March 4th, 2024
5:23pm
Mount and Blade; Warband | 7.5/10
A few years ago I had an idea for a game. The main idea was that by gaining the trust of NPCs and networking, you can climb the ranks of nobility and gain power throughout the land. This would eventually lead to being in charge of an army, fighting wars against different kingdoms, and essentially becoming an emperor or warlord or other title of your choosing. The choice of whether to roam and conquer land or climb the royal ladder to serve a king is left up to you. Well, little did I know, this game already exists, and as you may have guessed by the title of this post, it's called Mount and Blade; Warband.
Gameplay
Combat
The combat is where most of my qualms with this game arise, although I still commend the developers for experimenting. Depending on which way you move your mouse while attacking, your character swings their weapon in different ways. I really wouldn't have any problems with the combat and its execution in the game... if I knew where my attack was going to land. There isn't any sort of crosshair or aiming system (at least for melee weapons) so you're mostly just eyeballing whether or not your attack will hit or miss. Blocking is also directional, meaning you have to move your mouse in specific directions to block specific attacks. Again, I wouldn't really have much of a problem with this either if I could just tell which direction the enemy is attacking from. It's very difficult to determine which way to block in time, so I usually don't bother blocking unless I'm overwhelmed with enemies. In an ideal combat scenario, I'm facing one to four enemies in an open field and I can easily manage the space between me and them to avoid their attacks. This is of course assuming that I'm on foot and not on horseback. Horse combat is much more satisfying in my opinion, but still frustrating at times. Depending on your horse's stats and your riding ability, lower level horses are practically unrideable unless you intend on only heading forward in a straight line. Although I will admit I'm biased when it comes to horses in games after playing Red Dead 2 for hundreds of hours.
In all, the combat is forgiveable only because the rest of the game makes the effort worthwhile.