A Game of Moments

When you find yourself on horseback in an arena duel, Mount&Blade begins to show off its most critical feature. No other game has ever come close to Mount&Blade’s awesome horseback action. It feels like you’re on horseback, having to judge momentum, turn rates, speed, etc. Unlike Oblivion and World of Warcraft, which both feature mounts that don’t have much purpose, your horse in Mount&Blade is an essential tool, even allowing you to gallop at full speed into an enemy, throwing him to the ground. Your horse can take damage as well, ultimately falling out from under you as you find yourself being reduced to ground combat.

With a nice array of weapons, including lance, bows, a whole host of swords and maces, you’ll find that each weapon will take a lot of practice in order to master. Archery can be punishing on the opposition but trying to aim from the back of a galloping horse is a difficult endeavor, as it should be.

Once you feel somewhat confident that you understand the mechanics of the game, you can leave the initial town and begin your life of adventure in earnest. At this point, Mount&Blade feels like a game of Pirates, but instead of sailing on troubled waters, you’re now on horseback looking for trouble. Roving bands of marauders are everywhere, some of which have a train of prisoners in their tow. At first you’re not strong enough to handle most of the mobs, so you’ll have to pick your targets wisely and build up, both in terms of your level and your cohorts. Ultimately, you’ll take over prisoners and turn them in for money. You’ll also enlist some help from fallen mobs as they offer to join your faction. Before you know it, you have a small army under your control and Mount&Blade comes into its own.

When you engage in combat, gone are the confines of the arena, replaced now by a randomly generated battlefield with hills, rivers, trees, etc. Your army awaits your command. You spot the enemy in the distance. They have mounted archers, a few polearms, some peasants with pitchforks and some mounted knights. When the battle begins, you’re in for a demented, cinematic treat, as Mount&Blade really brings home the flavor of medieval close combat. Bearing down on an archer at full gallop just feels right, looks right, and if you’re adept enough to rear back and let loose a vicious swipe of your broadsword, the archer will go down in a bloody mess.

Mount&Blade is a game of great moments. More often then not you’ll be muttering to yourself, “That was cool.” Like the time I was charging a mounted enemy and wasn’t paying attention to my flank, whereupon my horse took a critical blow from a mace, falling out from under me. Now I’m stuck on my two feet with a mounted knight coming at me at full speed. I decide to do the only thing I can think of, which is swing with full power at his horse, which succeeds beautifully. Now it’s just him and I locked in melee. We trade a few blows until I’m finally caught off guard by another mounted enemy swooping in to help his friend.

While there are rudimentary quests and a backstory in Mount&Blade, its main focus is definitely on combat, and it succeeds admirably, more than any retail game you can buy. It puts the horse and mount riding in Oblivion and World of Warcraft to shame, embarrassingly so. All this from two people working in Turkey. Amazing.

Mount&Blade is a work in progress and is by no means finished. There is still a ton of work to be done, but what is there is incredibly fun and demands you check it out. You can download the game and play it until you hit level 6, upon which time the game will end unless you pony up $18 and unlock the full game. Best $18 I ever spent. It may seem weird to pay money for a game that is still in early beta, but when you consider who is making it and their nonexistent budget, you’re essentially supporting the idea that Mount&Blade should continue development. Finally, there are tons of mods already out for Mount&Blade that extend the game considerably. People are making full conversions, creating pirate based games, fantasy, cowboys, adding new weapons, armor, etc. It has an impressive grassroots momentum that ensures Mount&Blade will be around for quite some time.

So head on over to http://www.taleworlds.com and check it out. It’s only a 50-meg download so you don’t have any excuses. And don’t come crying to me when you find yourself addicted.