Each skill has a perk tree and at certain thresholds, you select one of them. Trading goods will raise your trade skill, and smithing weapons will make you better at it. If you ride a horse, your riding levels up. If you fight with a one-handed sword, your one-handed skill will increase. Your character gains skills by simply using them. You might feel that the commander should never get their hands dirty and command from afar, fleeing if the battle turns fubar and that’s a perfectly legitimate way to play. You may ride on horseback, play the part of a shield wall, stand with your archers and rain death on the enemy, or dive in with a two-handed axe. The Mount & Blade games are pretty unique in that you literally command platoons of soldiers in battle like in a strategy game, but you are physically on the field and can throw down alongside your soldiers. At first, even lowly bands of looters are a threat, but later on, you can lay siege to fortified castles garrisoned with hundreds of soldiers protecting them. The core loop is recruiting troops, training those troops in combat to fight bigger battles later. Bannerlord’s battles are a unique experience. There is no rule stating you must be the Bannerlord, you can simply be the Butterlord instead. You can be a mercenary, join other kingdoms as a vassal or invest in workshops and trade goods. There is an optional main quest you can follow that could culminate in you starting your own kingdom as a ruler but that’s up to you. Wars are fought, cities fall and children are born whether or not you are involved. You create a character, start with nothing and make your way in a world that moves on with or without you. The GoodĪt its core, Bannerlord is an improved version of its predecessor. It’s possible a few of my complaints listed in this review won’t even be relevant by the time I hit the publish button. I took notes early on about issues I wanted to bring up in this review only for them to be obsolete within a day.
But it’s perfectly playable now and satisfyingly so.īannerlord has also received a patch every single day since release. Every unfinished portion gives you a sense of longing about how much better it will be when it’s finished. That’s simply because Bannerlord is a damn fun game. As I write this I’m sitting at 66 hours of playtime and the game is still calling to me. It is the videogame version of close Reddit, open Reddit and this went on for a long time. Ten minutes later the urge would hit me and I’d start up Bannerlord and play some more. Each faction has unique styles of tournaments and the arenas are visually distinct.
I closed the game several times and told myself I was done, I would wait until it received more updates before playing again. It frequently bludgeons you with just how unfinished it is around every corner. I don’t find Bannerlord to be janky at all, just unfinished, because well, it isn’t finished. So did Bannerlord disappoint me? No, yes, and no again.Ī lot of articles have described Bannerlord as being janky but fun.
I’ve set myself up for disappointment in the past (I’m looking at you Spore!). I definitely had a moment of disbelief when it was finally downloading on my computer. It’s no secret that Bannerlord was my most anticipated game for years. Purchasing Bannerlord through this Creator Store link directly supports Gideon’s Gaming. Joseph Pugh conducted this early access review. Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord is currently available on Steam early access.