Mount & Blade: Bannerlord

I can’t wait to read some first impressions of single player tomorrow. If it’s not terrible I’ll buy it, I really like this franchise. :)

Well, maybe its different in single player?

I honestly dont think its bad - its kinda like those dark souls games, where you have to work a bit to understand it. Or maybe I am just used to it after 400 hours of playing the game :-)

I seriously doubt its terrible!

The game is out, and GMG has a VIP voucher giving 26% off.

I hope the improved the campaign AI, where the a faction with your help (without you doing all the work) will eventually win. One thing that pissed me off about the old AI was when you were riding around with a bunch of lord, they would often stand around for days doing nothing or ride around forever raiding villages and then the campaign would end with nothing being accomplished.

Lol - 87,725 playing right now on steam :-D Thats the 9th most played game on steam.

I’ll most likely play it tonight and let you now what I think. ;)

I purchased and installed it before work this morning. I played two quick skirmishes.

Yep, it’s Mount & Blade.

143,697 - 6th most played on steam. Thats rather amazing. I still say, that I dont understand why this particular type of game /genre, isn’t picked up by anyone else. Clearly there is a massive market for it, and not half-assed look-alikes that only focus on multiplayer.

Very interested in hearing impressions on SP campaign for this one, as I very much hope they didn’t spend the better part of a decade just making a prettier version of the same game.

Well, it IS a prettier version of the game. Much of it is the same - You control yourself and your army in much the same way.
A few highligts which is different from the previous games

  • Improved AI - already now on the map I can see lords seemingly do good stuff.
  • Much larger battles. Some reports say 1000 people in battles, some say higher numbers.
  • Clan management. There are clans now, and you are the leader of one of them.
  • Battle formations - I havent seen them myself yet, but they are there.
  • Crafting (Not in game yet, though, other than the screen for it).
  • new perks and levelling systems
  • Games in taverns
  • Sieges play out somewhat differenty now / I have not seen this myself though
  • Catapults and such are part of sieges as well

This is just off the top of my head and from what I¨ve read or seen myself. If you enjoyed the previous games, I am pretty certain you will enjoy this. If you didnt enjoy the previous games, the gameplay loop isnt changed and unlikely to sway your opinion.

Thank you for the GMG reminder! Bought it, installed it, will try it out when the work slows down.

Any idea how to find where towns are on the map by name?

Ok, quest objectives are tracked on map, not super obvious. The floating name should be a differnet color :)

Also - when you have a number on one of your skills, it means you have to SELECT a perk on that skill - That one took me quite some time to figure out.

Ohh, gosh, how am I ever gonna stop myself from getting this. What an embarrassment of gaming riches I have right now, ugh.

I’m a huge fan but I’m skipping this for the time being. Warband was only worth it for the multiplayer as the singleplayer required years of modding to be enjoyable for me (Prophecy of Pendor is amazing, it does almost everything right, particularly gameplay balance and graphics).

jesus - 170,750 players now - 4th most played, only topped by PubG, Dota 2 and CT.

Yup. It’s very similar so far to the first game, but with a really nice coat of paint.

And that’s what I wanted, so hooray!

I also feel like the quests have got a bit of a face lift, and I like the interface that makes it super easy to find people in town, collect quests etc. So far I like what I see. I have about 250 hours in Warband, so I have been really looking forward to this.