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dkirschner's Mount & Blade (PC)

[February 5, 2016 03:27:02 PM]

I did not realize this game was so old (2007!). I also didn't realize that there was a sequel (Mount & Blade: Warband) that is supposedly everything Mount & Blade is and more. Come to think of it, I think that I thought I was playing Warband because I remember reading about Mount & Blade's great multiplayer. Well, the first thing I did was look for multiplayer but there wasn't the option. Sadface.

So what did I unknowingly get myself into? A medieval action-RPG with big battles. Definitely neat. Definitely piqued my interest. You start with a tutorial where you run this awful looking (and naked?) man through a building learning how to attack with a sword and a bow, and how to block with a shield and a weapon. Then you learn how to mount a horse and do those things while galloping. Then you get dropped onto a giant map with 100s of locations that all seemed available for exploration. A little overwhelming right there.

But it's okay. I've played overwhelming games. Let's see...Looks like I'm a leader of an army, but I have no army. I'll go to this town. Ok, I can walk around the town and all the villagers tell me the same thing. Oh, there's a village elder. He gave me a quest. Train 7 peasants. I trained 7 peasants and then bandits attacked! They slaughtered most of the peasants! So I hired some villagers to come fight with me. My army now has like 10 people! Let's go to the next town. Ok, more villagers. Oh, there's the elder. "Bring me 7 wheat." Ok...Let's go to the next town. More villagers. Then the elder. "Bring us 7 cattle." Ok...Let's go to the next town. More villagers. An elder. "Bring us 7 fish." Ok...

I finally went to a castle, which was more interesting. You can fight in an arena for some gold, see the ruler of the castle, get a slightly more interesting quest, and wander through more villagers who all say the same thing. I got a quest to kill some guy, so I left the castle and looked for the city where he was on the map. It was pretty far away, so I clicked to move my army. A minute later, we were attacked by bandits! We killed them all, and I only lost a few men. Then we were attacked by bandits again. Not so good this time. I lost most of my men. Then we were instantly attacked again, and outnumbered like 14-3. Ok. Surrender.

"You break free!" Yay! I walked myself to that city to kill that guy again, and didn't get ambushed. I killed the guy. Ok...I went back to the castle and reported my good news. I got some gold, then was told to go collect a lot of taxes. I collected a lot of taxes and upset the local population. I guess I should recruit some more men for my army. Great, let's go to another city. Ambushed. Captured. Lose everything again. Maaaaaan...

I see the big picture. You're supposed to build up an army and gain fame and riches in the land. You can ally with various factions in the land, betray them, fight a lot, gain better and better equipment and horses, and I guess you're just supposed to become a badass. But it's hard to start off, and there's no real story, so I can't bring myself to care. I was looking forward to playing online because the fighting, although sort of clumsy feeling, is fun. I can imagine a battlefield full of players mounting and blading. If people even play it anymore since Warband is older now too. Anyway, I've played too much really old stuff lately. I need something newer.