Mount & Blade: Warband

great gameplay. graphics per its time, but still so much fun.

The turks have delved too greedily and too deep. In their infernal laboratories TaleWorlds Entertainment have mixed together all that is addicting into one game to create the perfect drug. Is it the slow build up of your army and then empire? Is it seeing up close the screaming soldier hordes rushing to kill each other? I'm not sure what it is but when you get a taste of it you just cannot stop.

The game is far from from being flawless: by its very nature it's supposed to be grindy and repetitive, many design choices seem completely out of whack (I'm looking at you, sieges) but despite its imperfections, or maybe because of them, this is withouth doubt one of the best blends of RTS and 3rd/1st person combat ever created.

Is the RTS element good or complex? No. Is the combat advanced? Not really. But togheter they manage to capture the most satisfying feeling for this mixed genre. I'd say the most complex aspects were put in the kingdom management/simulation system. Despite it being simple they basically recreated a whole economy and political system that changes each game so that even withouth player's intervention you can see each campaign develope in completely different ways.

Of course there's also an absurd amount of mods that can change or fix everything I just said so... keep in mind just one thing: beware of trying this out! You can easily sink dozens of hours with no way to resist or stop.

This is a great game, but it HAS aged somewhat poorly.

Nothing else (except for Bannerlord, its sequel) will sate the fantasy of commanding a warband and slowly growing from a small bandit-hunting mercenary band up to an army that fights epic battles and sieges cities.

This is warband. You will have the time of your life regardless if you start playing vanilla without any mods or with mods. I would recommend you install the diplomacy mod though as it does add some nice extra touch to the game, especially if you would like to conquer the entire map in your first campaign.
Do also read into the mechanics, as half the lords will be "honorable" and the other half randomized between different personalities, which adds some nice complexity that Bannerlord ever so lacks to this day. Maxing out Honor makes it extremely more convenient for you later if you so decide to form your own kingdom and conquer the lands of Calradia for yourself.

I cannot say this is a replacement for Bannerlord, however, this simply is a very nice game you should at least play one compaign through fully. I myself have not even finished my full conquer the entire map campaign yet. I remain at a long war with 3 clans remaining.

very fun to play difficult at first but once you understand the game gets fun

The game is old and not graphically competitive to modern titles, I do not glorify this game based on it being a staple of my childhood gaming.

This game is truly a work of art with an active community and mods still being developed. Its a game truly unlike all others based on how versatile it is with gameplay and the wide variety of mods which spice up the game and change the very foundation.

It is worth it, honest to god.

I absolutely adore this game! Though I can do without all of King Harlau's a.k.a (The Butter Lord) festivities during wartime!

PC only made this better. Mods are a godsent to this game. Will always be a top tier open world sandbox experience.

I tried this game for the first time 15 years after release. I have to admit, I started out a hater. I’d always heard such great things, and it sounded like it was right up my alley.

In the first several hours, the world felt empty and lifeless, and when it didn’t, I was just getting bodied.

A few things that totally changed everything when I figured them out:

1. you can speed up time in the overworld with ctrl + space.

2. You can ask people where a quest giver is located. I spent a few hours in the early game really frustrated that I would complete a quest and then not be able to find the quest giver. Or I’d be unable to finish a quest in time because the character I was looking for was nowhere to be found. The characters in this game are always on the move, so you may have to ask multiple characters to catch up to them.

3. Pay attention to war and peace declarations. If there’s a faction you’re trying to get close with, they’ll respect you for attacking and winning battles against lords they’re at war with. But once peace is declared, you’ll generally lose honor for provoking violence with other lords.

3. If you’re looking for action, follow lords around when they’re traveling as a group. This will happen a lot when factions are at war—they’ll travel as a group of banners and go siege a castle or try to end a siege on one of their own castles. You get a lot of and renown for participating in these victories, and a lotttt of loot that will help you pay for your army. Also, stepping in to rescue a lord in battle. They really appreciate this as individuals.

Great game with plenty of mods for interesting experiences and enhanced flavour. However, the game feels lonely and empty at times, especially Vanila.

great game. It is a bit grindy at times, but its great at what it does

An absolute classic of a game.

This is one of the games that made me want to get into PC gaming and for that it holds a special place in my heart.

I know Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord is out but I still feel this game holds up today, other than graphical fidelity.

Highly recommended.

Used to play this game on my crappy school laptop, and had ton of fun with it. It still holds up today, maybe a bit annoying at times when you get harassed by looters or lose all your progression, but I guess it's a skill issue for my part UvU. I think it's definitely a must have.

Great game to sink a lot of time into due to the vast variety of mods to play, as well as native having multiple different ways to replay the same game. thought i must say a massive props to the mod community of this game as it vastly improved its longevity and game play experiance

I've played this game for 10 years now. I ran this on the families old windows Vista PC. I fought everyone everywhere became a lord of every kingdom. and when I was done I modded it and did it again. I didn't know what a comfort game was until I found myself coming back at least once a year. It looks old on the best of days but this game is P E A K.

Was obsessed with this game for awhile after being introduced to the game by a youtuber named Kootra. I love all the mods that are made for this game! My favorite one was Star Wars Conquest.

This is what GTA would look like if it takes place in 13th Century. But you can also have your own army

Legitimately one of the best games ever made. It takes a bit to learn how the game functions, but once you do, you can easily spend 10 hours straight playing this game without getting bored.

A great alternative for low end PC's to the new and still unfinished M&B: Laggerlord 2. It does lack some mechanics and features that the new one features, but it isnt overloaded with tons and millions of useless mechanics. It is simple, and, enjoyable. Weighs a couple of gb, and this one wins on the amount of mods as well. Recommended!

It seems as if I'd played far more than 220 hours in this game with it's solid game play and storytelling . The workshop holds many wonderful surprises for fans of many of the most popular franchises.

highly recommend great game for its age and a brilliant modding community that lets you play anything from medieval to fantasy

Best sandbox medieval game ever created and it still lives!

Favorite game of all time. Huge modding community. Unbeatable

Insanely good strategy game, whenever i boot this up i just keep being suprised over how good this is, especially for its age.

Old game but still fun. Addicting when you use the clash of kings mod.

Every single time Mount and Blade games trick me into falling for this wonderful fantasy of all-out medieval warfare only for me to realize 20+ hours into a playthrough that the only enjoyment I get out of these games is the metanarrative I create for myself to make the actual gameplay remotely bearable. There's this movie called "Mac & Devin Go To High School" which is a stoner comedy with Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa that opens to a disclaimer saying you *need* to be high to enjoy the movie. I think all Mount and Blade games should have a similar disclaimer-- except change "being high" to "being severely neurodivergent".

Sure, the graphics are old, the ai can be weird and all that. But It is a really good game. It is a big sandbox game.

Classic, and guess what? It works from start to end, unlike Bannerlord which will either break or you will reach the end game where nothing happens.
Also this game has a lot of different mods which heavily alter gameplay, fantasy, historical, sci-fi.

This game is just the greatest medieval sandbox game. Still just as fun as Bannerlord. Highly recommend.

I tried several times to like this game but I just cant. The original M&B is way better than this piece of trash. Only reason why anyone likes it is because they mod the hell out of it. But for me, not even mods helped. I went back to playing my modded original M&B which was way better. Dont waste waste your money on this rubbish.

One of the best, If not the best game I've ever played. Alongside awesome gameplay, mechanics and variety of items, customization and playstyles you can go with, it also has a ton of mods you can download for free to enhance gaming experience. My personal rating for the core game would be close to a 10/10, and with all the awesome and FREE mods you can choose from Steam Workshop, it's a 10/10 for sure.

It's good. Wish there was less level-scaling of enemies, but that's probably a minority view.

Always refreshing to see this old game age well and even with its more basic combat it still is full of memories.

One of the greatest medieval games out there, but definitely held back by some major problems.
Pros:
- Really addicting, if that's what you're looking for. Gameplay is super satisfying, and I usually keep coming back to it for that reason.
- Unique, no other game like this one, especially with the way the single player is set up.
- Modding support, so many mods for this game it's unbelievable, if you get tired of playing the main game, bam, Civil War, don't like that? Bam. Star Wars. There's also two expansions which are excellent in their own right but Napoleonic Wars is strictly multiplayer, bot wars is awesome though.
- u get 2 b a freaking knight
Cons:
- Tedious Lategame: Oh my God, once I reached this point and had beaten off 3 other factions, it's like there was a crack in the Dam wall. Soon, as if the turkjank of the game had laughed in my face, I was facing one of the more horrendous video game decisions ever made. LORD DEFECTION. You cannot appease your lords well enough to keep them all happy, so don't even try. By the time I had reached this stage it was about 20 hours in, and 15 hours later, it was pretty much a stalemate. I had given my lords so much land in an attempt to try to keep them under control I had somehow blotted out what was going on during the last 10 hours previously, as constantly messages would appear about lords defecting from factions. I had not realized that could have happened to me, and it was all too late. Want to try running around the map keeping all your places in check whilst in constant warfare due to everyone else despising you? Lategame is for you. 2.5% of players have completely conquered all of Calradia, and at first, I had thought it was going to be easy. Was I so wrong.

This is an absolute hinderance on late game. Am I still going to play? OFC. Am I going to beat lategame? Ehh... I think I value my time on this Earth a little too much to waste another week trying to figure out the fuck I'm supposed to do against a game that literally changes the landscape and regional power on a WHIM. If you're up to that monumental task, go right ahead, but man oh man is it a pain in the ass.

King Harlaus throws the best feasts, I lose all my land.... but my god does he offer the best selection of fine quality butter! from Xbox to PC, so many years and he never ceases to amaze making every feast feel like your first!

GOAT

Even today, this is a titan of its self-created genre. No game quite lives up to Warband, not even its sequel. So many hours spent on this one when I was younger, and I still come back to it about once a year. Easy 10/10, mods enhance the completed package.

Infinite replay-ability. Genuinely fun combat system with a high skill ceiling. Good RPG and strategy elements. Decently-active and competitive multiplayer scene. Mods out the wazoo.

Za dzieciaka w demo grałem na starym kompie. Niesamowite wrażenie na mnie zrobiło wtedy Mount & Blade. Trochę się już zestarzało, ale nadal daje rade.

150 hours in Warband on Steam. Countless hours on versions I bought from TW directly.

There's no other game like Mount & Blade Warband. The game is great without mods, but there is a a huge selection of total overhaul mods to keep it fresh.

Amazing game! The combat is so fun! and dont even get me started with the mods! especially the 1866 mod! this game is so fun, you need to play this!

this game is very good...i can't expect this game.....i will say this game is approve

Best Game I ever tried, even it was made years ago, still the best first experience into the Mount and Blade game

well, it's a good old game, that gave me cool memories. but it's not simple game and you can go insane because of it. if you are interested in strategical/action rpg games, mb warband would be probably an interesting experience, but there is a problem - it would consume a lot of time, like, more than ~25 hours. know your time to stop - i wasted way more time than i wanted... memories should be memories, not a perpetual circle of repeating acts.

oh, by the way. it's an important game in the history of videogames, but it's not as important as a game today. play something else, a sequel for example...

One of the best games of it's kind to ever exist. Would recommend to everyone except those who can't afford a steep time investment.

it looks like jank, runs like jank, and yet its super addictive and has an incredible modding scene. the star wars mod is amazing and so is warsword conquest the warhammer mod.

I am so sorry for playing a pirated copy of M&B decades ago.
I'm still broke as I was when I was young, but I hope a buying this from steam on discount helps.

I pirated Mount & Blade original over a decade ago and now I've bought the entire series ever since. This game is a masterpiece and I have many pleasant memories with it.

Very fun medieval sandbox RPG game. The world simulation makes for nice emergent storytelling. During battles, you command your troops while being a combatant yourself, which feels quite immersive.

Charged into epic battles with zero strategy—just pure, accidental glory.