[Review] - Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword

[Title]

Developed by: TaleWorlds

Published by: Paradox Interactive

Platforms: PC

Players: 1/Multi

ESRB: T

Mount and Blade: With Fire and Sword is a stand-alone expansion to the acclaimed games Mount and Blade and Mount and Blade: Warband. Unlike the previous games With Fire and Sword is based on a historical novel of the same name by Polish author, Henryk Sienkiewicz. It has players enter into an ongoing war between five Eastern European factions during the 17th Century: The Polish Republic, The Tsardom of Moscow, The Kingdom of Sweden, The Crimean Khanate (early Turkey) and The Cossack Hetmanate (early Ukraine).

Therein lies one of the greatest strengths of the game: the ability to create your own history. After making your own character, the game allows players to recruit, lead and manage an army of various units as they fight real time battles in third or first person and carry out strategy tactics on the large campaign map. Players can ally with any faction and even control their own fortresses and towns as a lord of that faction.

Part of the Campaign map

Aside from the action-RTS style gameplay, there is a heavy RPG element. The player character levels up and can distribute points into various attributes, skills and weapon proficiencies. Companions and armies level up as well. Characters and companions can be outfitted with many different armours and weapons. Towns and castles live and breathe, their economic situations changing and reflecting the goods that they produce. Armies get hungry and have to eat. Factions send their troops across the map, winning and losing at every moment. Quests also make an appearance, and there is a loose main quest to follow, if you so choose.

When fighting a battle, players and their armies take to the field in real time, controlling their characters like a western RPG. Whether fighting on foot or horseback, on land or on castle walls, with a sword, spear, axe, musket, pistol, bow or throwing weapon, the battles can be quite spectacular. Horse riding is handled well, with options to control weapon direction, based on enemy position, making it easy to ride around and slice at people on the ground. It is a pity then that the graphics aren’t up to scratch. While the game is enjoyable none-the-less, they could certainly be much better.

Horseplay

Another aspect where the game is lacking is in the interface department. The user interface works, though it is clunky and does not look very pleasing. Loading screen hints are placed simply on rectangles of a lighter colour. Text is sometimes too large for the button it is placed on. Points like these really hold the game back from going that extra step higher.

The game needs to learn what it does well and stick to it. Too much dialogue, unexplained hints and generally not preparing players well enough makes the game very hard to get into, and risks turning players away before they can get their foot in the door.

Multiplayer and custom battles also make an appearance, though only as a side track to the main game. There is nothing new to see here in the multiplayer. Players choose a server and a side, then outfit their character with various weapons and armours by spending the money earned in the game. There are various modes, and the classic deathmatch and capture the flag of course make an appearance. There are some new ideas here, such as a mode where players take control of a squad of npc’s and lead them against other human players and their squads or the siege mode, where one team defends as the other climbs the walls and attempts to capture the castle via a flag in the middle.

A multiplayer map

Overall, Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword is a game for those interested in forging their own history and managing their own army as they go about their business raiding towns, sieging settlements and fighting wars on horseback and on foot. Aesthetic issues with the interface and graphics combined with a slow start and poor tutorials for the campaign map can hold players back from really enjoying this title. Multiplayer is a enjoyable sidetrack, but multiplayer enthusiasts won’t find much here. With Fire and Sword is good game if you can get past the smaller issues.

Update:

Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword has recently received quite a large update. With it come many bug fixes, rebalanced and even some new features. Check here for the full changelog at Paradox. While none of the deeper issues with the game have been fixed, this update certainly adds features that make the game more enjoyable. The update tightens up the game well. The re-balancing of various aspects of the game (both single and multiplayer) is a welcome addition. In short, if you didn't like the With Fire and Sword before, it is unlikely that this will convince you. If you enjoyed the game before, this patch is a good one.

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