Full ReleasePC

Mount & Blade: Warband

Taleworlds · RPG, Strategy, Action

Overview

In a land torn asunder by incessant warfare, it is time to assemble your own band of hardened warriors and enter the fray. Lead your men into battle, expand your realm, and claim the ultimate prize: the throne of Calradia!

Mount & Blade: Warband is a stand alone expansion pack for the game that brought medieval battlefields to life with its realistic mounted combat and detailed fighting system.

Graphical overhaul: Support added for HDR, FSAA, depth of field, soft particles, tone mapping, and many other effects
New models with greater detail and high-quality textures
Multiplayer battles with up to 64 players. Multiplayer modes include Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Conquest, Battle, and Siege
A campaign allowing you to become the ruler of a faction and convince lords to become your vassals
The ability to upgrade your companions to vassals by granting them lands
The ability to marry a lady of the realm for romance or cold political gain. Try to win a lady’s heart through poetry or bravery
Improved mechanics for soldier morale: Soldiers will break and run away if their morale gets too low
Pick any projectile off the battlefield for use as additional munitions
New motion-captured combat animations
Numerous improvements to the combat system: Your shield will still stop arrows even if you are not actively defending
The ability to play multiplayer matches on random maps as well as hand-designed ones
Multiplayer equipment system: Earn money by fighting opponents or accomplishing goals
The ability to use most throwing weapons in close combat: Switch to using a javelin as a short spear when the enemy gets close
Spend gold on more powerful equipment, using a carefully balanced system that will make combat more exciting without giving too much of an advantage to the leading team

From the game's Steam store page.

THE GAMEQ VERDICT10,000 reviews analyzed

What players are actually saying

1. Summary

Players treat Warband as a classic that still holds up. The praise centres on three things: the freedom to start as a nobody and become a mercenary, trader, bandit, vassal or king; directional melee and mounted combat while you command your own troops in the same battle; and the mod scene, which comes up in 47% of the longer reviews, more than any other topic. Reviewers often say the base game is good and credit the total conversions (Prophesy of Pendor, The Last Days of the Third Age, A World of Ice and Fire, Gekokujo, Floris and others) with keeping them playing for years. It also runs on very weak laptops, which brings in players who can't run the sequel.

The dated graphics, animations and interface come up in 24% of the longer reviews, usually as a caveat the reviewer is willing to live with. Other complaints are a grindy, repetitive late game with random fetch quests, siege and troop AI that struggles, and technical trouble on modern systems: crashes, a game that won't start on newer Windows or graphics drivers, a broken macOS build, and no autosave or cloud saves. Reviewers who compare it with Bannerlord mostly say Warband is still the better game, citing its mods and finished feel, while a smaller group calls the sequel a straight upgrade.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

Mods and total conversions extend the game for yearsHigh

Mods are the most common topic: 47% of the longer reviews bring them up. Reviewers list specific mods and the settings they open up: Prophesy of Pendor and Perisno for fantasy, The Last Days of the Third Age for Middle-earth, A World of Ice and Fire and A Clash of Kings for Westeros, Gekokujo for feudal Japan, 1257 AD and Brytenwalda for history, Star Wars Conquest and Warsword Conquest, plus quality-of-life mods like Diplomacy and Floris. Steam Workshop support makes them easy to install. One reviewer put the jump plainly: "And that alone elevates this game from a 7.5 experience to a 9.5 on the 10 scale." Some give the modders most of the credit: "TaleWorlds gets 25% of the credit for this masterpiece. The other 75% goes to the modders". A few warn that mod quality varies and that some big mods are harder than the base game.

Freedom to start as a nobody and choose your own pathHigh

19% of the longer reviews praise the sandbox: no fixed story, just a map of warring kingdoms where you can trade, hunt bandits, sell prisoners, join a king as a vassal or found your own kingdom. "Do I want to join a kingdom and kiss the kings butt? Do i want to assemble my own bandit army to topple kingdom after kingdom?" Players describe their campaigns as stories they wrote themselves. The economy and trade come up in 11% of the longer reviews, and courting, marriage and feasts in 7%.

Directional melee, mounted combat and leading your own armyHigh

Combat comes up in 19% of the longer reviews and mounted fighting in 8.5%. Reviewers like the four-direction attacks and blocks, couched lances, horse archery, and fighting in person while giving orders to your troops. "Games with budgets many times the size of this one have tried and failed to give the sensation of charging into medieval warfare". Horseback play gets singled out, with one small catch: "Horse back gameplay is also great, some of the best in most games that have mounted combat, as long as you aren't going up or down a hill". Combat is also one of the most common topics among negative longer reviews (26% of them), where players call it stiff or clunky.

Easy to lose hours in, and easy to come back toMedium

Reviewers describe losing whole nights to it (6.7% of the longer reviews call it addictive or say they lost track of time), returning every few years for a new campaign (replayability comes up in 5.6%), and growing up with it (nostalgia in 5.6%). Some say they first played on a console or a non-Steam copy and bought it again.

Runs on almost any computerMedium

4.1% of the longer reviews, and short ones like "great for potato pc", praise how well it runs on old laptops and integrated graphics. Some bought it because they can't run Bannerlord. Linux and Steam Deck players report it works ("Totally steam deck playable!"), and some Mac owners play it because the sequel isn't available on Mac.

Cheap on sale, and most say it's worth itMedium

Price comes up in 11% of the longer reviews, mostly as value: it goes on sale for a few dollars and reviewers say that buys hundreds of hours. A smaller group says the regular price is too high for its age: "for 5 bucks when it's on sale it's definetly worth it. but for 20 bucks, no way." In the longer reviews, 5.6% call it good value and 1.2% complain about the price.

Where players are split

Warband or BannerlordHigh

21% of the longer reviews compare Warband with its sequel. Of all the reviews that name Bannerlord, 24% say Warband is still the better game, against under 3% that say the reverse. Warband's side points to the mod library, its "finished" state, lord personalities and charm, and battle sizes you can raise in a config file. The other side says the sequel improves on everything except mods: "Great game, but just get Bannerlord it's just a better version of this one." Others sit in between, recommending Warband as the cheaper, lighter entry or the Mac option. One reviewer put the contrast this way: "Does a lot less and somehow simultaneously a lot more than its sequel."

Multiplayer and Napoleonic WarsMedium

12.5% of the longer reviews mention multiplayer. Fans love Napoleonic Wars line battles, regiments, duels and community events, and one called it "One of the healthiest competitive scenes i have ever witnessed". Some of the reviews that discuss multiplayer warn about thin or dead servers, skilled veterans ("I DO NOT recommend multiplayer they are full of sweats"), and trolls and cheaters on some servers. Others take the middle line: "online is a little dead now but the solo campaign is a lot of fun". A handful wish for a co-op campaign.

The first hours: a steep climb or part of the appealMedium

5.3% of the longer reviews talk about the learning curve. The tutorial explains little, the first fights often end in capture by bandits or sea raiders, and new players need guides or videos: "It can be a bit hard/confusing starting out, it doesn't tell you much". These reviewers usually add that it clicks once you get the hang of it and that the hard start makes the climb feel earned, and several suggest starting on easier settings. A few short negative reviews quit early for exactly this reason.

Vanilla or mods onlyMedium

Players disagree on whether the base game stands on its own. Some say "base game is kinda cringe, mods are what makes it good". More of the longer reviews (3.3% against 1.2%) defend Native as worth hundreds of hours before any mod, and several advise learning the base game first. "With mods, without mods, this game is a masterpiece."

Viking Conquest and the official expansionsLow

Viking Conquest comes up in 3.6% of the longer reviews. Some call it the best single-player content in the package for its story and historical setting ("Viking Conquest is a must for singleplayer, and napoleonic wars is a must for multiplayer."). Others warn against it, mostly because of bugs and corrupted saves: "Good game, but please don't play Viking Conquest".

What frustrates players

Dated graphics, animations and interfaceHigh

24% of the longer reviews mention the visuals, almost always as a caveat: stiff animations, plain faces, no facial animation, a clunky interface. Reviewers often name what makes up for it in the same breath ("Extremely outdated graphics and super clunky gameplay, but the endless ability to mod the game makes it a timeless classic."). For some newcomers it is the deal breaker: "Graphics are badly dated, UI is horribly unintuitive, and combat is clunky and awkward."

Grind, repetitive quests and a thin late gameMedium

10% of the longer reviews call the game grindy or repetitive, and the theme is more common among negative reviews. Complaints focus on fetch and escort quests, quest givers you have to hunt across the map ("Quest givers move around the map constantly and are even taken out of play frequently."), slow early progress, and a late game that turns into one siege after another with no ending. Quests come up in 20% of the negative longer reviews. Even fans admit "Even with mods, sometimes it can feel repetitive." and some say they stop once their kingdom is big.

Crashes, launch failures and lost savesMedium

Crashes or a game that won't start come up in 10% of all negative reviews, and less often in the longer ones. Players report it refusing to start on newer systems ("Game doesn't launch on windows 11."), conflicts with NVIDIA drivers, DirectX errors, and crashes when alt-tabbing. Several recommend the community WSE2 launcher as the fix. Reviewers also point out that there is no autosave by default and no cloud saves, so a crash can cost hours, and a few report corrupted saves, several of them in Viking Conquest. One positive review sums up the risk: "you might lose hundreds of hours progress to a corrupt save file".

Troop and siege AIMedium

AI comes up in 5.7% of the longer reviews and sieges in 7.9%, often together. Troops charge in without a plan or block your swings, enemy kingdoms chase you across the map, and allied kingdoms lose direction once the war is nearly won ("Your Kingdom seems to have no sense of strategy once other factions have been eliminated."). Siege complaints are the most specific: there is "only 1 way to get into a castle a ladder", so assaults turn into a queue at one ladder.

Clunky controls and general jankMedium

5.9% of the longer reviews describe the controls or physics as clunky, janky or stiff, and many of them accept the jank as part of the charm. Complaints include hit detection in crowded fights, dismounting and interacting with objects, and mouse-direction blocking that takes time to learn.

Mac version problemsLow

Mac owners are a small group but report specific problems: an update that stopped the game from launching ("Recent update broke the game on MacOS. Game can no longer be launched."), lag and crashes on newer macOS and Apple silicon, and achievements that never unlock on Mac.

Kingdom politics and vassal managementLow

Vassal and fief systems come up in 7.5% of the longer reviews, mostly with affection. A few reviewers complain about capturing a castle only to see the king hand it to someone else, or about vassals turning on you when you grant land in your own kingdom.

No voice acting or main storyLow

2% of the longer reviews note there is little story and almost no voice acting. Most present this as a fair trade for the sandbox.

3. The player conversation

The tone is affectionate and full of in-jokes. Many short reviews quote the game's lines ("It's almost harvesting season", "I will drink from your skull", "Away with you vile beggar"), tease King Harlaus about butter, or write "it's ok" after a huge number of hours. Negative reviews are few and spread across topics: combat feel, graphics, repetitive quests and grind are what the negative longer reviews write about most, plus short "won't launch" or "crashes" notes.

Crash and launch reports come from newcomers and veterans alike, including long-time fans whose copy stopped starting on a new PC or after a driver update. Learning-curve remarks mostly come from experienced players looking back on their first sessions, apart from the few short negative reviews that quit early. Late-game tedium, vassal politics, detailed mod recommendations and multiplayer complaints about veterans and cheaters come from players with long histories in the game. The Bannerlord comparison runs through reviews at every playtime, and the reviews that choose a side mostly pick Warband.

4. What the developers could do

Fix launching and crashing on modern Windows and graphics drivers. Crashes and launch failures appear in 10% of negative reviews, some from players who loved the game until a new PC, Windows 11 or a driver update stopped it starting, and players say they rely on the community WSE2 launcher to stay stable.
Turn on autosave by default and add Steam Cloud saves. Players describe losing hours to crashes with autosave off or to corrupted saves, especially in Viking Conquest, and one calls the lack of autosave "unforgivable".
Repair the macOS build. Mac players report an update that stopped the game launching, crashes on Apple silicon and newer macOS, and achievements that never unlock.
Give the late game more to do. Reviewers say conquest becomes one siege after another with no ending, vassals turn on you when you grant land, and kingdom AI loses direction once rivals fall.
Improve siege assaults and troop AI. Players single out single-ladder sieges, troops that block your swings and allied armies without a plan.
Make quests easier to track. Players ask to stop hunting quest givers who wander the map or sit in enemy prisons, and to get fewer low-paying fetch and escort jobs.
Explain the early game in the tutorial. Newcomers say the tutorial skips the economy, troop upkeep and how to survive bandits, so they lean on guides or quit in the first hours.