Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword Preview

When Taleworlds announced that they were going to release another stand-alone expansion to Mount & Blade, we got pretty excited. After all, Warband was a nice improvement over the original game (despite being a little too similar to really warrant paying for it again, but we let that one slide since the game was just so enjoyable and the studio behind it so new). When we subsequently learned that it would contain guns, our excitement diminished significantly…

Don’t get us wrong – the trailers looked pretty damned good and raised our hopes again somewhat. But now that we’ve got a preview copy in our hands (which really is just the demo, limited to player character level 7 – shame on you Taleworlds!) we can’t help but feel incredibly concerned. To drop the bombshell straight away: this expansion is really only going to appeal to players who like the Eastern European setting of With Fire & Sword, and who like the idea of firearms and grenades in what was previously a very medieval combat affair. This plays very much like a mod rather than a full-blown expansion so this is something to bear in mind as well. There are free mods out there which are of far better quality and which offer a lot more variety. So now we’ve got that out of the way, lets look at our initial thoughts.

The game starts with a very short introduction, in which you are pretty much attacked immediately. Two obtrusive and immersion breaking popups tell you how to use your sword, and a few moments later your first kill becomes a reality. There’s no explanation of why this person is attacking you, as you are incredibly poor and own nothing worth stealing. A moment later, another 7 or so opponents jump you, but this time you are assisted by some musketeers. Hurray. You receive another pop-up, explaining how to use a gun, followed by more combat. You don’t really have any time to take this in, or learn how to actually aim/shoot, and will most likely end up like me: hitting absolutely nothing yet being congratulated how fantastic a shot you are by one of the musketeers after the combat is over.

The rest of the tutorial involves climbing on a horse and doing another combat scene. In summary, the tutorial is way too short, doesn’t do a good job at explaining the game or combat mechanics at all and really doesn’t allow the player to try things out in their own pace and time before being thrown in the deep end. This brings us back to the original game and is quite a step back from Warband. Unless you are already familair with Mount & Blade you are probably going to be put off as the combat mechanics wont make sense to you. For a game which so desperately wants to appeal to a mainstream audience, it does a great job at staying niche. We sincerely hope that this tutorial will be improved significantly before full release, as it really sets the tone for the rest of the game. A little bit of an introduction or story would be great as well. The musketeer in question was an incredibly dull and superficial character who won’t mean anything to the player. Why not let the player meet his first hero immediately, or perhaps a wife/husband? Anything to increase the attachment to the world.

It’s worth mentioning that this expansion is supposedly based on a Polish novel. It might be based on it, but we weren’t able to find any real story, so unless you are familair with the novel this probably means absolutely nothing to you as a player. Like the other installments in the Mount & Blade series, you begin as a nobody. By completing quests for locals, lords and other individuals, you build up trust with specific lords and factions and build up a small army of soldiers to join you in combat. Depending on the factions you align yourself with, the type of soldier can differ. You can also fight everyone if you prefer to strive for your own little empire. In With Fire & Sword you will be able to build universities, blacksmiths and other buildings, adding a ‘sim’ type element to the towns under your control.

The obvious addition to With Fire and Sword is the inclusion of guns. There’s quite a variety of firearms and you’ll even find grenades. We didn’t feel that the inclusion of guns was a positive change at all, as battles change into a ranged stand-off with soldiers firing muskets at each other. You can obviously still charge in, but chances are you’ll be hit by a couple of bullets, and they do hurt! On the flipside, even at level 1 we were one-shotting enemy soldiers with a musket from our horse. It’s not nearly as satisfying as the crossbows or normal bows in Warband or even the original. The combat engine is pretty much identical to the original games, so if you’ve played those a lot you’ll feel right at home.

So long story short, is With Fire & Sword an improvement over Warband? In terms of what cities look like, and small improvements here and there: absolutely. In terms of the tutorial or the new weapons: we absolutely hated those – but that’s really down to personal preference. Some people absolutely love this time period, so there’s certainly something to be found here if you enjoy muskets. However, With Fire & Sword feels like a mod in all respects and not like a full-blown expansion. It almost feels like this should have been a patch to Warband in terms of improvements, and an additional gamemode/campaign for those who enjoy it. We can’t help but feel that the franchise is being milked a little and we’d really have liked to see more improvements to the engine, the polish and the game in general. All in all, it’s really a little underwhelming and we can’t help feeling a little disappointed with Taleworlds on this one. It’s just not enough of an improvement to Warband to warrant purchase for most people…

That last screen shot is quite telling – the advertisement screens to purchase the full version of Warband are still in when you stop playing.

Stylosa

Posted May 11, 2011 at 9:41 AM

The multiplayer is insane! Check out all the content over on our youtube channel for a better idea. http//www.youtube.com/unitlosttube

We have quite a fair bit of content planned for this, so keep on the lookout! This has to be the most enjoyable multiplayer game I’ve played for a long time, I was literately wetting myself at times.

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Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword Preview

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