Great, and damned addictive!
After you create your character, you set out into the fictional realm of Caraldia where you are free to do as you wish as there is no defined goal in Mount & Blade: Warband. Caraldia consists of six different factions who own their own towns, villages and castles. You can choose to join a faction if you like, or you can adventure on your own. You can build up your own kingdom, conquering land and making enemies, or help another kingdom do so if you wish. The fact that you can command hundreds of troops in this game gives the player a feeling of ownership and there's something about going into a battle consisting of thousands of troops against eachother that is awesome.
It's interesting to play a game with a lack of a main plot, as you yourself simply create your own tale. This gives the game endless replayability as every time you play it different things can happen.
Multiplayer works well, as you can play with up to 63 other players and battle it out. It uses the same equipment system as Counter-Strike, as you kill to make money to buy armour and weapons. It's great fun, and doesn't disappoint.
The best thing about Warband is the combat. It's one of the few games that take speed into consideration whilst in a fight. If you're going at full speed on horseback towards an enemy, and you swipe them with your sword, it will do a considerably larger amount of damage then if you were stopped. There is also a variety of weapons including swords, bows, crossbows, poles, lances, throwing knives and more. All of them are fun to use, and it's addictive to upgrade them throughout the game.
The game isn't a particularly good looking game compared to most games released in 2010, which is understandable as it is a budget game. It certainly looks better then its predecessor. Another minor flaw in Warband is, whilst you're travelling on the world map, it can be tedious travelling from point A to point B, but it serves a good contrast to the fast paced nature of the combat.
Mount & Blade Warband is an incredible game that shouldn't be missed, it addresses a lot of it's predecessors flaws whilst also adding in a lot of new content like Multiplayer. Mount & Blade: Warband is exclusively on PC and was released in March 2010.
Review by minimme.