Revisiting Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord — Will You Destroy or Restore an Empire?

Medieval games usually come in many forms and genres. Some are more combat-oriented, like Mordhau, while others focus on strategy, like Medieval II: Total War. However, the most popular genre medieval games are featured in is RPG, allowing people to live out their fantasy of being a minor lord or soldier during the Middle Ages or its equivalent.

Not many games mix two or three mechanics and make a coherent one, and that is what Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord is: a mixture of a fighting game like Mordhau, an RPG like the Crusader Kings games, and a castle management simulator.

Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord Gameplay

Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord is the prequel to the highly successful medieval RPG, Mount and Blade: Warband. The game, which was developed and published by Taleworlds Entertainment, lets players take the role of a member of an unknown clan of varying backgrounds that can rise to fame as a merchant, mercenary captain, lord, or even a ruler of their very own kingdom.

After creating and setting their character's backstory, players can choose which of the six cultures they wish to start in instead of a faction, as it was with Warband.

These cultures are ruled over by their respective kingdoms, with some being the progenitors of the factions featured in Warband. Players can choose to start in the Principality of Sturgia, the Khuzait Khanate, the Kingdom of Battania, the Aserai Sultanate, the Kingdom of Vlandia, and the crumbling Calradian Empire.

As previously stated, the game is a prequel - it is set 200 years before the events of Warband, during the collapse of the ancient Calradian Empire by internal and external conflicts, allowing players to dictate the fate of the Calradian Empire through its story quest: either as the hero that will save it against all odds or the cause of its inevitable downfall.

The game is pretty much a much-improved version of Warband, with the game's combat mechanics of the two games being the same. It's not as comprehensive as Mordhau's, but its simplicity makes the game easy to pick up but hard to master. Leading armies in Bannerlord is easier than in Warband, with players now able to delegate units to the companions they hire along the way.

It also adds siege engines not present in Warband. Previously, only ladders and siege towers were available for players to use in sieges. In Bannerlord, players can build and man battering rams, catapults, siege towers, and even trebuchets.

Combat aside, the game also has RPG elements that give players a rather authentic feel of what it is like to be a lord or lady in the early Middle ages.

Players can get married, but unlike in Warband where marriage is the end goal, it serves as a way to continue the player's playthrough should their original character die due to old age or battle.

Taleworlds also expanded the available construction projects a lord could construct in a castle or city, with players now able to build fairgrounds that increase the populace's loyalty, training grounds that increase the garrison's experience over time, and a garden that increases town production.

Elements To Improve Upon

Despite being an improved version of Warband, Bannerlord has a few elements that its predecessor did better. For instance, the game can get tedious at times because leveling up and improving your character involves completing numerous side quests, while in Warband, you can go off on your own and hunt down roaming bandits to level up quickly.

Voting also took a hit in Bannerlord. No longer can players ask lords or ladies to support them in a particular vote - a common thing to do in Warband. Instead, players use influence points to determine how a vote will go. As such, it is a common occurrence for players to be outvoted of getting a castle or town they personally seized in favor of an AI-controlled character who somehow already acquired the support of two or more lords or ladies.

Players are also unable to convert the villages in their fief to their culture over time - an excellent strategy to prevent the populace from rebelling.

Verdict

Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord is a great RPG to play. However, its tediousness and unfairness in some aspects could take the fun of playing the game away.

Here's hoping that Taleworlds releases a patch or two that corrects at least some of the issues found in the game.