Cult PC hit Mount And Blade: Warband hit Xbox One on Sept. 16 and, for console gamers not in the know, marked the arrival of one of the best concepts in gaming. Mount And Blade: Warband is a game with nearly limitless replayability and potential - provided you can get past some very rough graphics and a steep learning curve. But I’ve logged something like 150 hours on the PC version, so slipping into the medieval world of conquest, romance and gladiatorial glory for Mount And Blade: Warband Xbox One came easily to me.
But it won’t for most.
Let me explain. Mount And Blade: Warband does not make a great first impression. Xbox One players are used to Skyrim levels of polish, with a clearly defined quest and map UI system to guide them. Mount And Blade: Warband has no minimap or waypoints, which can make the first few hours extraordinarily tough for new players. You’re given a quest to catch bandits outside a town, and to do so you literally just roam around outside a town and talk to travellers to try and get a lead. Common responses are in the vein of “I saw those guys near such-and-such castle eight hours ago” and off you go.
Mount And Blade: Warband characters have deep skill trees to explore and one skill, tracking, is actually a smart replacement for waypoint chasing. Instead of giving you a can’t-miss target on a map, you develop your tracking skill to reveal arrows on the ground that indicate the size, direction and time a party moved through. So when chasing down those bandits you might come across tracks for a party of about 15-20 people heading into nearby woods. You follow the trail, find the hideout, defeat the bandits and feel a sense of accomplishment unparalleled in most games.
You also really, really suck when you start out. Because unlike other medieval adventure games based on single combat, Mount And Blade: Warband combines first- and third-person action with large, hectic battles. You will literally lead dozens of men onto the battlefield and call out strategies in real time. Put your archers on a hill, set up a line of infantry and order your cavalry to follow you for a flank attack within seconds of hitting the field. Troop management, morale and training are a big part of the strategy. But new players will go from village to village and gain recruits, only to see them decimated in battles. And given the slow pace of the game, you can spend the first five or six hours doing one or two quests, building a medium-sized force and then losing everything in the blink of an eye.
So why bother with Mount And Blade: Warband on Xbox One?
Because once you get past the first few hours, once you lose a few battles and earn some skill points or compete in gladiator tournaments and win serious money and experience, you will find an extraordinarily deep, rich game that is uniquely rewarding. I’ve been a gamer for more than 20 years now and few achievements can rival the thrill I got when I managed to capture my first city. Hundreds of troops crashing against a castle wall and scrambling up a ladder under a hail of arrowfire with me leading the final charge. There’s no healing in combat so you can’t be reckless, but it’s possible to fight a smart, conservative battle and make a big impact on the battlefield. And the victory? Earning an entire city that brings in more money than I thought possible? It hooked me and made me want more.
And that ambition is, in a way, its own mechanic. Because once you get the hang of things and start capturing towns and castles, you’ll get the attention of your chosen king. There’s six factions in the game and you will end up in service to one, but your inevitable rise will eventually threaten the man in charge. And the betrayal feels real, often coming after a huge victory. You earn what you think will be your third or fourth city and the king decides to keep it for himself. He might even have some choice words for you about knowing your place. Then the real endgame begins.
You can be a freaking king.
The Mount And Blade: Warband learning curve is steep and takes dozens of hours, but it is entirely possible to go from a man with no land or title or troops to the king of an empire married into a noble house. Or you can focus on being a trader and running goods from town to town in a complex economic system you didn’t even notice at first. Or you can be a bandit and keep a small band of highly skilled troops running the borders during wartime and rieving what you can. There are many paths to take in Mount And Blade: Warband , provided you can get through the difficult ones first.
As a port, it functions well on XBO. Most of the combat and map navigation is intuitive and easy to do, although some of the UI stuff can get a little tedious. The graphics are pretty potato-y, but again, this is a game that has a lot going on under the hood. The resources are better spent on things like the AI for the dozens of rival lords who all live in the game and raise armies and scheme against you, for example. It’s not going to win any beauty contests, but the PC version is considered one of the 100 greatest PC games of all time so there’s definitely content here worth exploring.
It’s also $20. And I know money shouldn’t be the only factor, but the reality is that it is for some. And a $20 game that provides dozens or hundreds of hours of content on a single playthrough (there is no set “Ending” you can just keep on playing) is worth serious consideration. Mount And Blade: Warband offers tremendous value alongside an innovative experience that you cannot find in any other title for Xbox One. You can realize your dream of being a king, which is nice considering you won’t have time for sleep anymore.
