A game that I've been a big fan of for some time now, Mount & Blade, has shipped out today to stores across North America. By Friday, it should be arrive in Europe.
Made by a small Turkish developer called TaleWorlds, in Mount & Blade you play the role of a solider looking to take over a chunk of a Europe-like land called Calradia. The game has two things really going for it: the RPG elements are strong, allowing you to really develop and customize your character much more than what most modern RPG's allow; and the combat in the game is fun.
The combat takes place in third person and first person, depending on whether you are using range or melee weapons. The game sticks to a realistic setting, so you won't find the usual unoriginal fantasy tropes such as elves and orcs here. Instead, there are masses of medieval weapons, like lances, clubs, axes and crossbows; and different troops based on different Middle Ages groups like the Mongols and the Holy Roman Empire guys (Germans.)
If you have the computer to handle it, battles can get massive. You control your guy directly, but also take the role of commander over your army on the battlefield, shouting commands to your troops. Your army can can be anywhere from a small band of peasants, to a 100 man plus strong army of cavalry and infantry. As you and your troops gain levels, you can take over keeps and towns, make alliances, and raid trading caravans. This size of the battles is only limited to your computer's hardware.
Visually, this game may not look as impressive as some recent titles. But this game is like the reverse of the recently released Space Siege: instead of flash Mount and Blade has substance, a well designed underlying model, cool new concepts, and both strategic and tactical depth. Definitely worth trying out -- a free demo can be had here (this is of the most recent Beta, not sure if it'll last much longer.) The horse combat is exceptionally well done, and after years in beta the game has a great deal of depth to it.
Probably the best thing about the game though, are the user-made mods that are available. There is simply an astounding amount of well made mods, each with their own themes, troops, and weapons. Personally I recommend the Extended Gameplay II Mod, which adds firearms and a Quest for Immortality to the game.
Mount & Blade is a single-player only game. Its development was funded by selling shareware versions of beta versions of the game, to a hardcore-ish community, that has contributed a great deal of feedback and guidance for the game.
Here is a interview with the developers done by the Swedish gaming site, www.tv7games.se. Skip ahead for English.
