Mount & Blade: Warband

Skip to the bottom of the review for a summary of things I thought were good and bad about Warband. The update I posted before has been moved to the DRM section.

Mount and Blade: Warband is a standalone expansion to Mount and Blade. It adds several new features, such as a multiplayer mode and some changes to the singleplayer mode. As such, I think it would be a good idea for you to wait until the price drops if you bought the first Mount and Blade, and you aren't interested in Warband's multiplayer. If you didn't get the first M&B, I recommend that you buy Warband.

Graphics: Warband's graphics are like M&B's graphics. However, there are added options (such as antialiasing) that improves Warband's appearance. Character animations have been redone. I like the new animations, as they seem smoother. Attacks while on cavalry no longer go right through your horse's head. However, the attack animations don't look as forceful as the animations in the first M&B.
Certain old meshes, like the horrible looking bandit vest, are still present in the game.

General Additions/Changes: The gameplay has been improved with additional features to spice things up. For example, players can now kick enemies, making their foes open to an attack. Throwing weapons can be switched to melee weapons with the press of a button. Enemies are more difficult to hit because the hitboxes were changed to be more accurate. Lancing now has the option of being like it was in the first M&B, or it can be made more difficult to use. The new faction, the Sarrinid Sultanate, have a very unique and interesting feel to them. There is a much larger variety of banners to choose as well.

Singleplayer: The singleplayer mode has been improved quite a bit. Instead of simply starting at a random area, like in the first game, you can choose one of five castles (one for each faction); there is also a starting quest. Factions no longer need the player's help in starting wars or making peace; they will do all of those things on their own.
There is a wider variety of areas. Villages and castles now have a more unique feel for each faction.
The player can now become a king or queen, and may marry a lord or a lord's daughter.
There are more characters and scenarios in the custom battle mode. I do find it strange that you can't just put your character in the custom battle mode, though.

Multiplayer: I find Warband's multiplayer to be enjoyable. Like in the singleplayer mode, you can give your character a unique appearance. There are a few game modes to choose from, like deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, and siege.
Server hosts can set the number bots that will spawn in the game. When you join a game, you choose between two out of the five factions, which are either random or chosen by voting players. Once you choose a side, you pick a class, which is different depending on which faction you chose. Then you choose your equipment (which is based on class) with money that you start out with and continue to earn as you gain points.

While the multiplayer is fun, Taleworlds has some work ahead of them. Weapon ranges are awkward: like in the first game, your spear will occasionally go right though a player and not do any damage. The factions are somewhat imbalanced, and some classes have much more equipment to choose from than others.
I consider the current multiplayer to be similar to that of the Stalker series. The multiplayer for both games lack some of the great parts from the singleplayer experience. In Warband's case, there are no stats and there is a lesser variety of equipment to choose from.

I really wish that Taleworlds worked on a cooperative mode instead of a competitive mode; Mount and Blade seems like it would have been more suited to keeping the depth of the singleplayer.

DRM: The DRM for Warband is just like the DRM in the first game, which means that you have to register you serial key online. However, this DRM is not as imposing as other types of DRM, like certain types of Securom or Steam. Instead of being completely unable to play the game if you don't register, you can get to level 8 and play for 30 game-days in the singleplayer. Once you register, you don't have to stay connected to the internet to play.

UPDATE: I made a mistake on the DRM section of the review. The boxed version installs Steam. However, the game itself doesn't actually need Steam to run, so once you register your copy with Steam/Warband's DRM, you can play without Steam. If your key that you got from the box doesn't work, there is another method of playing without Steam that is below. I apologize for my mistake.

Go to the Taleworlds forums if you want to remove Steam. The information required is at the bottom of the first post in the thread called 'Forced to Run Steam - Not Amused'. Unfortunately, I can't post a direct link.

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The Good: Multiplayer mode, improvements to various aspects of the first game (single player, graphics, gameplay).

The Neutral: The new animations might not be for everyone.

The Bad: Game might not be worth the price if you're buying it for the single player. Certain old meshes are still present. The multiplayer mode needs to be balanced. Some problems still persist from the first game, such as weapon ranges. The lack of a cooperative mode is somewhat disappointing.

Overall, I liked Warband. It's not drop dead amazing, but it is a good expansion to a good game. It seems worth the price to me, though.

This game is purely addicting. The game delivers raw intuitive gameplay and provides an interesting mix of strategy, RPG elements, and first/third person combat. If you played the original, you are already aware of this fact.

Warband delivers a much needed update. Not only has Taleworlds completely redrawn the map of Calradia from scratch, but they've added a ton of features. The game will play a lot like the original M&B, but with a lot of added features. The biggest feature is the idea of marriage. Players can establish political connections by taking a wife or husband. This adds a new element to the game, and actually makes the player's sex an interesting factor in the game. Male characters will start off more liked by the nobles and have an easier time getting established with the lords, but the female characters will have a huge advantage late game by being able to marry a warlord.

Other features include jailbreaks, which, while currently a bit buggy, add a new level of difficulty to the game. When your companions are captured after you lose a battle, your forced to sneak into an enemy castle and bust them out. To add icing on the cake, you need to do wearing nothing more than regular clothes and a walking stick. Once you fight your way into the jail, your companions will help fight their way out. Its a cool feature, but unfortunately there's a bug where your companions don't listen to your commands at the moment.

Multiplayer is a whole new game in itself. Once you think you've gotten good at M&B, you sign online and get your bum handed to you in a hand basket. Player vs player fights are immensely challenging, and very well balanced at the moment. Multiplayer really goes to show that, although the game is intuitive and easy to learn, there is a lot to master. Multiplayer is also very well balanced. Unlike most games on release, where several tactics or factions are strongly overpowered, all factions and classes are viable, without overpowering others. Multiplayer also allows for battles on a massive scale. Naturally, the game can have up to 64 players without any tweaks. However, I've heard of a server in Europe that has increased this to 244 players. Once better quality ISPs are made available, this could become the norm.

Much like the original, the game is also incredibly mod friendly. Players have already reported successful mods like the infamous return of the "Fish Mod" from the original M&B. Mods can now utilize Warband's multiplayer capabilities as well. Expect to see some total overhaul mods in the future. Its like buying one game and getting a dozen others for free.

That was the good.

Now here's the bad
-Some bugs still exist in the game, but Taleworlds is tirelessly trying to patch them up. >Most of the bugs that other reviewers have whined about are already fixed<
-Boxed version of the game will come with steam. If you aren't a fan of steam, you can still use your serial key to download the game off taleworld's website, and play steam free, but its a bit of an inconvenience.

Scorecard:
Graphics 5/10
Graphics are nothing to drool over, but will run incredibly well on all systems. Keeping the graphics low key was probably a smart move because the game is designed for massive scale battles (150 units on the field)

Gameplay 9/10
Very fun, easy to learn, and highly addicting. I've spent way too long playing the game already

Balance 9/10
Excellently done. Some small adjustments could be done (like 'sweet spots' in swing arks) but there are no Sagatts or "hammerdins" in this game. Every unit has a strength to be used and weakness to be exploited against.

Sound 3/10
Sound is a bit lacking, and very little voice acting done.

DRM 9/10
Online activation is a very non-intrusive form of stopping piracy. No root-kits or secuROM here! Would have rated 10/10 if steam had not been included in the boxed version. (NOTE: if you don't care for steam, you can use the downloaded version instead and be steam free)

Overall 9/10 (not an average)
Definitely a title to add to your collection and well worth the money. My friends and I have already dedicated 100s of hours playing this game.

This game is for fans of the first game that wanted a little more in the game. It is basically an improvement of the first Mount & Blade. If you haven't played the first one then you should definetly try this out. This game is amazing when compared to what else is out there. There is so much to this game and it is really immersive. Here's a couple of the cool things about this game...

-You actually fight the battles out instead of just letting your armies go at it like in other games
-You can become many things including a lord, a sword for hire, merchant, etc...and none of the options is ever closed off to your character.
-You not only fight roving bandits, deserters, and other armies but you can actually lay seige to castles and ACTUALLY BE A PART OF THE SEIGE. This means that you build the seige weapons and utilize them during the attack on the castle.
-The combat is more responsive than the first game but you may have to change a couple of the options to make it work like you want it to.
-You set the pace of the game. If you like to play slowly and be more strategic then you can do that by slowing down the combat and spending your time in the world building up your army, then send your army into combat without you. Or you can travel around known areas for raiders and be in constant battle and even declare your sword for another lord right off and go toe to toe with other armies and spend the game taking cities and castles.

If you haven't played the first game then I would give this a five star rating. Otherwise, this is mostly the same great game with some improvements (basically an expansion).

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 80 reviews  3.9 out of 5 stars