Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword

[Sebster 105]

Sheesh that's a long game name.


Aaaanyway, I've preordered it on steam, I've never played a M&B game but I'm a big fan of medieval RPG's so it's up my street, I've got a few questions about the apparently unchanged core gameplay.

A: Is first person actually worth a damn? I like first person RPGs the most but only Bethesda seem to do that

B: How "fragile" is the player character, is it Demon's Souls health as in you can only take a few hits, or are you hybrid of man and dumpster truck?

C: Is the difficulty curve, and difficulty overall quite challenging and does it make you feel alien from the game (I like the learning sensation from some games, not had it in a while)

 

[TroutXTRM]

The first person is pretty terrible, barely anybody uses it.

The player character can't take very many hits, however when you get some of the top of the line armor you become pretty durable.

The difficulty in singleplayer depends entirely upon how you set the options in the game. Online, there is a pretty big learning curve, and you will get your ass beat for awhile until you get the hang of manual blocking and feinting.

 

[BabySinclair]

First person is useful with lancing people on horseback, that's about it.

Durability is directly proportional to the armor you're wearing. Steel will stop swords and reduce blunt weapon damage while I'm fairly sure it's inverted with leather, steel usually has higher armor ratings so it's harder to tell.

Just started multiplayer on Warband and I'm getting it handed to me quite a bit, get used to it or find a duel server.

 

[The Madman]

Obviously I haven't played with Fire & Sword, but I'm a huge fan of the original game as well as Warband so I'll try to answer your questions. On a side note despite being a fan of the series I'm hesitant to buy F&S myself simply because it doesn't seem to do anything the original game can't already thanks to the amazing mod community and it isn't actually by the original games creators. A third party standalone expansion of sorts!

But we'll see. So long as it doesn't tamper with the series base mechanics I can't actually see it being in any way bad, I'm just curious whether it'll be worth the price to someone already extremely familiar with the series.

Anyway, questions:

A: First Person works, although I prefer 3rd person myself. It can be much harder in 1st person but it's certainly possible. Some of the communities more 'hardcore' players insist it's the only way to play the game. I disagree, but whatever, that's a matter of preference.

B: M&B takes a more realistic approach to combat, meaning how durable you are depends more on what you're wearing, where you were hit and by what than any actual levels. Although leveling does increase your health certainly, it wont make a lick of a difference if you're stupid enough to charge full speed into a lancers braced spear. Initially you're going to seem pretty damned weak however until the gameplay mechanics become more familiar to you. Once they are however you'll quickly discover that even a new character can hold their own quite well in a fight so long as you control them well. Wont help much against arrows or, this being F&S, bullets but that's another issue entirely.

Again haven't played F&S myself, but if it's anything like the base games I'd suggest sticking to fighting bandits and looters as practice before taking on anything serious. Competing in tournaments is also a good way to practice in higher-tier combat since you're given temporary armour and weapons for each fight, and you might even win some money which is always nice.

C: Yet again, can't comment on whether F&S has a better tutorial and whatnot, but in the previous experience it isn't the kindest to newbies since it goes with the 'throw em to the wolves' tactic of gameplay. Meaning you literally start with a horse, some basic gear, and no clue what to do next or how with only the occasional bit of help to guide you along. Combat itself is quick to learn but difficult to master. In the most basic sense it's a matter of timing you attacks and blocks against those of the opponent. He swings high, you block high and try a quick forward jab which he tries to block in turn. Can be very back & forth at times till you finally get an opening or a lucky hit.

The challenge becomes more pronounced when you take things such as weapon momentum into account (A sword swung from the back of a charging horse will do a helluva lot more damage than one swung from a stationary position for example.), crouched lance damage, ranged combat, different types of weapons (A sword and a spear are used entirely differently!) as well as armour (That club wont do shit against an armoured knight.), positioning, and group combat into account.

 

[Sebster 105]

Thanks for the info guys, really appreciate it.

 

[Cyberjester]

You got the Steam weekend deal?

Download and play Mount and Blade, it's all of 650MB or something silly, and it's the most fun you can have in a game.

I opened it up around 12am yesterday, figured I'd play for half an hour or so then head to bed.

Around 12pm I realised that I'd lost track of time and I really needed sleep. It's just that good. Ignore people when they say it's got bad graphics too, they aren't that bad and the gameplay is the greatest ever. Mounted combat ^ ^



But to answer the questions, I don't really use first person since third person gives me a much better view of the battle around me and I like that. It means if one of my companions is getting wasted by a group then I can peel off and help them out, first person in a video game is very, very blinkered. For a lance it's not bad, but that's why you practice at the Training Field (assuming that's in WFaS as well). Easily switchable though so not a problem.

You can't take that many hits, even if you boost hp you'll still be reliant on armor and blocking. Although as always, movement is important. One of the first games I play was Quake3 so I got used to being always moving and in Mount and Blade vanilla, being able to do that means archers aren't going to hit you as often, or even at all if you get a little bit lucky. Dodging is also a valid tactic, step back as someone swings a greatsword, then step in and hit them with your quarterstaff. You actually end up being pretty invincible if you can do that. Apart from the odd lance to the back of course. -.-

You'll need to refer to the internet to help you out a bit. Mount and Blade vanilla has a mission where you train villagers, just figuring out how to do that was pretty annoying. The tutorials are good for combat, not so good for the UI. Once you know how the UI is set out then you can get into the game, once you know how to swing a sword and hit then that's most of the difficulty done. Not all of course, lots of missions, lots of battles, lots to figure out. But if you're even a little switched on when you play, it should be a breeze.

I mean, if I can play it at 12am with very little sleep, it should be reasonably accessible.

Although I lost track of time, that hasn't happened in.. Ever. :S
Want With Fire and Sword though.. Cossacks, pistols. My dream come true ^ ^