Mount & Blade had been under independent development (and available for beta purchase) for several years by a Turkish man and wife. Their concept is simple, letting you experience fantasies of medieval grandeur while successfully encompassing a range of game mechanics. Role playing, strategy and action elements seamlessly blend into a sandbox world, though the in-your-face fighting remains the featured attraction.

You’ll spend most of your time and have the most fun with Mount & Blade’s combat, particularly the horse-mounted fighting that made the game famous in its beta stages. No other game conveys quite the same feeling of overwhelming power as Mount & Blade does when you charge through a unit, your lance jousted, taking out your target while your horse tramples other troops in the way. All the other elements play a supporting role, but play it well.

 

Don’t be fooled into thinking this is some sort of shallow Dynasty Warriors clone. Mount & Blade could almost be considered a medieval combat simulation thanks to all the different equipment and the relative realism with which everything is handled. You’ll need different tactics to handle swords, bows, pikes and javelins, both when you’re using them and fending them off. Add different armor types, horses and terrain to the equation and you’ve got a great variety of situations to deal with. Even the land of Calradia, where the game takes place, is not your typical fantasy world. You won’t be seeing any elves here. Instead, you’ll meet war-mongering kings, selfish lords and raiding bandit parties while wandering Calradia’s five nations.

The chaos of battle is truly thrilling in Mount & Blade. Certainly, other titles have allowed you to command even larger forces, but Mount & Blade really makes you feel like a powerful leader, fighting right beside your troops while shouting orders. That role of leadership extends beyond battle, as keeping a large army’s morale high requires proper management. Let it slide too low and your troops won’t think twice before deserting.

As a pure sandbox game, there’s no actual story mode to conquer, yet you still get a sense of accomplishment and progress as your character and army grow in power. In the game’s early stages, you’ll mostly fight small bandit parties roaming the land. Anything tougher will spell your defeat and set you further back, having wasted precious trained troops and valuables. Before long, you’ll raise an army large and varied enough to fight military deserters. Later, you’ll attack enemy nations, some of whom became your foes through your own actions. The icing on the cake comes with the sieges, allowing you to take over castles and cities on behalf of your allegiance and occasionally earn them as your rightful fiefs.