Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord allows players to design their own world. Set on the imaginary continent of Calradia, Bannerlord, which is inspired by the Migration Period, is a role-playing game unlike any other.
Launched on March 30, 2020, the game, a prequel to Mount & Blade: Warband, an unrelated expansion pack for the 2008 game Mount & Blade, is fairly straightforward. When it was released, it immediately became the biggest launch of the year on Steam with more than 200,000 simultaneous players.
In Bannerlord, your character, whose been orphaned and whose siblings have been kidnapped, is left with the bare essentials. The mission, therefore, is to gather money and an army to rescue your siblings. In that setting, every possibility is open in Calradia.
Rather than set a path, Bannerlord allows players to set their own goals. The sky is the limit. You can choose to be a mercenary, a nobleman or a conqueror. In the end, the game wants your conscience to guide you. To get started, you must create your character and the choices are endless when it comes to looks, skills or personality.
Since in the beginning you’re essentially an orphaned nobody, you’ll need to build up the character as you go, leaving home, accumulating some money and gathering cohorts willing to follow you. What makes Bannerlord fascinating though is that the world around you is evolving regardless of your involvement. In the end, time will pass, and your choices will need to be in accordance with the events that develop around you.
If events in Calradia are bleak, it may be harder to accomplish your mission. If the world is at war, it will be harder to recruit allies and supplies will be scarce and more expensive. These are all issues that you must contend with. Despite its complexity, though, Bannerlord is still a work in progress. Since March, there have been more than 80 updates, with developers taking into account players’ feedback.
As the game progresses, your character will evolve, gaining skills, resources and skills. With each level upgrade, players will be awarded a skill point, allowing them to learn new skills more quickly. When engaging in combat, players will have a third- or first-person view, yet battle skills are challenging, which makes the game that much more exciting.
If you choose to go the traditional route, you may want to marry and enter the ranks of nobility. Your husband or wife will then become an ally that can help you achieve your goals. You may also choose to have offspring, who will naturally age and may even carry on your legacy if you should die.
Bannerlord also features a multiplayer mode that allows teams of hundreds of players to battle each other. Developed by a small studio in Turkey, the game is highly customizable given that players are largely responsible for the Bannerlord’s evolution and ultimate complexity. For any fan of medieval fantasy, owning the game is a no-brainer.
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