| | |  | Vacuums, Cleaning & Storage | Home » » » Mount & Blade | | | | | | | Description: | | Calradia is a land at war, a land offering great riches and even greater dangers to the adventurers and mercenaries that flock to shed their blood on its soil. With unerring courage and a strong sword, an unknown stranger can make a name as a warrior. Raise a band of hardened soldiers, become the lord of several towns and castles, and perhaps one day you may wield the power to depose kings and crown new ones at a whim. | | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 1.0 inches | | Product Width:
| 1.0 inches | | Product Height:
| 1.0 inches | | Product Weight:
| 0.45 pounds | | Package Length:
| 7.4 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.3 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.2 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.2 pounds | | Release Date:
| September 19, 2008 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 119 reviews |
| | | Game Information: | | | Platform:
| Windows Vista / Windows 2000 / Windows XP | | Media:
| CD-ROM | | Item Quantity:
| 1 |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 119 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
228 of 241 found the following review helpful:
 Revolutionary indie game, more value than any other in recent memoryOct 27, 2008
By H. Collins
To be fair I have been playing M&B since it was in beta 0.610 or thereabouts. It was rough and unpolished then, but it was the first game of its kind, an incredibly immersive and fun steel-and-horses age combat simulator. I bought it immediately, and have never looked back.
This first thing that confuses people including off-the-cuff (Gamespot) reviewers is that this game is not Oblivion. Taleworlds went in a completely different direction, instead of rehashing the same formulaic crap that infests the game publishing world today, and they should be thanked for it. Instead, they get rated down for NOT being boring. This is not strictly speaking an RPG in the way that the industry thinks of RPGs. It is not strictly a strategy game. It is not a shooter. So what is it?
Mount & Blade is a great sandbox game, along the lines of Pirates!, but more interesting (to me, anyway). You get thrown into the game and from there can literally do whatever you want. The game does skew towards combat professions and goals, since its greatest strength is its combat engine, but you can be a merchant, a rebel, a vassal, a mercenary, even a tournament specialist. You can even do several of these things in sequence, defining the career of your character through your gameplay choices.
The combat engine is utterly magnificent. This is one of the rare games where you can come up with a solution to a problem by doing what you would do in the real world, and it works! On foot, you turn your body in the same direction as your weapon swing as you make contact, and you get an increase in damage. Duck in and out of striking range based on the actual length of the weapons you and your opponent are using. Stand on the high ground with your bow for a range advantage that you can see happening as your arrows take a natural dropping flight path. Get back up on the hill to slow the momentum of that gyu riding down on you, step to his blind side, and chop his horse out from under him so you can brain him while he tries to get back up. This is a lot more immersive and gratifying than spending points on various melee skills and hitting control buttons for special moves over and over again while standing in one place.
The political and economic systems in vanilla (un-modded) Mount & Blade are simple, but they work! Build up friendships with local lords by doing stupid errands for them if you like, or else catch them in combat with a superior force and run in to save their bacon, which they'll be grateful for. Build favor with the ladies of the court so they can funnel bribes for you to lords who mislike you. Gain enough renown and favor with your liege to be put forward as a candidate for Marshall, but make sure you can curry enough votes to win the election. Burn local villages to prevent enemy lords from recruiting there, and kill their caravans to stagnate their city's economy.
I have seen lack of a concrete storyline mentioned as a weakness in some "professional" reviews. The game lacks a storyline because it's not supposed to have one! There is a background, there is an ongoing political dynamic, but you create your own story. Honestly, I don't understand the point of "story" based games where you walk through in a linear fashion, click some buttons, and listen to some voiceovers. To me the last great story-based computer game was Fallout, which also incorporated a sandbox play style as part of its dynamic, in addition to some really great lore. Nowadays, if you really want to follow a storyline, you can probably find better and longer-lasting ones in different media. Books, for instance. (If you lack the imagination required to have a rewarding experience reading a book and prefer the multimedia experience brought to you by some hack writing computer games, there is always television.)
The most important thing to me about Mount & Blade, though, is that it captured my attention back then, and still does. I spend many nights not going to sleep because there's one more siege I want to pull off, or one of my rebellion faction lords who needs help, or some juicy enemy caravans waiting to be plundered. I would rate its replayability along the same lines as the original Civilization when it came out (and I basically wasted six months of my life on that). Not many games nowadays can even capture my interest, let alone hold it for longer than a couple of days. It's just that much fun.
There are a lot of videos of M&B gameplay on YouTube, and some of them are mine:
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116 of 124 found the following review helpful:
Great Fun, But Definitely a Niche Game. Please ReadOct 15, 2008
By S. Taliaferro
This is without a doubt one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences in recent memory. However, having siad that, this game is probably only for a certain audience. My favorite game genres are RPG and Strategy that occur in either a medieval or fantasy setting. This game combines good elements of both. If you enjoyed the character development and FPS elements of Elder Scrolls Oblivion, then you will like this game. If you like the strategic elements of Medieval II Total War, then you will like this game. Granted, M&B doesnt go nearly as in depth into strategy as MTWII or similar strat sims, and M&B isnt as visually pleasing as Oblivion or similar RPGs, but it is a happy combination of both. Wouldnt it be great to raise an army in Oblivion and assault the imperial city, or fight along side your troops in MTWII. This game allows you to do those things. It is the complete fantasy. You can be the great general and the great warrior all in one.
So, if this review didnt make you foam at the mouth in anticipation of playing this game, then it is probably not for you. But for the those of you that can appreciate the elements this game brings together, this will be an all time favourite.
75 of 79 found the following review helpful:
You owe it to yourself to try this oneSep 21, 2008
By HLT
Medieval Elite? Definitely. Also a chivalric 3D shooter/basher with party-based RPG elements and character development in a persistent world of competing factions. I got into it by downloading the trial version (various beta versions have been available for quite some time, allowing you to advance a character up to level 6, which is plenty of time to decide if you like the game) and was hooked from half-way through the tutorial -- from the moment I first mounted a horse, to be precise. I'm sure I had a huge grin on my face as I rode around the practice field!
The game is completely open-ended, with no central narrative. You find yourself in a land of competing kingdoms, starting start out as an independent adventurer, but as time goes on you'll want to build up your company of companions and hirelings, and eventually to join one of the warring factions (which has repercussions with the others of course, as well as opening up new paths and opportunities to you).
With other open-ended games (like the Sims or Port Royale) I've found myself getting bored after a few days, because there wasn't enough variety. Mount and Blade is holding up better so far, firstly because the combat is so much fun (similarly I keep returning to the Unreal Tournament series, also lacking in any story) and secondly because the quests and the chance for political advancement in the persistent world give you goals to strive for.
Another aspect that should help extend the life of the game is the difficulty sliders, which let you improve the combat AI among other things. I'm still playing it on the easiest level, but it's going to be interesting to see how much more challenging the game gets as I progress to higher settings.
Overall, it's really refreshing, particularly in these days of big-studio consolidation and all the baggage (particularly draconian DRM baggage) that goes with that, to see an indie game that succeeds so well in delivering a fun and addictive playing experience.
48 of 51 found the following review helpful:
 WARNING: This game is for video game purists only!Jul 26, 2010
By Andrew Tomchik
"atomchik"
I am writing this review not to criticize this game, but to help people understand exactly what this game is. This is game is not your typical video game. This game has NO plot and NO story. I do not mean that the plot and story are bad or that they unfold poorly, I am being literal. There is a reason this game is so cheap, and there is a reason that you can also download this game (not an option most other video games sold on Amazon offer). UPDATE: Buying video games online is increasingly available. Even large, high-quality games can be downloaded; however, at the time I wrote this only smaller and cheaper games could be downloaded from Amazon and therefore I stick by my previous statement.
When you first start the game you create your own character with his or her strengths and weaknesses (just like a typical RPG). The game then teaches you how to fight (also somewhat typical). Once you are done learning, off you go to explore the world. The world essentially consists of a large country with a lot of towns and cities occupied by characters that are just there to send you on errands to other towns and cities. Nothing you do advances anything because there is nothing to advance. The towns and cities are divided up into countries or territories with lords and ladies that are either rivals with each other or allied with each other. By taking tasks from different characters you can gain favor with them while losing favor with others.
The point in all of this is to enter combat. That is the sole purpose of the game, the combat. And don't get me wrong the combat is unique and really quite fun (I won't go into a lot of detail about the combat because other reviewers here have already done so, quite well I might add). But remember, that is the ONLY point to this game. You fight battles for the sake of fighting battles. Sure you character gets stronger and you can build a party, but all of this is just so you can fight more battles. If this is your cup of tea then I recommend this game for you. Unfortunately, it is not mine which is why my rating is so low. I am not telling you not to buy this game, just know what you are buying.
24 of 24 found the following review helpful:
 Though lacking slightly in finesse, very fun and open-ended. Some bug issues remain.Nov 24, 2008
By J. Loscheider
"No one knows I'm a radical"
I downloaded the trial version, upgraded to the latest (1.11 now, I think?) and purchased a serial key.
This game is a ton of fun. You WILL find yourself leaning to the right as you try to reach enough so that your hatchet connects with the Swadian Footman whose group ambused your trading party. You'll also find unexpected joy in a well-placed headshot (with a recurve bow, no less) that reduces your foes by one.
System-wise, it's also not very demanding, which is a relief given how rapidly the tit-for-tat of hardware and software developers keep pushing each other to their limits.
However, there are limits to the fun that is to be had. Dialogue is very basic, as are the quests. Interaction is similar to Freelancer (though text-only) in its repetition. Your quests come down to: deliver a message, collect a debt, train villagers, bring us some cattle, and kill this criminal. There are also only five kingdoms - I was hoping for a few more, just to make it interesting - and the entire landscape can be crossed in about 2 days of game time, provided you aren't ambused by looters or bandits in the process.
Finally, there are still bugs to be worked out. This along shouldn't deter you from purchasing this fun game - remember Sacred, with its 100 MB+ patches? That RPG was still a blast. The bugs are mainly graphics-related at this point. NPCs lose faces or some of the screen backgrounds go quirky. There are program crashes (though I've yet to see a full system crash from M&B), and for this I can only suggest saving often and reporting the crash to the developers.
See all 119 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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