Game of the Day
Mount & Blade
ESRB Rating: [T] Alcohol Reference, Blood, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence
The developing company, Tale Worlds, has released several Mount & Blade games with the help of publishing company Paradox Interactive. The first game, Mount & Blade, was released on September 16th of 2008. Since then it was given a boost to its lifespan thanks to Steam. However popular this game may be, some still judge games based on looks - this game would be a bad choice for that mindset. It's a good thing its 72/100 rating (which is pretty good for an indie game) indicated there is more than meets the eye.
Looks like a fellow you might not want living next to you. In regards to the level of graphics this game contains, there's not much you need to see in beauty. This game is very much about strategy, and how well you play your cards. From simple battles as a manhunter (capturing enemies to sell them to the ransom broker), to larger battles as part of a kingdom (even your own), this game calculates your outcomes from saving villages and making a kingdom prosper to sending military of opposing forces after you to capture you for ransom. While playing, you'll see messages appearing on the left-hand side of the screen alerting you of kingdoms' economic standings or the victory of a noble in battle.
There are several kingdoms that are built from past civilizations:
Khergit Khanate: based off Mongol and Turkic civilizations specialize their combat in horseback archery and light cavalry.
Kingdom of Nords: based off Viking civilization specialize their combat in various infantry units.
Kingdom of Rhodoks: based off olden Alpine Kingdoms specialize in crossbowmen and spearmen as the French (Burgundian) and Northern German civilizations are depicted.
Kingdom of Swadia: resemble Western European kingdoms, and focus their troop specializations in heavy cavalry.
Kingdom of Vaegirs: resemble Eastern European civilizations, and specialize in archery.
The sandbox-type style of this game creates nearly infinite possibilities for you to explore, and gameplay will never be the same twice. Your attributes, skills, and (weapon) proficiencies upon character creation and leveling up:
STR (Strength) will make you more resilient in combat by adding hit points to your character's life force while also granting the improved capacity of points in certain skills such as Ironflesh (adding more hit points) and Power-Throw (increases damage from throwing weapons like javelins and throwing axes).
AGI (Agility) grants weapon proficiency points and increases the capacity of points on skills such as Shield (reduced damage to your shield and grants coverage by your shield), and Horse Archery (reduces penalties to ranged weaponry used while on horseback).
INT (Intelligence) immediately grants an extra skill point, and improves the capacity for skills like Path-Finding (increases your party's movement speed on the map) and First Aid (grants bonus hit point recovery from hit points lost after a battle).
CHA (Charisma) grants a party size of +1 per point, and increases your skill capacity for three skills: Prisoner Management (allows you 5 prisoners per point), Leadership (allows you to command 5 troops per point, increases party morale, and reduced the costs of your troops), and Trade (decreases your trade penalty by 5% per point)
I could go through all of the skills I didn't mention, but that would take far too much time. In a summary, skills increase your abilities in combat and out of combat - increased weapon accuracy and damage; ability to trade, talk to nobles, or manage inventory space; grant extra experience to troops and help with the recovery process between battles.
Your proficiencies increase your damage and accuracy with specific weapon types: One-Handed, Two-Handed, Polearms, Archery (Bows), Crossbows, and Throwing (axes, javelins, darts, etc.)
Remember the detail (or lack thereof) during the character creation? Good news! You don't look at your character's face, so suck it up! Downside - You get to look at enemy and ally faces... So I guess there's that. We can disregard all of that, because the battle is quite strategic and doesn't focus on how pretty your surroundings are. You can direct attacks based on your cursor's location in relation to your character or the movement key you're using. An over-handed swing (chop), a swing of your weapon from side to side (slash), or even a thrusting attack are all possible. In the screenshot above, you can see my character making a slashing attack from horseback.
In this screenshot you can see my character using a crossbow from horseback as well. Those three cursor marks indicate any area my bolt can travel once I fire my crossbow - at this point it is readied to fire. What's interesting is once the attack button is held for a ranged weapon, your cursors will focus in for a moment and slowly move outward. This indicates the lack of steadiness due to strain on your character's arms (with a bow's pull weight or the weight of a crossbow in general). Fire quickly but precisely. Also, each marker stands for something in particular. Firing when these points are on your enemy when focused in and moving will grant you more accuracy - you can learn about this in the tutorial (which I suggest). Be careful though, you don't have an abundance of ammunition unless you stock up various ammunitions in your inventory slots seen below:
From doing quests for villagers get rid of bandits or retrieving runaway livestock to playing the game as a trader to help all kingdoms prosper to conquering all kingdoms for your own sake, this game allows many hours of gameplay. I currently have 47 hours on record and plan to drop some more on the table. It's the kind of game I can play once in a while, but I will play for several hours before I stop for the day or night. It can keep you busy, keep you entertained, keep you thinking, and keep you wanting more.
For only $9.99 on Steam, I'd say it's a steal. However, during sale times (especially with the winter sale coming up soon) it's practically a free game when on sale for 50% - **75%** off.
Hire some villagers, ransack a village, hijack a caravan, capture some bandits, raise an army, and become your own man/woman in this great game.
Leveling the Troops
Selling the Prisoners
