Mount and Blade Warband

Warband is an add on expansion to the original Mount and Blade released in 2008. Mount and blade was at first disliked my many due to no multiplayer and many bugs. Warband has been released to fix these and add many more hours of fun.

In Warband you play as a knight who wants to gain a well known name. The moment you start you are asked to pick a background and your appearance. You will then be placed in to an expansive character skill menu where you can increase your weapon proficiency (One handed, Archery). There are also perks that can be upgraded with improve your overall health points or your ability to persuade. As soon as the game launches you are literally allowed to travel anywhere. Each town you visit, there are many missions that can be started and as well as this you can also recruit your own army by either hiring mercenaries or visiting villages and asking for volunteers. The missions can be quite hard to complete due to no directions. Instead you will have to ask around in the local towns to find a quest giver. Sadly there is no voice acting. This means having to read paragraphs upon paragraphs of speech.

If you are unsure of what to do you will find yourself being dragged around by bandits and losing out on money. There is not too much of a story but this is countered by the huge world to explore. It has a sid meirs pirates feel to it as you start off with next to nothing and manage to grow a huge army after time.The gameplay is very simple and possibly too simple. There are several main weapons that can be used Bows, Crossbows, Polearm, one handed and two handed. You can also use all of these on horseback which adds a new way to play. To fight you simply use the mouse to attack and block and wasd to move. Battles are especially entertaining when you have large armies at your side attacking huge castles. The graphics could be improved but they may not be great due to the amount of soliders on the same battlefield. As well as this the gameplay can sometimes feel slow and little effect is shown when you hit them with arrows or a sword.

As well as just battling bandits and taking over castles Mount and Blade Warband also offers over little features like fighting in the arena and making friends with companions. You can even customise your companions armour and weapons.The multiplayer of this game which was missed in the original game will be what continusaly brings you back. There are many game types (conquest, capture the flag etc.) and you can have up to 100 bots on each side. You can find a server with ease. The multiplayer is great but there are no co operative game types which would work great.

All in all mount and blade warband is a great game which will keep you entertained for hours. Everything that was missing from Mount and blade has now been added to this great add on. If you do not own warband and you own the original game make sure to put this on your wishlist. It adds much much more from multiplayer to great new features like arena. Of course it has its bad points the graphics aren’t great but this can easily be surpassed. It doesn’t compare to top quality games but it will easily impress you with huge battles and giant castles.