The vast reaches of the world there is a place called Calradia which for reasons to numerous to mention has engaged in ongoing wars. Into this once peaceful medieval land have flooded adventurers, knights, mercenaries and thieves all looking to make their fortune at the expense of those weaker then themselves. This is the world of Mount & Blade, the new first and third person RPG.

Mount & Blade is a first or third person adventure/role playing game where players must fight and carry out various missions to earn fame and money in their personal quests to glory for their character. Taking on the role of hero, bandit, knight or other medieval types players must carry out missions to earn gold and fame in the kingdoms of the game.

The first thing to do in this game is learn how to play it and they have included a good tutorial for this. You first learn to move using the WASD buttons on the keyboard for moving about and when riding which can be a little tricky at first. Once you can move back and forth and side to side you begin to train with weapons against a simple opponent.
The name of this game is combat so you must learn the proper use of edged weapons as well as bow and crossbows if you hope to survive. There is a set style to combat where you can either attack or defend as well as do power attacks. Combat is fast paced in this game and getting hits will be tricky for awhile.

Once you have beaten a few practice men and shot some arrows, you get to practice on horseback. Mounted combat is far more devastating in the game then fighting on foot but it’s also fast paced and difficult to score hits from horseback. You can practice all you like charging targets and trying to get hits with the crossbow from horseback, but once you feel good about it, it’s on to the campaign game.

You start out outside a town as a relative nobody looking to make your way in the world by the sword. In the towns you can rest, hire allies to fight with you, acquire better weapons and armor as can be hired to carry our quests. The towns are well done and have some random townspeople to talk to in the game.

Quests can be had from guild masters or you could go to the castle and see the local lord for one, but since you are unknown they probably won’t help you much. Once you are done walking and talking you can leave town and enter the campaign map.

On this map you will see groups of enemies and neutrals moving about and you can attacked them and in turn be attacked. Be careful at first to not get in over your head in battle as a quick death awaits the foolish in this game. Once you decide to fight a group the screen switches to an interface where you can try to escape, pay ransom or fight.

If you fight you will be placed in the countryside with whatever allies you may have and they will run towards the enemy unless you order them to do otherwise. Your character starts with a horse, a sword, a crossbow and shield and some light armor so you can do a lot of damage to weak enemies like looters.

Combat is fast and furious as you try to cut down the enemy with slashes and crossbow shots and they shoot and fight back. It is quite difficult to get just the right angle to swing and hot an enemy, but you can move the camera angles with the mouse and this helps in combat.

The interface is rather simple and the look of the game overall is very nice. It does give a good period feel of the middle ages but be warned that this is a game of combat and conquest and most of the time is spent fighting tactical battles. The music is nice in the game and overall it’s a fun battle game with some strategy and campaign planning added.

Rating:
Our Scoring System

login or register to post comments