Mount Blade version 1.8 paid beta
I say restart becuase its the same game now with things modders introduced, such as new graphics, moral, and troop setups. Of course they introduced the ability to get married, and become a king, just like a more political side to it as well. Which is what every one who played the first one wanted to begin with, and was added in with mods....
Now that I aired out the first few things you would have noticed if you stacked it side by side with the first edition, I would like to point out its still a solidish game. I say ish because the beta for one player lasted one week, so there is still a slew of bugs, and features the old version had via mods that have yet to crossover. Also I saw a dev post they want to add more to managing towns and villages, but there is no clear data on that, so knowing my luck that will be the next standalone.
If you haven't bought the old one, this is a great buy otherwise you have to bite the bullet or turn to seedy sources, and never play multi-player which was the only really tested and worked out feature on release day. Over all though the game just like the first version has great potential, once you get over the fact it is an unofficially in paid beta for its one player portion.
The marriage and political setup is a huge upgrade to the original version, lets face it in the old one you had a lot less control, with the lack to make your own kingdom and the king calling the shots on who got what land. The marriage system is a bit tedious but frankly the courting system of old was. Early on campaign mode was pretty bugged, I had the king claim ever piece of land in the first release, but they seem to be slowly work out kinks that should have been out before they released it for sale in the first place.
Major bugs included king claiming land like a mad man, full price garrisons (was half priced in vanilla), memory leaks, and a slew of tiny bugs I never fully caught but I did see the debug log pop up quite a lot in the first release. So far they fixed the land hungry king, finally made it so you can afford to have a garrison, and seems like less memory problems (unconfirmed). They added and fixed a pathing problem with the patches as well.
Personally I am willing to get this regardless of the fact this is the way the first one should have been, even if this sets a bad precedent that every major upgrade that people wanted while it was in paid beta stages results in a new paid beta. Game has more to offer, and hopefully more things will be upgraded before the idea of a new standalone for one player comes out. But if you don't want to go through the joys of growing pains, or feeling like a tester, then I recommend waiting till mid summer unless you think the multi-player will bide you over till the campaign is out of beta.