Mount & Blade will hopefully be a major influence on the RPG genre.
When RPG games first started appearing on computers (I played the first Bard's Tale on the C64) I was somewhat at a loss on how to react to them. Having played plenty of pen-and-paper roleplaying games before, I found that RPG computer games were hardly the same cup of tea; the games were, probably out of necessity, only superficially similar to p&p RPGs - scripted games that, besides the rules sets and setting, bore more resemblance to PC "Adventure" games (which I always liked, long live Sierra) than p&p RPGs; there was no real freedom in the games. Even as the genre evolved and "sandbox" rpgs started appearing, I was disappointed - the sandbox element was often rather weak, all things considered, unless you count uninteresting side quests and a lot of random slaying interesting.
M&B is all about sandbox. While I admit more of a storyline would be appreciated, the indie production made that difficult and I am glad Armagan and his crew focused on the playability and freedom of the game rather than attempting at doing both that and a storyline - both elements would probably have suffered as a result. As it is, you have a lot of freedom and can pursue a number of interesting career paths - although in the end, it tends to gravitate toward joining a faction and fighting for its expansion. Building your character up as a noble lord in the world of Calradia is always a challenge, even on the lower difficult settings: there is always a bigger fish somewhere who can crush your household troops and joining the larger national army is not always a guarantee for having superior numbers or quality.
M&B is also all about the combat engine, which I suspect - and hope - will be what this game transfers into the future of RPGs. Oblivion, Gothic, the lot of other real-time RPG combat systems - they've got nothing on this combat engine, which, completely devoid of any fantasy elements, spells, or wacky engineering (while many would want historical artillery on the battlefield, it was hardly something one saw extensively outside sieges) - just plain old high/late medieval weapons, armour and horses - manages to be the most interesting and addictive computer game 1st perspective combat system I've ever played. Other developers will hopefully learn from M&B's puristic, "realistic" approach to RPG combat. The horsemanship elements alone are ground-breaking and really give a feel for the use of cavalry on premodern battlefields - lone or loosely formed infantry really suffer from the depratations of roving heavy cavalry. The big complaint element is probably the orders system, which could have benefited from being more complex - cavalry is probably more efficient than it was in real history, since the infantry has problems closing ranks in larger groups, which historically was a real deterrant to cavalry attack.
The graphics and sound are so-so, as could be expected by an indie developer. However, I am not a pixel whore and have always felt that beautiful visuals and music/effects, while always appreciated, cannot compensate for good gameplay, so it isn't something that I weight when rating games.
There are elements of the game that I would like to see improved. The command and control could be better. Sieges and storming castles and cities could boast more options, although fighting your way down from the walls of a fortress alongside your men is always a great deal of fun - as is a desperate defense against a storming army of besiegers. Overall, however, M&B gets 9,5 out of 10 for me - this game just might be the start of something really good for RPGs.