Spurious Logic

Mount and Blade: Warband

Wow, lots of game related posts. I swear I have been studying too.

I first played Mount and Blade about 5 years ago. It was being released as a pay for beta and then when the full game came out the activation key would work with that as well. I think I paid around $15 back then and I played it quite a bit for a good few months before hitting the point at which I had a pretty high level character and all the equipment I'd need so I got a bit bored of it as there was nothing new to do. 3~4 years later and the full game was released with functionality of setting up your own kingdom. Single player only.

Last year, Mount and Blade: Warband was released. This is either a different game or an expandalone (which is a category I don't get). Whichever, the original key wouldn't work with this game. (which is kinda a moot point for me as I'd lost the key and couldn't remember which email address it was sent from). I don't have a huge issue with this really as I more than got my moneys worth from the first game and I was happy to support what was an independent developer. I guess it just feels like a bit of a switch and bait on the early adopters who supported the initial development.

The only other issue with it is the name. When I was thinking of buying the game I wasn't sure which to get. Did "Mount and Blade" have single player content which "Mount and Blade: Warband" not have? Was "Warband" just multiplayer? As it is they're both being sold at the same price but "Mount and Blade: Warband" has everything "Mount and Blade" has, plus multiplayer. They would be much better served to either drop "Mount and Blade" and just sell "Warband" or offer a steep discount on the single player only game and use it as a introductory offer. I have the feeling that this weirdness has something to do with the beta buy in key deal. i.e. They don't want to give the early adopters the multiplayer for free.

That out of the way, it's a great game. Really, really good. The single player campaign has been broadened out. I'm still not sure as to how much fun you'd have running a purely trade oriented character as I'm more into the combat side of things.

Combat... actual duels are possible. With blocking, feints, swings, thrusts, parries and kicks. Different weapons do different types of damage. Bows and crossbows fire missiles with trajectories, meaning that you have to aim above the target at distance. Horses! That actually feel vaguely like horses as opposed to cars of the 11th century and which allow you to ride around spearing/arrowing (I know it's not a verb but it should be).

I enabled cheats for one of my first characters (inevitably "Conan"), bumped him up to level 30 and set about setting up my independent kingdom. Which wasn't possible earlier but is now, if very very difficult. It wasn't long before the fun of having all the money/weapons/skills I wanted wore off but it's a nice way to play around with the higher levels and progression overall.

So I went back to level 1 and started out with a mercenary type character, "Hawkwood" (bonus points if you get the reference) and set about pillaging and rapine for kingdom of Swadia. Before too long I'd built up a small band ~30-40 soldiers of low/medium level troops and become a vassal to the king. Which means I've got to manage my own village, join campaigns when requested to do, get invited to the feasts but overall I'm left to my own devices. Those devices mainly being, looking for trouble from small groups of enemies so I can steal their stuff to pay for more troops.

While the only real career paths are trading warrior or fighting merchant, the game seems much more complete than that. The combat really is at the core of the game and the campaign is basically a way to provide meaning to the fights, allow you to equip your character differently. Occasionally the campaign does feel somewhat aimless when there is no active campaign and you are just picking fights with bandits to get the cash in. And every now and then you find yourself in a battle where your men are all but wiped out, through no fault of your own.

I have found that playing the game as the glorious chivalrous knight, which is fine in theory, doesn't really work. You're much better off playing the role of a morally flexible mercenary (hence the Hawkwood name).

Multiplayer is very active and there's plenty of populated servers out and about. While with all public servers there's problems with team killers there is in general a much more 'mature' crowd playing. It doesn't lend itself to the douchebaggery I remember seeing on counter strike and other shooters. I think it's the genre of swords and arrows which puts them off.