Bannerlord is an action/adventure sandbox RPG where the player creates his/her own character in the medieval-like setting of Calradia.
The game has plenty to offer: battles and sieges, joining one of the several factions (each inspired by real-life historical cultures es. Vikings, Arabs and so on), finding a suitable spouse to have heirs, trading goods, managing your fiefs, and so on. The fight system is a lot of fun (first or third person view, as you prefer), specializing in mounted or unmounted combat, melee or ranged weapons...
There is also a very interesting option, which I recommend, where the main character (and his friends and family too) can die in battle or eventually of old age and the player takes control of the heir (if there is one) and can continue playing with the next generation.
Bannerlord is entertaining in the early-middle phases of the game, where the player is growing in skills and reputation, acquiring companions with different abilities, crafting weapons (smithing is overpowered to be honest, but I still love it) and climbing the ranks of a faction: you can even become king... which unfortunately is less fun than it sounds like.
Yeah, about that...
Unfortunately, the late game becomes a slog of endless warfare, as you cannot play for more than five minutes without other factions declaring war on yours; if you win, give it other five minutes and another conflict will start. Basically, the game I love disappears in a tedious grind where you have to micromanage wars, often on multiple fronts (some started by your own idiot allies), while having little-to-no control on your side's armies except one (your own), even if you have become king. Also, the algorithm to decide "who is winning" (and thus will have to pay tributes at the end) is dubious to say the least - you can win all the battles, have the enemy king and all his retinue in captivity, but if the enemy raided more settlements than you did (we are talking peasant villages, not capital cities), you are the one who "is losing". Wait, what? Oh, look, my vassals are voting to open the third war front at the same time.
It's like herding cats, if cats where medieval bannermen with an incessant war lust; if the in-battle tactics are fine, the war strategy needs a serious overhaul - your vassals will wander around with their men and keep losing the settlements you conquered, only to clamor for more wars a minute later. How I longed for a "Hold this castle with your troops or I'll cut your head off!" button. As a king you can overrule your vassals if you find a way to "farm" influence points, but you still have the wars started by the enemy factions to bore you.
In fact, in my last playthrough I had more fun as a soldier of fortune with his own mercenary company (which you can do, as a testament to the game's vast possibilities) and no fixed faction than I had as a king earlier. At least you are not forced to fight someone every couple of minutes unless you choose to.
There is potential here for a phenomenal game but, although it was finally released after much waiting, some issues still need to be ironed out. Also, the lack of co-op multiplayer campaign mode is a shame - there is a multiplayer but it's just battles (and why no commander battles against a friend like in Warband?). I still recommend Bannerlord, though.
The game has plenty to offer: battles and sieges, joining one of the several factions (each inspired by real-life historical cultures es. Vikings, Arabs and so on), finding a suitable spouse to have heirs, trading goods, managing your fiefs, and so on. The fight system is a lot of fun (first or third person view, as you prefer), specializing in mounted or unmounted combat, melee or ranged weapons...
There is also a very interesting option, which I recommend, where the main character (and his friends and family too) can die in battle or eventually of old age and the player takes control of the heir (if there is one) and can continue playing with the next generation.
Bannerlord is entertaining in the early-middle phases of the game, where the player is growing in skills and reputation, acquiring companions with different abilities, crafting weapons (smithing is overpowered to be honest, but I still love it) and climbing the ranks of a faction: you can even become king... which unfortunately is less fun than it sounds like.
Yeah, about that...
Unfortunately, the late game becomes a slog of endless warfare, as you cannot play for more than five minutes without other factions declaring war on yours; if you win, give it other five minutes and another conflict will start. Basically, the game I love disappears in a tedious grind where you have to micromanage wars, often on multiple fronts (some started by your own idiot allies), while having little-to-no control on your side's armies except one (your own), even if you have become king. Also, the algorithm to decide "who is winning" (and thus will have to pay tributes at the end) is dubious to say the least - you can win all the battles, have the enemy king and all his retinue in captivity, but if the enemy raided more settlements than you did (we are talking peasant villages, not capital cities), you are the one who "is losing". Wait, what? Oh, look, my vassals are voting to open the third war front at the same time.
It's like herding cats, if cats where medieval bannermen with an incessant war lust; if the in-battle tactics are fine, the war strategy needs a serious overhaul - your vassals will wander around with their men and keep losing the settlements you conquered, only to clamor for more wars a minute later. How I longed for a "Hold this castle with your troops or I'll cut your head off!" button. As a king you can overrule your vassals if you find a way to "farm" influence points, but you still have the wars started by the enemy factions to bore you.
In fact, in my last playthrough I had more fun as a soldier of fortune with his own mercenary company (which you can do, as a testament to the game's vast possibilities) and no fixed faction than I had as a king earlier. At least you are not forced to fight someone every couple of minutes unless you choose to.
There is potential here for a phenomenal game but, although it was finally released after much waiting, some issues still need to be ironed out. Also, the lack of co-op multiplayer campaign mode is a shame - there is a multiplayer but it's just battles (and why no commander battles against a friend like in Warband?). I still recommend Bannerlord, though.