This game, "Mount and Blade" is kind of medieval combat action PC game that was made by this turkish dude and his wife. It's got a free trial you can download, and to get the full version it's $20 (plus free upgrades lifetime) I bought it a year ago when it was $10, and have put probably 20x more hours playing it than any other game. I really like this game a ton, so let me gush:
The game is set in a kind of pseudo southeastern europe around the 1300's. One thing I really like is that the armor and weapon design has a kind of turkish/mongol/eastern european look to it, kind of a nice change from the western europe stuff we're used to. There is no real storyline per se. In the game you make a character, chose skills, etc, and then set out onto the world map. You can hire troops to be part of your party, and when you meet other parties on the world to fight they will join you in battle. There are about 12 towns on the map, and each town has a trade good (fish, dried meat, wine, spices, iron, etc...) that you can buy cheaper than anywhere else, so you can be a trader, making money by going around the map buying stuff cheap in one place and selling in towns where it is expensive. You can take missions (usually 'escort the caravan') from merchants in town. You can join one of the two dueling factions, and go to war against your enemy faction. If you knock an enemy out (by running him over with your horse, or hitting him with a blunt weapon) you can then take him prisoner and sell him for money at the salt mines. If you run across an enemy party that has captured prisoners, once you defeat that party you can take their prisoners into your service, as troops in your army.
The combat is really a lot of fun, and completely player controlled, action game style, instead of RPG roll-dice style. If you're good enough, you can take down the hardest troops in the game while only level 1. (it's hard though, you'll probably have crap equipment, not a lot of health, and not enough strength to do legit damage) Ranged weapons (bows, crossbows, throwing knives, javelins) can be used, both on foot and from horseback. You can hit people in the head for extra damage..... You can use a shield to block blows, or block with your melee weapon if you get the timing right. Using a lance or spear while on horseback allows you to 'couch' and lower the lance and run into enemies for massive amounts of damage. Anyway, it's really a ton of fun and worth checking out if your'e into that kind of thing.
― tylero (tylero), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 06:10 (eighteen years ago) link
The world map. My party is pretty full, and I'm standing outside the city of Suno
http://www.losttransmission.com/mnb/mb001.jpg
Inventory screen:http://www.losttransmission.com/mnb/mb002.jpg
― tylero (tylero), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 06:12 (eighteen years ago) link
http://www.losttransmission.com/mnb/mb003.jpg
Riding into town: http://www.losttransmission.com/mnb/mb004.jpg
Posing in town:http://www.losttransmission.com/mnb/mb005.jpg
Posing again, with bow+arrow this timehttp://www.losttransmission.com/mnb/mb006.jpg
Chasing down a group of steppe banditshttp://www.losttransmission.com/mnb/mb007.jpg
They threaten mehttp://www.losttransmission.com/mnb/mb008.jpg
I laugh at themhttp://www.losttransmission.com/mnb/mb009.jpg
Combat ensues. Some videos:The initial charge. I tell my crew to hang back and charge alone. I lower my lance in an attempt to kill some bandits on the first pass but miss the bandit, taking out his horse instead. The second bandit I charge at I also miss with the spear, but I do run him over with my horse. http://www.losttransmission.com/mnb/mnb_charge.avi
A successful lancing run. I hit the first (mounted) bandit pretty square and he goes down. I continue on and nail this bandit trying to dodge. No dice dude. http://www.losttransmission.com/mnb/mnb_lance.avi
Demonstrating the use of the bow on horseback. I miss the foot archer with my first shot, as one of my teammates rides by. I wait until the attacking footman lowers his shield and catch him in the face with my second shot, dropping him down. I spaz out and miss with shots 3 and 4, but it gets the archer's attention, and he pulls out his scimitar and starts advancing at me. My fifth and final shot catches him in the face, ruining his day. http://www.losttransmission.com/mnb/mnb_bow.avi
Finally, I let give my soldiers the goahead to charge at will. You can see them ganging up on one of the remaining steppe bandits, who is attempting to throw a javelin at them. I ride by and slice him with my sword. http://www.losttransmission.com/mnb/mnb_team.avi
YES I am very sadly obsessed with this game.
― tylero (tylero), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 06:23 (eighteen years ago) link
It also is low-graphic enough to run pretty well on my old computer.
― tylero (tylero), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 06:27 (eighteen years ago) link
― kingfish da notorious teletabby (kingfish 2.0), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 07:03 (eighteen years ago) link
― adam (adam), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 13:59 (eighteen years ago) link
that's cool
― s1ocki (slutsky), Wednesday, 8 March 2006 23:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― R.I.P. Concrete Octopus ]-`: (ex machina), Thursday, 9 March 2006 02:33 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dan I. (Dan I.), Thursday, 9 March 2006 06:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― tylero (tylero), Thursday, 9 March 2006 10:25 (eighteen years ago) link
― Hans from china, Wednesday, 12 April 2006 04:55 (eighteen years ago) link
I'm thinking of picking this up as it's on sale this weekend on steam for 7.50 and I've heard people talking about enjoying it lately. Anybody else?
― Jeff LeVine, Sunday, 25 January 2009 00:14 (fifteen years ago) link
I think they actually ran out of cd-keys, since you can't purchase it right now. I'm really, really tempted to get it, but I'm feeling kind of guilty right now about giving Steam my money every month...
― Nhex, Sunday, 25 January 2009 07:12 (fifteen years ago) link
I guess I got in before they ran out of keys. Not that I have time right now to actually tackle the game :(
― Jeff LeVine, Sunday, 25 January 2009 08:06 (fifteen years ago) link
how can you run out of those??
― s1ocki, Sunday, 25 January 2009 16:19 (fifteen years ago) link
So I start playing this and off the bat, it's pretty frustrating - it's not clear at all what you have to do. There's no way to see the entire map at once, so you hear these cities and you're like where the hell is that. You get jacked by bandits all the time, and you have to run or get kidnapped into slavery. The nobles are a bunch of assholes and all you can do at first is deliver letters to people. You can trade goods but the game doesn't keep track of prices at all. The graphics are pretty spartan to be kind.
10 hours later, i'm saying to myself, wtf just happened
― Nhex, Sunday, 20 December 2009 16:32 (fourteen years ago) link
There are supposedly a bunch of mods out there that have enhanced the graphics quite a bit.I'm sure you could find them here... http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php
I bought this a year ago and have so far only played the tutorial. Keep meaning to go back to it though...
― Jeff LeVine, Monday, 21 December 2009 01:00 (fourteen years ago) link
Still playing the hell out of this. I'm not a real fan of Braveheart, but the horse-mounted epic combat is just magnificent (and looks pretty great to boot) - I am seriously amazed that one small company achieved this. I've probably done a hundred or so of these battles and I'm not quite tired of them yet - the castle sieges in particular are a lot of fun. The TOS-era Star Trek-esque fight music during these battles just makes it even wonderful.
That tutorial really teaches you nothing besides the very basics of combat - the real guts of the game has to do with improving relations with various lords by doing quests, trading goods, fighting bandits, waging wars with the other factions, taking over castles and towns, looting and pillaging said occupancies and so on. The game is pretty bad about teaching you how to get ahead in this. And on top of all that - there's no real single player storyline! The quests do get more varied and more difficult as you progress, but generally, you just do want you want to do.
― Nhex, Sunday, 27 December 2009 09:14 (fourteen years ago) link
$5 on Steam this weekend:http://store.steampowered.com/app/22100/
I had a really good time with this game, but the burnout factor was incredibly high, I doubt I'll touch it again. Main problem is that there isn't really a single player story or progression of any kind, or even overarching goals besides the ones you make up, and trying to get rich or wipe out factions becomes really tedious. But the battles are really glorious... until you get tired of it. $5 is the right price for this.
― Nhex, Friday, 12 February 2010 06:53 (fourteen years ago) link
The multiplayer expansion is coming out next month (March 16th?)... may have more replayablity... it looks interesting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk3NlYHsQ9M
― Jeff LeVine, Friday, 12 February 2010 07:05 (fourteen years ago) link
Didn't realize your CD key from Steam/retail/otherwise can be used to get into the M&B: Warband multiplayer beta. Gotta get some of that.
― Nhex, Monday, 15 February 2010 03:12 (fourteen years ago) link
http://beta.taleworlds.com/download.aspx
― Nhex, Monday, 15 February 2010 03:16 (fourteen years ago) link
what does everyone think of the music
― Dean of the University (Latham Green), Monday, 17 July 2017 16:46 (six years ago) link
I went through a long-ish phase of watching m&b napoleon lets plays of very large parties of dudes lining up and shooting muskets directly at each other while standing still.
― officer sonny bonds, lytton pd (mayor jingleberries), Monday, 17 July 2017 20:54 (six years ago) link
we all have
― Dean of the University (Latham Green), Thursday, 20 July 2017 20:21 (six years ago) link