Commonsense things like moving your character, moving the camera and swinging a sword are covered, rather than aspects past basic control such as the game itself. The tutorial is a waste of time and only explains the most rudimentary points of the game. The interface is cumbersome and, for lack of a better word, ugly. It comes across as archaic and assumes that the player already knows exactly what they’re doing. WFaS feels old not just because of its post medieval setting, but because the game doesn’t feel as though much has changed since the original Mount & Blade‘s 2008 release. These shortcomings have a bit to do with flaws in design, but some of it will have to do with individual choice of playstyle. Unfortunately, reasonable pricing doesn’t mask some of the deficiencies present in this version of the game. Thankfully this expansion isn’t priced like a standalone game and instead canters in at a fairly reasonable price of $14.99.
#Mount and blade fire and sword review mod#
The result of the collaboration is a game that seems to qualify less as an expansion (only barely squeaking by because of the game engine update) and more as a standalone mod for which you must pony up cash. TaleWorlds Entertainment actually enlisted the help of developer Sich Studios for this effort, unlike the previous installments of Mount & Blade where TaleWorlds was the sole developer. The improvements consist of updating Mount & Blade to the Warband engine, the inclusion of multiplayer, and of course the addition of firearms and grenades to the new post-medieval timeline. Instead it is an expansion for the original Mount & Blade game with the North American release carrying some improvements taken from Mount & Blade: Warband. WFaS is not the true third game in the Mount & Blade series, despite appearances. This case of lulling me to sleep is not passing damnation on WFaS as a whole, but it does illustrate an important point: With Fire and Sword can be terribly boring and not everyone will make it past the dull introduction and into the meat of the game. Thus I finally found a game to play that did a fair job in keeping my attention, but only several hours into my experience. Eventually I was able to leap this stumbling block – otherwise I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this – but only after I had dragged myself through a less than thrilling opening and familiarizing myself with WFaS‘s myriad systems and intricacies.
Over the course of the following twenty hours I spent with the game this result repeated itself no less than two other times.
Within a half-hour of starting up Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword (WFaS) for the first time, I fell asleep. It's certainly not a game for everyone, but if you're patient you can find rewards hidden in this deep open-world RPG period piece.