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[Sappho]

Thanks, guys. Urge to purchase bundle: thwarted.

[scrdest]

So I've got a question for all of you: should I get this game? It's part of a BundleStars bundle, and we all know I have a hard time resisting those, but I'm trying to limit myself to bundles containing mostly games that I will actually play.

The gameplay seems to be centered around combat. Is there more to the game than hacking at enemies from horseback? Is there a good story, or at least an interesting world to explore? Can I build a house and things like that? Basically, does it offer me anything I don't already get from Skyrim (and Morrowind)?

It's a different kind of game than Skyrim/Morrowind. Yes, it's pretty heavily centered around combat, albeit of a different sort. Think of it more like an RTS with a twist - that being the fact that you can yourself take part in the fight. While there is an RPG upgrade system, the actual firepower upgrade lies within recruiting and upgrading your troops.

There isn't a story at all, in fact! It's basically a sandbox in the more strict formulation of the term - you are thrown into a world, given a bunch of things you are able to do with it and told to basically do whatever you feel like.

There's no specific endgame goal (in an unmodded M&B and Warband, this is) unless you specifically choose to pursue one, for example becoming the ruler of the whole world with your own kingdom, loyally supporting any of the existing kingdoms, leading a revolt to put a lawful ruler to the throne (for example, the wife of the late king, overthrown by the king's brother after his death, or a patrician who would have been elected to lead a republic if not for the current king blackmailing the electors).

Or you can, for example, decide that you just want to make X amount of money, and you can just run from town to town, buying enterprises that make you money or buying trade goods and selling them at a profit. Or maxing out the village relations with every village in the area by doing quests for them. Or whatever else.

It is also extremely moddable, with the majority of the existing mods basically porting it to another setting, like Napoleonic era, Dark Ages Britain or even, for the first game, fucking Star Wars universe, although a notable few add new features to the mix. I, for example, once spent a week roleplaying a bounty hunter in a Western mod for the first game, taking out bounties (it's also a thing you can do in both games unmodded, albeit it's taken from a lord along with different possible quests) and hunting by day, then returning for a game of blackjack (a feature in the mod) by night.

As for the 'is it worth it' well, I cannot really tell if it would be right up your alley, but me, I have around seven hundred hours clocked in total in the original and the... basically upgraded rerelease Warband, so yeah.

Also, important factor - which game is it? Both M&B and Warband? Either? The latter has a slew of upgrades in graphics (most notably the clunky-ass combat animations and shader support) and features (the aforesaid 'your own kingdom' thing among them, although there are ways you can handle this in the original, along with the very much alive multiplayer) and mod-makers tend to make most of the stuff for it nowadays, HOWEVER, the original has a number of very good (I dare say - better) ones which, for a really dumb technical reason, are not exactly forwards compatible unless you make a simple hack.

Also, wow, wall of text.

[Sharp]

I'm sure there was a M&B mod that let you manage a village in a First Person style, you could see your walls slowly building up and stuff.

Anyway I wouldn't recommend going for the bundle if you just want Mount & Blade because Warband is where all the current mods are really being made. Of course you can also just wait a bit longer for Bannerlord to come out which will just be Warband++ (as Warband is M&B++)

[scrdest]

I'm sure there was a M&B mod that let you manage a village in a First Person style, you could see your walls slowly building up and stuff.

Anyway I wouldn't recommend going for the bundle if you just want Mount & Blade because Warband is where all the current mods are really being made. Of course you can also just wait a bit longer for Bannerlord to come out which will just be Warband++ (as Warband is M&B++)

Oh, there was several. There was, in fact, one mod ENTIRELY focused on that, back in M&B.

[SalmonGod]

The game has very little in common with Skyrim.

There isn't much in the way of story - just a bit of background history to the world.  Otherwise the story is your own rise to power, purely told through gameplay, and how that shapes the world.

You're basically dropped in the world as a level 1 individual with nothing.  There's a little intro event where you help a merchant save a family member from some corrupt authorities.  You hire a handful of cannon fodder soldiers for this task.  You earn a little money. 

And then everything from there on out is all you.  You're free to go wherever, fight whoever, and engage in politics or trade to whatever degree you'd like.  The world is populated by a handful of small kingdoms all competing for dominance.  Lots of nobles all wandering the world map looking for fights and territories to capture.  They cycle through treaties and hostilities as they do so, and nobles change allegiances.  As you play, you'll make friends or enemies among these nobles, and that will have effects on NPC behaviors and how things ultimately play out on the world map.  You can join up with a kingdom or start your own.  You can build allegiances with any factions you want, even bandits.

It's one of the most genuinely open-world sandbox games out there.

It also has, in my opinion, the most satisfying combat system of any first or 3d person action/adventure game out there.  Combat in Skyrim will be boring to you after playing this.  (I disagree very heavily with Sordid on this one - don't listen to him!)

And a pretty good mod community that greatly expands on the base game.  Not on the same level as Skyrim, but it's still one of those games where modding is central to the experience for most people.

Criticisms: 

The dialogue and politics are not that deep.  Every major NPC has their own personality, which effects who else in the world they get along with and what you need to do to make friends or enemies of them.  You use this to earn their loyalty, manipulate their decisions, or seed dissent and distrust between people you don't want working together.  There's also a marriage system.  It takes some work to get a noble lady to warm up to you.  It also helps if you get the blessings of their family.  And then when you marry, you get a lot of political support from the family you married into, unless it happened against the father's wishes.  So it's a very powerful and dynamic system, but it's also kind of monotonous, because it all works through a very limited range of dialogue options and tasks that make you feel like you're doing the same things with everybody over and over.  It feels a bit more like operating machinery than really interacting with people.

I find that it's very difficult to make use of battlefield tactics, even with the help of mods that make it easier... but it doesn't matter too much, because the enemy AI isn't very tactical and is easily abused.

So if you're not very interested in playing for the combat system and watching your armies and territories grow as you personally lead them in hundreds of battles, then you probably won't be into the game for very long.  But even then, it's a very unique experience.  There is no other game like it.

Also worth mentioning:  online play can be pretty good if you get into it.  But it's one of those games where that takes some effort, because the skill ceiling is pretty high and combat against other players is very different from combat against AI.

[scrdest]

OK, I just checked - the bundle includes M&B and NOT Warband.

So yeah, it's nearly the same game, but it looks a bit more like ass (well, it's pretty good for a game developed by literally a couple in Turkey starting in 2003, but still) and lacking some things from its successor, albeit having a couple of pretty sweet mods.

[Sappho]

Yeah, I'm not at all interested in games that are mostly about combat. Combat in a game (especially in 3d) is primarily something I tolerate because of other features, not something I'm looking for. So I'll definitely be passing on this one. Thanks again for the info!

[Robsoie]

The demo (that is the full game locked until you buy it) is long enough for you to make your mind as from what i remember it only end when you reach level 7
So you're only going to miss vassaldom and trying to carve your own kingdom if you want to, but the gameplay is mostly what you'll have in the demo.

[Farce]

Vanilla is a bit plain, though very historical feeling.  A lot of mods tend towards more hardcore and niche historical settings, I've found - the 1200-or-so AD mod, which gives you all of Europe and a large selection of factions, like the Irish and the Teutons, or this one Mahatsfjdkslfa;fdk; vjfk s;lfjdsklf;djfsomething mod set in and around India, Indonesia, the Phillipines, and that general area, or With Fire and Sword, which is set in an early gunpowder-era Eastern Europe, with factions like the Crimeans and the Cossacks (and with fairly unintelligible - to my sensibilities, at least - Polish-I-think names for towns and whatnot).  So that's kinda cool.

But yes - really, the meat of the game is in its combat.  It's extremely different from other games - saying 'play Skyrim or Dark Souls instead' is not helpful, as it is just about entirely different.

That the bundle you were lookin' at doesn't have Warband pretty bad, also, as practically everything is now developed for Warband.

[Descan]

With Fire and Sword is a separate game, though. >_>

[Robsoie]

Wasn't there a mod for Warband of the same name ?
I think i remember some people mentionning it

[puke]

Good plan.  I find that it promisses just enough in terms of economics, trade, industry, politics and intrigue to leave me unfulfilled.  Its mostly a combat game, and what exists of the other elements is more like an incomplete sketch.  And grindey, to boot.

still, I love it for what it is.

[SalmonGod]

It has always felt like 2/3 of a finished game, and left me wanting more.  I get very frustrated with its shortcomings, but continue to play it because there is no other game like it.  This is why I'm anticipating M&B 2 so super hard.

[EnigmaticHat]

How do the historical mods handle the oceans?

[Descan]

Either you get a boat from a town or there are certain areas on the map that you can embark from.

Dunno about combat in the ocean, I think some mods do and some don't.