Mount and Blade, it has finally been released Options

[Agent Griff]

Some of you here might know of the indie game Mount&Blade. Its name was bandied about quite a few time during the development of Oblivion as the quintessential example of how mounted combat should be handled in a game.

That was two years ago, and back then, Mount and Blade looked like this. Now, in the year 2008, Mount and Blade looks like this. And the good thing is, two years later, this game is still the greatest example of how to implemented mounted combat in a game, making it fun and balanced. And the game has grown.

If, in the year 2006, combat was pretty much all one could enjoy, along with trading and doing quests for lords, now the scope has greatly increased. You can now be a lord yourself if a king happens to notice your prowess. You can own villages, cities or castles in the name of your king and, with due time, you can even become a Marshal of the kingdom, organizing campaigns and dictating where your fellow lords should ride. You can also fight in tournaments which vary from region to region according to local custom.

If the Nords (all-foot faction with great melee capabilities) prefer their tournaments to be foot-combats where the combatants fight with shields, axes and javelins, the Swadians (classic western-European faction with heavily armoured knights and infantrymen) prefer their tournaments to be mounted affairs where the combatants are heavily armoured and fight with lances.

And, if you don't like the current ruler of a kingdom, you can very easily become a kingmaker and support his rival to the throne. These are called claimant rebellions, and in these you must convince other lords to declare for your king-to-be and turn against the current king. With luck and skill, the loyalists can be defeated and a new king can then sit the throne. One which will shower you with gifts and favours of course, considering the fact you helped him on his rise.

But, arguably, the best thing about Mount and Blade is the module system. The game is easy to mod and a great many interesting settings can be created. To demonstrate this, there are several total conversion mods ranging from The Last Days (A Lord of the Rings mod) to the Realism mod (which is in my signature). There are also graphics mods, which can easily make the game look like this.

Mount and Blade version 1.0 was publicly released yesterday and the trial version can be downloaded from the links on this page.

http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/topic,45208.0.html

And for your viewing pleasure, here are a few more screens.

A knight on horseback.
http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii123/A...ff/0929fc85.jpg

A battle-line preparing for combat.
http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii123/A...tewolvesek3.png

This post has been edited by Agent Griff: Sep 21 2008, 10:21 AM

[Zalphon]

My friend has been bugging me about this game, maybe I should try it.