[Game] Mount & Blade

[FizWizz]

A while ago I had heard someone talking about a game they had been trying out, called Mount & Blade. I did a quick search, which pointed me to here, http://taleworlds.net/index.html, the website for Mount & Blade.

I read the little description they had, and then I had a look at the screenshots, which gave me doubts. It seemed that they had a single plain texture each for stonework, for woodwork, for grass, dirt, etc... and This screenshot was a particularly unflattering view of the horses, and I forgot about the game. Almost.

The bit that they wrote about Combat, "Battles in Mount&Blade require a high degree of concentration and user involvement. A few powerful blows can take you down, and there is no such thing as a "healing potion", therefore you must stay alert and parry or dodge each and every blow...." would not leave me, and in the end curiosity got the better of me. I downloaded the game, and tried it out.

I'll spare the details, but some of my assumptions are correct. Yes, the world of Calradia is woefully plain, the graphics and character appearances are a notch below Morrowind currently, and role-playing-wise, almost the only thing you can do right now is level up, but that is not the end of the story.
I found the combat in Mount & Blade to be absolutely delightful, I loved it. It is nothing like the dice-driven combat that you would find in a DnD-based game, an Elder Scrolls game, WoW or any other normal RPG. I liked two things in particular. Firstly, the damage you deal with a weapon depends much more on how well you swung it and made contact with your enemy (and the game engine is accurate in this area) than on statistics, and secondly, high level players are not demi-gods like in other games, but are still very, very mortal. How good of a fighter you are is driven much more by your own skill than anything else. I also like how well horses have been integrated into the gameplay.

There are two important things I must add though. The game is still being developed, and is really in a beta state right now. It is also shareware, which means that you can download it and play it until your character gets to level 6, but when you reach that, your character becomes unusable unless you pay to register your copy. Although I can't go any further in the game than I already gone, I consider my time playing it well spent. If I were to treat this as a demo, I'd give it 5 stars.

[FizWizz]

magic. Magic is fun. My favored of the three spells...

I forgot to mention another thing I liked in this game: No fantasy or magic nonsense .
Also: Please try not to go off topic.

[diggz2k]

I love mount and blade also, the first time I got it I played all night. It's really fun combat. If only they made it multiplayer...

[unpossible]

I love mount and blade also, the first time I got it I played all night. It's really fun combat. If only they made it multiplayer...

i thought it was MMO?

[Lolsquad_Steven]

Yeah the combat in mount and blade and extremly fun, worth buying even though it's beta.

[diggz2k]

I got Oblivion last week, and if you like mount and blade you should get oblivion.

[FizWizz]

I love mount and blade also, the first time I got it I played all night. It's really fun combat. If only they made it multiplayer...

i thought it was MMO?

nope, thank goodness. I wouldn't want to see it turned into another MMO. Unfortunately though, it doesn't look like there is going to be any sort of multiplayer system whatsoever, so much for Instant-Action skirmishes or co-op games....

[Wolf-In-Exile]

*epic bump*

Mount & Blade just got an update!

[Felix the Cat]

I could not resist the sexual innuendo of this topic.

Seriously, who named this game?

[SwiftSpear]

Mount is a word for a horse as well felix.

What exactly are the interface drivers for the combat system? I was of the opinion that making a good sword combat system is basically impossible in a game.

[rattle]

Does anyone remember Die by the Sword? It was fun but fail in the end... if it was made realistic you'd have ended up cutting off your own limbs.

[Felix the Cat]

Mount is a word for a horse as well felix.

[manored]

LOL

I dont think making fun sword combat its impossible, tough I dont remember of ever seeing one :) (except from some (pc, 3d) prince of persia game but it makes so much time I dont even remember)

[hamsate]

I'm pretty sure Daggerfall, the game before Morrowind, had a unique fighting system. You would click and hold the mouse and drag to swing your sword. Compared to today, it has pretty crappy graphics. Just think of the original Doom. Otherwise it had a unique fighting system.

[SwiftSpear]

LOL

I dont think making fun sword combat its impossible, tough I dont remember of ever seeing one :) (except from some (pc, 3d) prince of persia game but it makes so much time I dont even remember)

Ok... to clarify, I didn't mean to say that "fun" sword combat is impossible in games. Soul calibur is fun, God of war is fun, prince of persia is fun, a plethora of other games that have swords are fun. They're definitely not realistic though. They don't even passingly replicate any moderately real sword fighting situation, and in most cases they break pretty fast when fighting a human opponent (fighting games being the exception, but they tend to rely on a pethora of other gameplay mechanics asside from just the swordplay, and do unrealistic things like shooting fireballs and blocking straight on attacks)

Mount and blade is a game that attempts a decent mideval combat recreation... I wouldn't really have ever seen that as a reasonable goal as a game designer.

[Zoombie]

Dark Messiah is still my bench mark for blisteringly fun sword fights. Not realistic, but definitely visceral.

Mount and Blade lacks oomph and the setting puts me to sleep. But I do enjoy the combat mechanics and maybe I need to play it some more...

Hmm...

You know, I had a funny thought. If I was going to turn S.M Sterling's horrifically depressing book, Dies the Fire, into a game, I'd use Mount and Blade. Wohoo, swords made out of reforged car bumpers, and shields cut out of street signs.

[manored]

I tough everbody liked fireballs :) I mean there are fireballs in pretty much ever game that involves some level of magic... :)

[1v0ry_k1ng]

I cant get this to start up,

[Zoombie]

Dang, now I really want a Dies the Fire mod for M/B

Except no one will ever make it.






Or...will they?

[[XIII]Roxas]

I really enjoyed the Dies the Fire series.