Mount & Blade: Warband Review (oliver.bell)
Just realised I never left a review for my most played game and decided the time was right to correct this oversight. This game is a magnificent sandbox, if you are looking for deep story and quests, look elsewhere. But if you are looking to make your own adventure, be it trading, bandit hunting, raiding caravans, mercenary work etc; then you should love this. Most of the time you will start out doing a mix of these before joining/creating a kingdom and going on to conquer the land.
The basic game flow is something like this. You start with little money, very basic equipment and after a little recruiting, a small force of peasants. Then gradually find/buy/loot better equipment, level up, promote your soldiers that survive, recruit companions with skills to fill the gaps in your skill set, give them better equipment and level them up. Interact and work for the different factions, get renown and reputation by winning battles etc.
The base game is definitely worth the price and will keep you interested for at least a couple of full games, the DLC adds to the base game nicely but the real gem here is the modding scene. There are many total conversion mods which have been developed over many years and provide complete experiences of their own. Be it Game of Thrones, Middle Earth, the Witcher or more historical eras such as the Crusades or ancient China there are plenty of mods with hundreds more hours worth of play time. This is the main reason why Warband still has an edge over Bannerlord, the mods for the new title are still in their early stages and it will be years before they can compare to whats on offer here. On sale this game is a must buy for anyone remotely interested and full price it is still great value for money.