DISCLOSURE: This game was reviewed on the following platform: PS4 – Check out our Review Policy page for more information.
An action RPG with strategic elements. In this expansive medieval sandbox, players may create their own characters, negotiate treaties, build and sell goods, and conquer new territories. Raise armies to lead into war, and use a sophisticated yet accessible skill-based combat system to command and fight alongside your soldiers in large real-time engagements.
If you knew Mount & Blade Warband, you will know that Bannelord has a fantastic background so it is going to be hard to be better than it. Is it though? Well, let’s find out.
Is It Better Than Warband? – Mount & Blade 2 Bannerlord Review
Mount and Blade 2 Bannerlord is a game that is inside the Mount and Blade franchise. It is a well-known world that has evolved around from the last time. You will be taking on a random character, depending on how you create it, and then starting off exploring the world and becoming whatever it is that you want to be.
Everyone says that big strategies will have you focus on big armies, well in this game you will be the one soldier in the army. It is a really unique experience which will have you lose yourself for countless of hours.
In the early alpha days, it had a lot of issues and problems. It is now finally a released product. Let’s review it if it is any good and if you should try it out. To be more thorough and understandable we will separate it into Pros and Cons sections.
Pros
Let’s start off on the right foot. Let’s see the good things.
Performance
We will go ahead and start off with the performance since a lot of players are fearing that their devices cannot even handle this game. The starting days were hard and rough, but as it is right now the performance is actually very good.
You will be able to withstand more than 1000 troops on the screen at the same time even on average-powered engines. You will get a smooth and stable FPS no matter whether you are in between 500 troops or zoomed out on the map.
It still needs some work to be fully optimized but as it is right now it is very good indeed.
Visuals
The visuals are simply stunning. This game is a medieval wallpaper simulator basically. Wherever you will go on the map you will be able to just stand by and take a screenshot of your battle surroundings.
The settings are also good to be changed if just in case your engine cannot stand it. The map is also beautiful to look at with all regions having separate feel and ambient.
The character visuals are the best. Troops will look different and their gear and uniforms are a real joy to look at. Also, the slashing and blood effects are going to make you feel so rewarded when you manage to spear someone as Leonidas from 300.
Cultures and History
Maybe not such a big thing for some players, but for some, being able to enjoy a medieval game in a real-world like and history scenario is a big plus. Well luckily for you, Mount and Blade 2 Bannerlord does a fantastic job at it.
Albeit you don’t see the real names of the cultures but you can check out some maps by some players to indicate what types of cultures the in-game ones represent.
Towns are different, the habits of the people are different, and unit types, and even companions from different regions are not alike.
Amazing PVE Combat
The PvE is simply a blast. If you want to crank up that difficulty to be higher, you will sometimes need to improvise and come up with strategies of your own to deal with enemies.
If you go into big battles you are more than likely to die if you are careless. Tactics and formations are a must. Also, the soldiers feel more alive and not as robotic as they did in Warband.
They will listen to orders and you will actually play a lot with them for victories. You won’t rely on yourself to go behind enemy lines with a horse and kill as much of enemy soldiers are possible. Sieges feel amazing too and the tournaments are simply a joy to play.
When you manage to get land of your own and war starts, well you will be on the constant lookout because lords actually know what they are doing.
One Of A Kind Gameplay
There are the Campaign, Sandbox, and Custom Battle options to choose from when playing Bannerlord, or you can go ahead and check out Multiplayer too.
But anyhow, what you will be getting in terms of gameplay in Bannerlord is a thing that a lot of other game companies are trying to replicate with their copycat games. This is the original and you can clearly tell.
The gameplay system of wars, RPG elements, immersion, towns, families, lords, and so on feels fantastic. It has been improved on many things since Warband and it makes this game a real joy to play. You will have very high replayability because anything can happen in Bannerlord!
Mods
The cherry on top. Even if we say that there are bad things and Cons about this game, well the modding community will probably fix those too! This is the biggest Pro about Bannerlord and that is for sure!
The game is just stable and out of alpha for a couple of days, but even as it is there are a lot of total conversion mods out there. You can enjoy yourself in the world of Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, Ancient Roman Empire and so much more!
If there is something missing in the game in terms of gameplay or even visuals, well there is a 99% chance that there will be a mod that will fix it. Mods are simply the best and if you haven’t used them before, Bannerlord is a good game to start.
The future of the gaming community for Mount and Blade games is very bright, and we are sure that Bannerlord 2 will have a lot of replayability because of all the mods.
Cons
Uh oh. Bad things are incoming, take cover!
Troop Balance
This is a problem that is very easy to feel as it is right now in the game. Some troops and cultures simply have much better overall troops than others. If you go against a culture that is archer focused, you will be in a world of pain.
Archery is still very overpowered as it was in the early days. We don’t know if this is the intention of the devs, but some players are exploiting it. Just spam on archers and you should be good to control everything. Well, it comes as unbalanced for sure.
Bugs
The state of this game was absolutely horrific in the early days. Now it is much better and totally feels different than before.
But with that being said, it still has some bugs and buggy issues that you will experience here or there. You will get the most usual soldiers being stuck on a rock somewhere in the distance, or just the path walking of your troops to be bad at some maps.
Still, they are very hard to come by but they are still present. Hopefully, they will get fixed in the future.
PvP
Although this can be a personal preference, right now the PvP isn’t a state of the art and way less than what players have been expecting. It works very well for Roleplay purposes but another way PvP elements may come as bland for some.
There aren’t as many mods as Warband did have from before and it comes as really bland. But still, some players are loving it because you can still just come and do some hacking and slashing on enemy players.
Endgame Content & Feel
The game will allow you to fully explore your Roleplaying elements and immerse yourself as much as possible in the game. But still, once you get past the early and difficult stages of the game, it just feels basically the same at the end.
Even if you have siblings, children, a spouse, etc., the way you talk to them is just as boring and formal as with anyone else. Copy-and-paste talk is so common that everyone seems to have only one personality.
You can tell yourself that you won fame in such-and-such a fight, making Lord So-and-So your enemy, and then went on to take Castle Whatever, but none of that really matters. Everyone treats you the same, no matter how much rep you have with them or their faction. Some enemy lords will smile and look goofy because they think you’re awesome, but they’ll still kick your behind and throw you in jail.
But even as it is, there are plenty of mods to fix all of these mediocre options. But there is no modding for consoles, unfortunately.
Overall & Rating
Mount & Blade 2 Bannerlord is a very interesting game that builds and learned so much from its predecessor Warband. You are able to do so many things that you will simply lose yourself in the beautiful world it has to offer.
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Summary
The top and most played hours on the whole of Steam is on the Mount and Blade games, and Bannerlord is quickly catching up to them even with just a couple of days as release time. That should say something. There are certain issues that need to get fixed but having the mod community will make this game generational for sure. That is why Bannerlord is a 4 out of 5.
If you are thinking about whether should you give it a try, do not think any further. Just go for it and give it a try, or wait for a sale if you aren’t sure about the price. Thank you very much for checking out our review! We hope that you are satisfied with our thoughts about this game.
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