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Mount and Blade: Collectors Edition

Two games for the price of one

Posted on: Monday, October 04, 2010 22:32 IST | Ankush Mahajan

Updated on: Monday, October 04, 2010 22:44 IST

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Estimated Street Price

999/-

Whats Hot
- Open Ended gameplay
- Improved HDR visuals
- Multiplayer

Whats Not
- Learning curve
- Too few online players for multiplayer

Mount and Blade is one of those rare diamonds in the rough that come out from indie developers that does more things right than wrong. Set in the fictional world of Caldradia in the medieval era, the game aims for a realistic rather than fantasy setting. The character
customization is very intricate and everything from the gender to the face can be customized. Next up is allotment of stats and skills into riding, running, melee – in fact there are so many options character creation itself might eat up a good while of your time.

The create-a-story is purely cosmetic as it just gives a background to your character but never comes into play during the entire length of the game. Simply put, there is no story whatsoever and we are free to explore the game and do as we please. This is actually a double edged sword as it gives too much freedom and players looking for a sense of belonging to the game world will be
disappointed. Riding off from one region to another through the help of the map to talk to the
king, interacting with the locals and trading goods makes up one half of the game. Apart from a
standard question on rumors and the basic “fetch”, “kill xx people” and other such rudimentary
quests there aren’t many NPC assigned tasks. It is possible to can build our own army and
siege a neighboring castle and take over their kingdom which opens the door to endless
possibilities.

The combat system is where the game really shines and constitutes the other half
of the entire game. Clicking and moving the mouse in different directions produces entirely
different types of punches from a left hook to a straight uppercut. This goes the same for any
melee weapons like axes, swords. Being the medieval era, projectile based weapons such as
crossbows and bow & arrow make up for the “sniping” aspect. Blocking is critical and required
for mastery otherwise you might end up swinging like a fool and leaving yourself open to attacks.
Fighting one on one is fun but the large scale battles become quite frantic and crazy. The sound,
while sparse creates a very immersive atmosphere which transports us back to the days of yore.
Graphics are passable with used, rather overused assets cluttering the scenery making for some
forgettable visuals. The single-player experience provided here is like no other and Taleworlds,
the creator has to be commended for creating such a game.

Mount and Blade: WarBand
mount and blade warband

Warband injects some much needed graphical overhaul and also adds one major component to the game: multiplayer! Mount and Blade: Warband improves upon every aspect of the first game side by side adding some much needed extra content in the game. The multiplayer consists of 8 modes with siege being the most popular supporting up to 64 players which makes for really crazy melee skirmishes. Among the 6 available factions are 3 basic classes – warrior, rider and archer with each having their own strengths and weaknesses.

Customizing the load- out before battle is necessary if you want to survive the impending onslaught. Fighting is quite tense and the winner is based on skills as the game doesn’t suffer from the fastest finger first mentality so prevalent in multiplayer games nowadays. Any game with a less than 300 ping should be playable but anything over that will add frustration and rage to a battle lost due to it.

In singleplayer ,the developers have tried to spice up the game with the addition of being able to
become a king to getting married but that is never fleshed out in a satisfying manner. A sandbox
game with no storyline might not sound appealing but the real fun is in using your imagination to
create one and you certainly owe it to yourself to try the game out. The multiplayer is an added
bonus to a unique game present in a market filled with generic space marines shooters.

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