Mount and Blade: Warband

⭐ 6.5/10

(Originally written by niklasj08)

While my score may not show it, I absolutely adore this game. At first, Warband was one of the most frustrating gaming experiences ever. Combat felt incredibly janky, the PS4 port's UI was so unintuitive that it was borderline rage-inducing, and the gameplay seemed cruelly punishing. And yet... I couldn't stop playing it.

The learning curve is steep, and in the early game you will get curb-stomped constantly, but once you begin to slowly get better at combat, develop battle strategies, and learn the rest of the ins-and-outs, Warband becomes one of the most gratifying gameplay loops possible, The game throws you into it's world and leaves you to figure it out, and you feel like a genius when you finally do. From charging at a rival army at the head of a mass of armored cavalry, to sniping a fleeing Lord from across the battle-map with a crossbow, to crushing an enemy city after a hard fought battle, there are countless times that I truly felt like a conqueror.

I remember finally having beaten the game after hundreds of hours, and immediately thinking of the quote "When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer". The game was frustrating, challenging, and extremely punishing, and yet, all of that made the final victory so much sweeter. I do not think I will ever have an experience with another game like I did with Warband, but I hope one proves me wrong sometime.

While I love Warband, there are definitely some glaring issues. I cannot emphasize enough how poorly the PS4 port is adapted, and trying to navigate the menus, inventory systems, and battle commands is a nightmare. The graphics are laughably bad (even for a game released in 2010), although the studio who developed it is very small, and I'm sure they did the best they could with what they had. While the intricate political/relationship systems between NPCs is very good, the characters themselves feel very 2-dimensional. This game is also an amazing blank slate to insert your own head-canon, but there really isn't much actual story to draw on from the game itself.

Yet, in spite of all the glaring issues, I still highly recommend Warband, If you are willing to invest the time and patience required, I promise you it will be worth it in the end.