Game of the Day: Mount and Blade

Mount and Blade really flew under the radar when it came out a couple years ago; with dated graphics and a mediocre score on the game websites meant many players would never give this game a chance. Those players who did found themselves immersed in a fantasy world of swords, knights, horses, and battles between warring nations.

You start off as a wanderer, with no allegiance tied to any king or country. The world layout is similar to Age of Empires in a sense that your icon is moved around by point and click and can enter larger towns, villages or castles and explore those areas more in depth. The world is divided up into 5 nations, each with their own style of architecture, items, methods of fighting, and soldiers. You have the option after building enough reputation to pledge allegiance to a king and fight for him as a noble and it really just depends on your preferences.

As you make your way across the world, you can recruit soldiers to your small band and gaining experience by winning battles will give them experience to become better classes of warriors. Your soldiers all start as recruits or peasants and it is up to you how you want to develop them.

The character development system is a major plus for the game; during character creation you answer questions about your character's history to determine what his/her skills will be. Favoring a specific weapon in battle will increase your proficiency in that weapon faster and each weapon has its strengths and weaknesses. Your character can level up and those points gained can be allocated to a number of different skills and attributes that all affect the how the game is played.

The best thing about Mount and Blade by far is the battle system. As you run around on the world map, other icons that can be bandits, farmers, nobles and their armies are also running around and you can choose to attack them. When a battle is initiated, the player is taken to another area where the opposing forces square off; you have control of the main character and can yell orders to your troops. The battles are chaotic free-for-falls, but it is so much fun running a horse and just plowing through a group of enemies while slashing away.

I would say that the main drawback would be the graphics; the game really doesn't look like it came out in 2008 but I appreciate games for more than their aesthetics and don't really think Mount and Blade looks that bad besides having a somewhat bland world-map. The game almost looks like it came out years ago on an older system and was ported to a new one with a smoother render. Graphics aside, most people who've played Mount and Blade would probably agree that it's a really fun and addictive game that gives gamers a very unique RPG/strategy experience. I would give the game an 8.5 out of 10.