Note: Updated review as of 4-18 after having over a week to play. Still thrilled about it. Just want to give a shoutout to Taleworlds as they are putting out DAILY patches and have fixed a lot of big issues very quickly. They seem hugely committed to making this title successful, and it absolutely will be.

I've been a huge M&B fan since the beginning, and frankly, one of the weirdo's who puts Fire and Sword ahead of Warband mostly because I really liked the early era firearms. That said, I've been super thrilled with Bannerlord, it takes a lot of what M&B did well and kept it the same, but enhanced areas the game needed work on (namely diplomacy/politics, trading, towns, relationships, companions, etc.). Core combat and other components of the game were kept very similar to the tried and true gameplay style M&B fans already know and appreciate, while dialogue options, town navigation, questing, caravans, etc. have been fleshed out more than before. There are also additional RPG elements with skills training that helps build skills more organically (as you use those skills), your perk points only increase the learning rate of the skills. There are also perk bonuses that are meaningful and noticable, like starting a battle with extra arrows in your quiver, instead of just something boring like 10% to damage.

I've now gotten into seiges, large armies, and the like, and have been thrilled. Commanding armies in battles is useful and can be as involved as you want it to be, I like to micromanage and am pleasantly rewarded for doing so with a lot of skilled tactical battles, especially when outnumbered and every skirmish and engagement on the field counts. Likewise, sieges are great and you can include a large number of siege equipment that really add to it. For now, the siege AI needs some work, but that's to be expected for an early access game.

For now, I definitely think this is a worthwhile and long overdue addition to one of my favorite series of games out there, and by all accounts it's expanded on the originals in all the right ways while still keeping the core gameplay the same that made the games so good in the first place.

Note: Updated review as of 4-18 after having over a week to play. Still thrilled about it. Just want to give a shoutout to Taleworlds as they are putting out DAILY patches and have fixed a lot of big issues very quickly. They seem hugely committed to making this title successful, and it absolutely will be. I've been a huge M&B fan since the beginning, and frankly, one of the weirdo's who puts Fire and Sword ahead of Warband mostly because I really liked the early era firearms. That said, I've been super thrilled with Bannerlord, it takes a lot of what M&B did well and kept it the same, but enhanced areas the game needed work on (namely diplomacy/politics, trading, towns, relationships, companions, etc.). Core combat and other components of the game were kept very similar to the tried and true gameplay style M&B fans already know and appreciate, while dialogue options, town navigation, questing, caravans, etc. have been fleshed out more than before. There are also additional RPG elements with skills training that helps build skills more organically (as you use those skills), your perk points only increase the learning rate of the skills. There are also perk bonuses that are meaningful and noticable, like starting a battle with extra arrows in your quiver, instead of just something boring like 10% to damage. I've now gotten into seiges, large armies, and the like, and have been thrilled. Commanding armies in battles is useful and can be as involved as you want it to be, I like to micromanage and am pleasantly rewarded for doing so with a lot of skilled tactical battles, especially when outnumbered and every skirmish and engagement on the field counts. Likewise, sieges are great and you can include a large number of siege equipment that really add to it. For now, the siege AI needs some work, but that's to be expected for an early access game. For now, I definitely think this is a worthwhile and long overdue addition to one of my favorite series of games out there, and by all accounts it's expanded on the originals in all the right ways while still keeping the core gameplay the same that made the games so good in the first place.