Mount & Blade (pc: 2008): Reviews

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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed games.

Mount & Blade


8.8

based on 27 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 177 votes
Read user comments
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Official Website

Calradia is a land at war, a land offering great riches and even greater dangers to the adventurers and mercenaries that flock to shed their blood on its soil. With unerring courage and a strong sword, an unknown stranger can make a name as a warrior. Raise a band of hardened soldiers, become the lord of several towns and castles, and perhaps one day you may wield the power to depose kings and crown new ones at a whim. Free-form sandbox gameplay. You are free to go anywhere and do anything you choose in a world that has more than a hundred unique locations, including villages, castles and towns. Unique horseback combat. You are able to attack your enemies on your horse, whether you’re swinging a sword, holding a lance or unleashing arrows. Highly advanced, sophisticated and intuitive sword-fighting system. Fight on horseback and on foot using an expansive variety of medieval weapons, each with their own unique characteristics, strengths and weaknesses. Be anything from a lonesome adventurer to a commander of armies or an owner of villages, castles or towns. Sophisticated AI that will provide a challenge both in combat and in the strategic realm. Freedom to interact with hundreds of characters, including kings, lords, ladies, commoners as well as heroes you can take on as companions, each with their own personality. [Paradox Interactive]

PUBLISHER:	Paradox Interactive
DEVELOPER:	Taleworlds
GENRE(S):	Role-Playing Game
PLAYERS:	1
ESRB RATING:	RP (Rating Pending)
RELEASE DATE:	September 16, 2008

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

GamePro

For a game with such a heavy emphasis on medieval combat, Mount & Blade is just shy of perfection.

GameShark

The only real problem with this in depth beginning is that it sets the expectation that the choices you make here are going to have some affect on the game’s story.

Computer Games Online RO

Aside from that, if you’re in just for a relaxing skirmish or looking to conquer the whole world of Calradia, Mount and Blade is a stable product from early beta with great replay value which offers a level of entertainment that few titles with overinflated budgets fail to provide.

Pelit (Finland)

A Medieval action RPG with a great battle system, and there are many ways you can play the game. The game doesn't have a storyline, which is why it becomes a bit boring and pointless after a while, but it does have many good mods and they will keep the game fresh. [Sept 2008]

GameFocus

Very fun combat, mixed into an era we rarely ever see touched in gaming and solid but brutal gameplay and the fantastic community built mod’s, gives this game a permanent place in my gaming library. Buy it.

Vandal Online

Despite visuals which resemble those of some years ago, Mount & Blade has a very complete gameplay and economic-military management system.

Play (Poland)

This unique knight simulator is extremely immersive and playable despite having some minor if irritating glitches. Where else could I plan my own war campaigns or rebel and found an independent kingdom? [Dec 2008]

IGN

If you can get over the lackluster production values, you'll find an incredibly well-paced and engaging game that immerses you into a remarkable world that you can do what you will in.

AceGamez

Medieval warfare just got even trendier and, despite several major deficiencies, Mount & Blade has just too many memorable moments of glory to ignore; the price tag is worth it for the sunsets alone.

DarkZero

It might not be to everyone’s tastes, but it makes a whole bunch of interesting and bold design decisions, and I guarantee you’ve not played anything quite like it. For those reasons alone, it gets a glowing recommendation.

NZGamer

If you want a story-driven, graphically intensive roleplaying game, this is not going to do it for you. But if you enjoyed the freedom of Sid Meier's Pirates!, Mount & Blade is probably right up your alley.

GamingExcellence

Mount & Blade is fun to play. It’s not good to look at.

Worth Playing

Mount & Blade boasts solid battles and the eventual freedom to fight whoever and whenever you want while maintaining a kingdom, and it's a powerful draw.

2404.org

The interplay between mounted and dismounted soldiers, archers, knights, and the wide array of possible troops and equipment means that Mount & Blade has some of the coolest, most engrossing combat of any RPG ever.

Boomtown

A fantastic game. It's hampered by a few problems, but nothing major. It provides ground breaking gameplay that I am sure will be imitated by others.

RPG Fan

I can appreciate developers wanting to add more realistic touches to games, but to me realism does not always equate to fun.

LEVEL (Czech Republic)

Vast world with working economic model, excellent mounted fight is degraded by a weak engine presentation. Only hardcore gamers can enjoy this game in the state it's in. [Dec 2008]

Cheat Code Central

Mount & Blade's strong RPG elements, in-depth army management aspects, and amazingly addictive combat system balance out its mediocre quests and half-baked sandbox gameplay.

Total PC Gaming

An intriguing concept. [Issue#13, p.66]

PC Gamer UK

A decent ride until you get off. [Dec 2008, p.72]

Gamers.at

This may be an ambitious project of an even more ambitious programmer couple, but the lack of budget that game suffered is unfortunately very easy to notice. What remains is an average game with awful graphics and buggy controls.

PC Zone UK

An anorexic "Oblivion" set in a budget version of Tolkien's Rohan. [Nov 2008, p.65]

GameSpot

Mount & Blade has some innovative ideas, but still needs a lot of work.

PC Games (Germany)

Lousy graphics and bad accessibility hinder Mount & Blade’s way to a better grade. Yet, this game will make enthusiasts happy.

PC Format

Rough enough around the edges to replace sandpaper. [Jan 2009, p.100]

Eurogamer

There are foundations here for something really quite special, but in its current state the game is nowhere close to delivering on its promises.

GamingXP

The most exciting feature is the mounted battle, because it is demanding and fast. Release the mouse button at the right moment to hit an enemy. If you ride faster, you will do more damage.

The average user rating for this game is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 177 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Derek L gave it a2:
9-word review *It's like TES 4 Oblivion, only a lot worse* What a horrible game! There is a collection of dull, boring, identical towns in the main game, punctuated by a castle. Pretty much every building is the same. The exception is the nordic towns, which have a layer of frost. Upon getting to a town, you can trade with them. Actually, you can't really do anything except loot them. Buying and selling is really not possible, as only the 1 or 2 rich towns in a provence has any cash to trade with. Buying is also hard, as it is almost impossible to move around much without a high-leveled, instant death raider party that takes your cash and goods. The game grapples with basic collision detection and glitches are frequent. The awful tutorial only describes the action game meat - WASD to move, Left Mouse Button to swing sword, etc etc. It fails to describe things like flasing arrows on the screen. The one attempt at making a worthwile game was horse combat, which is much to easy - Hold Button, Run Up, Pray. And usually your prayers are answered by one-hit kills. The entire thing (bar horse combat) is like Oblivion on a somewhat larger scale. If you consider buying this game, know that your hard-earned $30.00 will be better spent on The Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion -- it's the same game, only WORSE.

Serge T gave it a10:
Mount&Blade features a complete, working, dynamic world with a realistic economy, trade, and political tension. This alone sets it apart from most games. When you get into the combat, mounted or otherwise, you realize that even though this game is from an indy developer, it is on a higher level than 99% of all games out right now. Anyone who would compare it to Oblivion would be an idiot, for Oblivion does not even come close.

William G gave it an8:
I enjoyed playing this game after giving the demo a test drive. The gameplay may get repetitive at times but it makes up for it in nice huge battles. The modding community also adds tons of new content for the game but you must get it for your correct version or else it will not work. Quests are quite simple and not much of a brainer but the real value lies upon the modding community. This game is not for everyone though so do try the demo first!

Sergio G gave it a9:
Played the demo of this game to test it out, I have to say at the beginning I thought it was just another fail RPG. But the game made me change my mind. In this game you are just thrown into the world and do as you please. Be it helping people to hunting down bad guys to doing arena matches. There is just so much to do in this game and as sad and anti-social as it sounds it just feels like your really inside another world. This game isn't for everyone how ever, there is alot of reading to do since there isn't any talking in the game apart from those funny taunts from enemies. Graphics are just fine, I prefer gameplay over graphics and this game is just what I've been looking for. A real legendary RPG, if you're like me... you'll be buying this game after the first ten minutes of the demo.

Tom M gave it an8:
I enjoyed playing this game a lot. Graphics definately needed a lot more work, however, the gameplay was brilliant, especially the horse mounted battles. build your army take over towns. its freedom of choice do watever you want. great gameplay bad graphics as simple as that.

Tim b gave it a9:
This game is very fun with alot of replay value. The graphics aren't anything pretty and the engine seems to chug a bit despite the poor visual quality. The most fun I had with this game was getting an external battle modifier that allowed you to go over the 200 unit per battle limiter that's in place, and instead letting you go up to 1000 units per battle, and maybe this was why it lagged so much, but it was definitely much more fun this way. I only wished you were able to control your units a bit more directly with the overhead map.

Matt H gave it a10:
This game is unbelievable to play, especially when using one of the amazing mods for it. As is the case with Oblivion, the mods are getting to be as good as the game, and almost make the game not worth playing without them. I give this game a perfect 10, its really really awesome.