Thursday, January 26, 2017

Mount & Blade - Initial Thoughts

About the Game (From the Steam Store Page)

 Calradia is a land at war, offering great riches and even greater dangers to adventurers and mercenaries that flock to shed their blood on its soil. With courage and a strong sword, an unknown stranger can make a name as a warrior.

Free-form sand-box gameplay. You are free to go anywhere in a world with more than a hundred unique locations including villages, castles and towns.

Groundbreaking horseback combat.

Highly advanced and intuitive sword-fighting systems.

Fight on horseback and foot using a vast variety of medieval weapons, each with unique characteristics.

You can be anything from a lonesome adventurer to a commander of armies or an owner of villages, castles or towns.

Sophisticated AI will challenge you in combat and in your strategic plans.
Freedom to interact with hundreds of characters.

Previous Playtime

77 minutes

What Was I Thinking When I Bought This

I got this as part of a bundle with all the other Mount & Blade games. Back then, I was still naive to the opportunity costs that came with PC games, and thus I thought "well, I could get one game for five dollars, or three for only three dollars more - I'd be a fool to pass up the bundle." It wasn't until later that I learned that Mount & Blade: Warband was the only one I really needed. Oops.

Expectations and Prior Experience

Well, I played the tutorial and messed around with character creation, but in the middle of all that I learned that its semi-sequel was strictly superior in ever regard, so I dropped it pretty fast. I enjoyed Mount & Blade: Warband, though it often frustrated me, and I've now got the sort of anxiety that usually accompanies playing a more primitive version of a game I've enjoyed. Will this entry in the series be like the later one, but with fewer quality of life improvements? Will I miss certain features of the later game, or will it be more complicated, and with a steeper learning curve? Will it be less forgiving or more exploitable?

I imagine that my trip through this medieval fantasy world is going to be just as bumbling and incompetent the second time round, regardless of how Mount & Blade stacks up to Mount & Blade: Warband. I'm just going to have to learn to be okay with that.

1 comment:

  1. I tried M&B after some glowing recommendations, but I found it rather opaque, and the process of becoming good at it wasn't fun. In the end, I dropped it. I hope you find the process more enjoyable.

    -PAS

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