вЂњWhen you become the king or the commander, then you can direct everything. Then youвЂ™ll be able to contribute to the battle by commanding those troops. So when you go into a battle the overall commander will delegate some troops to you, for example a section of the cavalry. вЂњIn the middle of the game, you have a sizable battalion under your command, but still not a big army. At the very beginning of the game you only have yourself and a few other guys to command, so when you go into a big battle you donвЂ™t really have a huge effect on that - but you can hunt down bandits and such. вЂњWe tried to make sure that all of the gameplay elements work in all situations. вЂњIn single-player, what we are aiming to do is have a seamless progression from being a lonely adventurer to becoming a ruler with armies at your disposal, directing sieges.вЂќ

вЂњThereвЂ™s no basic story that you have to follow, you just need to get into the game, understand the dynamics and make your own story,вЂќ Yavuz explains. The factions in Bannerlord are loosely based on real-world civilisations and cultures, and you can interact with them in different ways as you rise to the top.

You still create your own character and focus on a particular set of skills that you can train up as you progress, but as you make your way around the gameвЂ™s fictionalised, but realistic, medieval world with the ultimate goal of commanding your own kingdom, you discover situations for yourself rather than following a grand main storyline. In my opinion it pays off, because once you get into it, people should want to explore the scenes because they are interesting and pulling you in, not because youвЂ™re obliged to do it.вЂќД¬arrying on from previous games in the Mount and Blade series, BannerlordвЂ™s quests work differently from most RPGs too. This is a bit risky, because maybe there could be questions about whether itвЂ™s immersive. Everything you can do in the scenes you can do from the menu to save you time. We got rid of those menus and now everything is much more streamlined. вЂњIn Warband, basically everything was driven through menus and it was still nice, but a little bit clunky. If you combine them together, thatвЂ™d be really huge - I didnвЂ™t really do the maths - but itвЂ™s big. вЂњAll the towns are being individually modelled, everything looks different from everything else. вЂњWe have something like over 30, almost 40, different towns, hundreds of villages and a lot of castles,вЂќ TaleWorlds founder Armagan Yavuz says. When thereвЂ™s so much to do in Mount and Blade 2, itвЂ™s important to keep the player from getting bogged down in minutiae, and fast-travel keeps the pace high while leaving the option for hardcore roleplayers to stay in the game world. Say you hear at the tavern that a brigand you want to recruitвЂ™s been thrown in the town jail - you can still walk out of the pub, across town, into the keep, down to the cellar and into the dungeon if you want - or just pop open a menu and head straight there. ItвЂ™s a great quality-of-life feature that alleviates some of the gameвЂ™s many loading screens.

You travel between settlements zoomed out on horseback, just like the last game, but Bannerlord has hundreds of interconnected, medium-sized areas which you can navigate easily using a fast-travel system that works inside towns and villages, not just between them. Rather than have swathes of dead space though, Mount and Blade 2вЂ™s world functions in a refreshingly different way to bigger budget sandboxes. From expansive medieval siege multiplayer to freeform solo questing, Taleworlds is sparing no effort to make this all-encompassing prequel a success.ДЇirst off, itвЂ™s huge: when you jump into the campaign map to get your bearings you have to scroll back at least three times to get the whole continent on-screen. But thatвЂ™s what youвЂ™d expect from a project thatвЂ™s been in development for over seven years. Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord is easily one of the most ambitious indie RPGs ever.

Mount and blade builds