Mount and Blade

[Malthaussen]

Any reactions to it? It appears from their forum that those who like it, love it. It's not your usual CRPG, however.

I like the idea of a role-playing game without magic and elves and all those tired archetypes. (Although it appears some of the mods that are available add these in for those who just MUST have their fix of pointy ears) The only thing that worries me about it is that it may be too click-intensive for my aged, ague-ridden hands.

And it's cheap. That's always a good selling point.

-- Mal

[Luvian]

I've been following it since the early betas. Back then they were selling it for dirt cheap because we were supporting development, so I almost got it for a steal.

It's an interesting game, and it's MOD friendly so that's always nice too.

I wouldn't really call it a RPG in the traditional sense of the term. It's more of a combat simulator. It's great at that, especially mounted combat.

The world map part of the game feel more like a board game. There is no fixed story, it's all open ended. You create your character, chose his background and skills, then you're dropped somewhere random on the map with basically a dagger and a little food. From there it's up to you what happens.

The meat of the game is about running down other squads and defeating them for loot and renown. You can recruit troops and named heroes to help you with that, but it's also possible to solo once you get more skilled as a player. Once you have enough renown you can join one of the different factions and start doing siege battles and being awarded land. It's also possible to go at it as a mercenary but you won't be granted lands, just money. You can capture towns while being independent, but you'll make enemies of most of the world.

There's also quests available from villages and nobles, but those are the repeatable kind you do for renown and some gold, or to raise the quality of your holdings. Like I said, the game is about it's combat engine.

Oh yeah. And there are tournaments which gives good money too. I have a character who spent all her time doing only that until her renown was higher than even the most powerful of kings. There's a economy system too, but I find it a little boring to just run trade routes when I can just kill for loot instead of buying it.

[Malthaussen]

It's interesting that you say it's not an RPG in the "traditional sense" of the term. I reckon it depends on how you define "traditional." Remember Akalabeth?

I haven't played MB yet, though I've ordered it, solely because of the raves on the game's board, which indicate that this is a game much-loved by its supporters. And it's an indie game, which always attracts me.

While I agree it appears mostly to be about the combat engine, it also seems to be quite similar to the real old-school CRPGs, many of which (like Akalabeth) did "drop... [you] somewhere random on the map with basically a dagger and a little food. From there it's up to you what happens." ie, it is not a Bioware-style "the story plays you" RPG. But aren't the quests in most CRPGs repetitive? Kill boss, Fedex this, find the Shard of Everlasting Thermonuclear Doom, etc, etc, etc? "The meat of the game is about running down other squads and defeating them for loot and renown." How does BG2, eg, differ from this? Hack and slash is what most CRPGs are about, there is usually minimal other interaction. Even the "love stories" in BG2 are pretty feeble compared to the hack/slash stuff.

I press this point only because the trend in CRPGs has been towards limiting what the player can do. That is, you have to "Find and Kill the Big Wazzoo," you really have no other options, and anything you do on the way is just incidental. It appears, from what is said about MB, that you are not so limited in that game, and that you can decide which faction (if any) to support, which to destroy, or abstain from politics altogether and just kill things. (Or run around trading, but from the forum it appears you're not alone in finding that "boring.") It also appears that the extremely active modding community is adding all sorts of interesting stuff, although apparently a lot of the mods are not up to speed for the latest version.

Do you think this is a game that should be more widely-known, and supported?

-- Mal

[Luvian]

It's not an rpg in the traditional term of the word because it is an action game with levels and an rpg map.

Yes, I agree this game should be more widely known, but there is a pretty big community for an indie game,a nd I hear there is an expension in the work for multiplayer support amongst other things.