There are old games that are just so frustrating to setup, let alone play... and then there's Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword.

Let's just start with the negatives, shall we?

This game doesn't really look good in this day and age and sorely needs a remastered version. Plus, the controls for its combat (both horseback and on foot) feel clunky at best - swings and blows that you'd thought should have hit the enemy often end up as misses. I also struggled quite a bit with its ranged weapons (firearms or bow and arrow), especially when I'm on horseback.

Most quests in the game are also rather repetitive - either you save their town from looters or you'd be asked to escort a caravan/ deliver a certain amount of goods to a town. The tutorial isn't really enough as well, I think. So far, I still have no idea whether I could buy equipment for the mercs in my little band of do-gooders - we only kill looters and other evil folks.

But I believe that your mercs can actually gain enough experience points to level up, if they survive the battles you put them through, and like your character, you can then invest their skill points into skills you want them to have. Anyway, this isn't really an issue because I could easily have googled any questions I may have - such as how to start and complete an escort quest.

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Now that all of the obvious negatives are out of the way, let's finally look at some of the great parts of this old game.

Despite not really aging very well, the game is still a pretty fantastic especially if you're fan of trading games and/or games where your dabbles in the politics of nobles or brutal raids on rival kingdoms can actually change how the map looks. In some way, I'd say this game plays out much like a 4x strategy game, albeit with a medieval theme.

The game has 2 main aspects that you can "progress" in, namely trading (manually or by sending caravans) and conquest (attacking and capturing towns, fortresses and castles, and also, getting control of certain towns, etc through guile, I'm assuming).

Trading (a.k.a. "buy and resell") is likely the easiest way for you to earn a ton of money in this game, especially once you've visited most of the castles in the game and know where you can get the cheapest goods and where you can sell a certain item for the highest possible price. This is the part that caught my full attention.... to the point where 4 hours had passed and I didn't even noticed!

Conquest comes a bit later in the game because well, you'll need money to hire a lot of mercs to fight for you. I haven't really explored this aspect yet - been too busy amassing my wealth and buying better gear for myself... heh - but I reckon you can lay siege to castles, manage your own town/castle, and eventually build your own empire from the ground up. Oh, and a quick tip - you can hire better merceneries by heading to taverns of castles/fortresses. You can still hire "army fodders" from villages since they are usually a lot cheaper, but when you have tens of thousands in your pocket, you can definitely afford a lot better.

The game has a bit of RPG in it, in addition to all the strategy and management-style gameplay, as you'll be able to level up via questing. Leveling up will grant you some points that you can then invest into fleshing out your character.

If you have not played the game before, I'd highly recommend you start the game on the easiest mode first. Once you've learned the ropes and have a bit of experience in your first playthrough, then you might want to bump up the difficulty a bit.

Didn't expect much from such an old game, but the adage of "old is gold" really applies here. There are plenty to be done in this game, and you can basically choose who you'd like to play as (RPG elements) whether it is a trader or the leader of a band of murdering marauders who's only interested in the thrill of a good pillaging. This is definitely a game worth playing (and sinking hours in), especially if you're a fan and don't really mind clunky (but working) controls and somewhat "bad" graphics.


Thanks to RikkiUW for the gift - This game completely blew me away!

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