Mount & Blade: Warband will be released worldwide today, so I thought the time right to post some of my impressions of the beta test (for pre-orders) thus far.
Warband expands upon the basic Mount & Blade formula of a medieval life simulator/RPG with realistic combat mechanics. So you still create a character and in classic RPG style head out into a harsh medieval world to make a name for yourself. But this time you can actually become the ruler of a faction and marry ladies (or lords) of the realm, both for romantic and political reasons, but you’ll need to seduce them first.
The star of the show however, is the new multiplayer component. Few experiences in gaming are quite so grand as a 32 vs 32 multiplayer melee, with archers, crossbowmen, mounted troops and footsoldiers scrambling to kill each other. Add in a major graphical overhaul and numerous gameplay enhancements – and you know Tale Worlds has been working hard to make this the best Mount & Blade experience yet.
The singleplayer campaign plays in much the same way as it did back in Mount & Blade. You create a character by selecting a gender, answering a few questions, selecting some skills, a name and attributes and finally altering your appearance. After that you’re off to one of the six major kingdoms (up from M&B with the new sarranid faction) in the game, where you’re approached for an early quest to get you started.
After completing these early quests I started roaming the countryside, exploring nearby villages and recruiting farmers into my band of mercenaries. I even rescued a few poor woman from a random group of deserters I set upon on the world map, and recruited them for my team. But we needed some varied food to keep morale up, as well as funding to pay for wages and troop upgrades, so I set about trading iron from one town to the next at 200% profit margin to build up my funds.
Soon I had a mighty force of 11 mercenaries and we got hired to train local farmers into a makeshift militia, herding fresh lifestock to a ruined village, leading a rabble of townsfolk against a corrupt guardsman and his bandit friends, and so on. This should all be very familiar to Mount & Blade players.
A wide variety of skills and attributes supports many varied playstyles
Yet even at this point in the game there are numerous changes to note. Not least of which are the graphics. It may not be another Dragon Age or Mass Effect 2, but Warband certainly looks a lot better than its predecessor. The new combat animations in particular are a great improvement, as are the many special effects (HDR lighting, depth of field, soft particles) and more detailed textures. It no longer feels like a game developed on a small budget, but like a world you can invest some time in without complaining about the drab look of everything.
The overmap still looks largely the same on first glance, but it’s actually a lot bigger due to the new faction and it contains areas that weren’t present in the original game. It also feels more like a live world, with actual campaigns being started by the various factions and even just a few hours in you’ll start to see major raids and open field battles going across border territories and occassional sieges resulting in territory lines changing. The political system is a lot more convincing, with factions sueing for peace if they loose to much territory, or entrenching themselves if they don’t quite have enough forces to push further in.
As in most RPGs you’ll likely be a better fighter than your companions, but in Mount & Blade that is a direct result of your individual skill. It’s a first person action RPG, with full control over both swordfighting and ranged combat. Your mouse movement decides where blows will land and in which direction your shield will block. In ranged combat you have to take wind direction and distance into account when firing arrows, crossbow bolts or throwing javelins.
But combat has also improved since the original. Sneaky arrows from behind are now stopped by your shield when its strapped on your back, soldiers flee the battle when their morale is broken and you can now refill your ammunition by picking up stray arrows and bolts from the battlefield. You can also use throwing weapons in melee, kick enemies off balance, break blocks, parry, and so on. It all enhances the medieval atmosphere and makes for more intense combat, especially in multiplayer.
The combat animations have been greatly improved
There are six game modes in the new multiplayer component, ranging from Siege to straight-up Team DeathMatch. You can create one character for multiplayer, whose appearance can be customized and banner chosen. However, there is no skill or attribute customization in multiplayer: all combatants are equal… at least in the beginning.
At the start of a multiplayer match you get to choose from one of three roles: ranged combatant, footsoldier or mounted scout. The mounted scouts have a mild advantage (faster movement and both ranged and melee weaponry) so they start with significantly less coin to upgrade their character’s equipment. The other two classes get a slight edge in equipment quality this way, which nicely balances things out.
Superior players will gain a mild advantage during the course of a game, as they kill more players and thus reap greater monetary rewards. Fortunately the basic gear is of such quality that you do not need to upgrade anything to go toe-to-toe with richer combatants. In the end it’s usually player skill, not gear, that determines the victor.
The AI isn't quite as well-organised as human players
Mount & Blade: Warband’s multiplayer is what truly makes it stand out. You get to fight in vast 64-player battles and with the unpredictable nature of human players, these fights never proceed entirely as you expect them to. It’s quite a change from the relatively simple singleplayer combat, but defeating a human player is also significantly more satisfying.
Players seem to be working together even in public servers, with some interesting tactics being fielded that the AI simply cannot perform. Once an opposing team seemed to race straight for us with a group of mounted lancers, but they were a mere distraction as the bulk of their force rained down arrows from the top of a hill on our flank, classic. Another time my team holed up with fifteen crossbowman in a barn, while our remaining forces lured their troops into position directly across from the barn. That many crossbowmen firing at the same time, at close range, meant we cut down a good dozen of them before they could react.
Exploration in singleplayer still occurs on a large overmap
The rather slow-paced movement speed, sparse environments, unforgiving game mechanics and minimalistic UI may turn off a good deal of players. But those looking for a good medieval RPG should give Warband a closer look.
You can get it on Steam, where the full version just went live. Or you can head on over to Impulse and get from that service. It will also be available in regular retail outlets and webshops as of tomorrow.
And if you’re not sure, then check back on GameDrone later as I’ll be providing more coverage of Mount & Blade: Warband in the coming days. The demo for the original Mount & Blade (available on Steam) should also give you a good idea of what to expect.
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