Should I buy the Mount & Blade Collection?

[Jolly Co-operator]

The collection is on sale on Steam, and I was wondering what you guys think of it? Is the focus on building the stats of your own character, building up your army, or is it nicely balanced between the two (I'd prefer the third option)? How's the weapon variety?

How unforgiving is it? Is it the kind of game where the army I spent hours building will be completely wiped out in one fell swoop? Does it at least give me a chance to find my footing in the beginning, or will it be throwing me into tough battles right away?

Lastly, is there a story? If so, how good is it?

Sorry I have so many questions, it's just that I've heard some rather mixed opinions about these games, and I want to get some information regarding the questions I asked above. You don't have to answer all of them, just answer however many you feel like, and a general "yay" or "nay" as to whether or not I should buy it.

 

[AWAR]

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It's a great game IMHO. it's a cool mix of an action, rpg, strategy and micromanagement and it's very addictive. You might have to get used to its fighting system but it has a decent learning curve. Most of the time you will have to choose carefully which armies to attack and you will have to weigh advantages and disadvantages. There's not much of a story (it's basically a bunch of kingdoms at war with each other) but there are some story-related quests.

I suggest you buy Warband, it's basically an improved version of the first game. Fire and Sword got mixed reviews, it's basically Warband with firearms. There's also a demo of the first game you might want to try.

 

[Paul]

Yes.

Depending on whether you play it Vanilla or not, you can find it quite unforgiving. The first few hours can be gruelling because you won't be too familiar with it, and your peasant army will be getting annihilated by plenty of bandits until you're familiar with it. Once you're familiar, you have a few companions (Lezalit is worth having since he's a good Trainer), you can build up an army of high-tier troops very, very quickly.

It's possible your army can be wiped out in one battle, and it's not entirely avoidable if you're going into such battles. At the start, as I said, every battle will feel tough. The best thing you can do in the early game is wreck Looters, and try to avoid actual bandits since they're higher-level troops and often can be a danger.

There's not really one unified story in the vanilla game. There are four kingdoms and they all have a story of a usurper to the throne, who you can help if you want. The factions in the stock game are the Sarranids, the Nords, the Rhodoks, the Vaegirs, the Khergits and the Swadians. Of course, you can also play the role of the new king, breaking down the old empires to form your own.

When it comes to mods you're getting into a whole new world, though. Some of the best mods for the game are Brytenwalda (Dark Age Britain), Gekokujo (Sengoku-era Japan), Floris (Vanilla+, basically), and Prophesy of Pendor. They're all a good bit harder than the standard game, I can tell you that right off the bat. You won't enjoy them much unless you've gotten familiar with the game beforehand. That's where vanilla comes in, or you can just play vanilla and have a jolly good time anyway.

My one complaint with vanilla is the limited number of items. Generally you're going to get some good armour in the mid-game, and you're not going to need to change it until the very late-game. Raise an army of high-level units and you can essentially roll across the countryside as a little ball of murder.

The games do get some complaints due to bugs and general 'feel' sometimes. I can understand that but normally I'm having too much fun to complain. Also, for what it's worth - Warband is basically the original Mount & Blade, just better. The only reason to have the original installed is for the mods you can't get on Warband. With Fire & Sword doesn't have many mods and is considered fairly lowly. Napoleonic Wars is online only, but is good fun if you can find friends or a server you like.

With Fire & Sword has a great concept going, in that it's set Eastern Europe during the 1600s. I had all these bright ideas of taking on an army of Winged Hussars and wrecking fools as the Polish Commonwealth, or acting as an aide to the Tsar in the Muscovite Tsardom, but it's not that simple. It doesn't feel as fun an overall game as Warband, so it should be considered more of a bonus than a driving reason to buy the complete pack.