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Mount & blade 2: Bannerlord review
The kingdom of the Aserai was perpetually at war, swapping towns and castles with rival lands, borders shifting constantly, refugees fleeing across the desert as raiders and looters took advantage of the chaos. Bad days, except for me, an opportunistic clan leader, mercenary, small business owner, caravaneer, occasional blacksmith, eventual king and very successful war profiteer. Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord keeps you busy.
Even more so than its predecessor, Bannerlord's setup is a dream come to life, splicing together roleplaying, strategy and medieval duels in a big ol' sandbox. It's Chivalry, Crusader Kings and Total War in a single expansive package, and for me there isn't another combination this seductive.
When it launched in early access, there was already so much to play with that it hardly felt early access at all. Along with the cosmetic and quality of life improvements it boasted over its predecessor, it also promised more management wrinkles thanks to its much-touted political and clan systems. Jumping in again for this review I was equally smitten, but as I moved from nobody to mercenary and then from lord to king, I started to notice the gaps within each system, and the sacrifices that were made to create a game this broad.
This isn't apparent initially because there is, at first, simply so much to do. Straight out of the serviceable tutorial you'll be able to travel the length and breadth of the gargantuan map, engaging in banditry, trade, mercenary work or swearing your allegiance to one of the kingdoms. You'll complete quests, expand your clan with companions and new family members, and once you've become powerful enough you can even carve out your own nation, or rise up the ranks of an existing one.
Making history
All these diversions create the perfect recipe for sleepless nights as you try to become Calradia's most famous, or infamous, person. And this is all happening in a dynamic world where the AI is just as capable, if not more, initially, of dramatically changing the world. You're living through the annals of a fictional history, watching lands rise and fall even when your own contribution is minor. The result is a strong sense of place, as you start to attach major events to specific locations and grow ever more familiar with the world.
The city of Ortysia became a significant focal point in my campaign. Over the course of several years it changed hands many times, as three kingdoms constantly squabbled over it. And I had a mercenary contract with all of them, at one point or another. I made quite a bit of cash from spilling blood for various nobles. It felt serendipitous, then, that it would be my first conquest after I became a vassal of the Aserai king. And thanks to my good relationship with the monarch, I was given control over it. My first settlement.
Each village, town and castle can be explored in-person, but you can also do everything from chatting to its residents to purchasing workshops all from the convenient menu. You interact with settlements directly by buying property, creating caravans and, as a ruler, embarking on construction projects and assigning a governor. Things like a settlement's prosperity, loyalty and security can also be enhanced directly, but they are also indirectly affected by things like banditry and wars. They are always in flux, and watching them grow or suffer reinforces the stakes of these wars and crises.
In practice, though, there isn't actually much management involved in running towns and castles. You hop in, pick a construction project and then make sure there aren't any issues needing dealt with in the villages connected to them. These issues are usually basic things like needing more grain or bandits making a nuisance of themselves, which can be solved through simple quests. These quests don't even need you to be involved—you can just get one of your companions to do it. It's all very hands-off.
This is also true of trade. It doesn't start out this way, though. At first you'll be ferrying goods between settlements yourself. If a settlement is ravenous for butter and another one has it in abundance, you're probably going to make a lot of profit. This direct route, even if it ceases to become efficient when you have a kingdom to run, remains the most engaging method of earning some cash. Becoming a small business owner, less so.
A workshop's success is determined by various factors, like the prosperity of the town it's located in, but that's not particularly helpful information when you can't see how such relationships are calculated. The management screen simply shows how much money the business has and how much it makes. The only way to interact with it is by selling it or changing it to another kind of business. This leaves you with little to do once you've slapped down the cash to buy one—these aren't really businesses you get to run.
Creating a caravan is similarly hands-off. You get no control over its route, and no opportunities to make any tweaks. You don't even get to decide what it's hauling. You can see how much money your companion is earning for you, but not how they've earned it. The only time I had to pay attention to them is when they got attacked and captured, after which I could free them or just wait for them to inevitably free themselves.
So yes, you can live the life of a merchant if you want, but it's not where you'll have the most fun. Really, it's designed to supplement your hoard, giving you some helpful passive income to pay for troops and equipment.
God of war
It was during Bannerlord's titanic wars that I was at my happiest, whether I was riding with my own crew or part of a massive army full of AI lords. You control your character directly in battle, unless you're just sending in your troops alone—the equivalent of an auto-battle option. So you'll run or ride around the battlefield, stabbing and slicing at your foes, but at the same time you'll have troops to command, assigning them orders from a long list. The level of control you have is greater than even some pure strategy games. Few things are quite as fun as just commanding everyone to charge at the enemy all at once, though.
Fights are simultaneously precise and messy. Directional attacks let you do fancy footwork to find an opening in your enemy's defences in one-on-ones, but when you're in the scrum things become a delightful clusterfuck, with hundreds of warriors all trying to batter each other. There's hardly any room to swing a sword, so everyone's just desperately trying to create space and murder a few foes.
Ranged troops seem to be the most powerful, but nothing beats the joy of slamming into a group of archers or the back of a row of spearmen while on a horse. The impact of your horse alone does damage and can send battlelines into disarray, making your steed feel like a superweapon, but if you get surrounded by spearmen you'll still go down in seconds. Thankfully, on the default settings, your character will be knocked out instead of killed, and your troops can still win the battle for you even if you're seeing stars.
