars. When you are actually fighting in a tournament, you won’t have your own equipment on. Instead, it’s just some practice equipment. The only things that you will have that are yours are your attributes, skills, and proficiencies.

There are many skills to get, and some of them need you to gain more attributes, like leadership. Leadership is very important for you because it increases the number of people you can have in your party. Leadership needs charisma to gain ranks in it.

In the arena, you engage in a free-for-all melee that is like the tournament. Defeating a certain amount of people will yield a certain amount of denars, but if you win, you will get 250 denars and 200 experience. There are 40 people in all you have to beat to get there, though, and it can be tough, but it is a good way to make some experience and denars.

Depending on the number of members you have in your party, there will be people chasing you to do battle. These range from looters to the enemy of your kingdom. Once you have a large enough army, the smaller units, like the looters, will actually run away from you, making it harder to level.

To be able to chase them efficiently or run away from a tough enemy, it is a good idea to have a horse. Horses increase your movement speed by a lot. On the map they are great, but in battle they can be life savers. Just by having a horse, you alone could take out around 20 enemies, if they were on foot. There are a few weapons and shields that you can’t use on horses. They are expensive to buy, but they are definitely worth it.

During battle, you will notice that you are in a gigantic area. You could literally have immense battles on these fields. Even though there is no multiplayer out yet, the enemy can get reinforcements, but so can you.

Fighting is cool in this game for melee weapons, because where you aim the camera depends on where your swing will be. For example, if you have your camera aiming more towards the right, you will swing it back that way and do a leftward strike. Or if you had it facing up, you would hold your weapon up for a downward slash.

You will also see many messages that state who killed who, and if there are reinforcements arriving. If the message is in blue, it means one of your allies killed an enemy. Yellow means one of your allies is wounded or unconscious. Red means that one of your allies has been slain.

Mount & Blade is a great game for anyone, and can be used on many computers. There are many quests to obtain from the five kingdoms–join one or become an enemy to all. Even though it doesn’t have multiplayer, which will be coming out soon, I give Mount & Blade a 90.

Final Grade: 90%

PC
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Mount and Blade

Mount and Blade Overview

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Mount and Blade Review

Mount and Blade Screenshots

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