Mount & Blade II:
Bannerlord

Game
    Review

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord (2022) is a strategy game where you raise an army and fight in large-scale medieval warfare. You build up your troops and complete missions, then place battalions and siege engines where they'll be most effective before heading into the fight, where you order your troops and use your own character to defeat nearby enemies. It stands out for this contrast of grand battles where you need to see the big picture with the smaller scale of one-on-one melee action.

Set in a medieval world, where an ancient empire is fragmenting, you play a down-on-their-luck commander, who sets out on a mission to find a banner that can unite or decimate the empire. You travel to different lands and kingdoms, completing missions and slowly building up an army, then taking it into combat to defeat foes and lay siege to castles and keeps. You can also explore taverns and towns, and build your character with different skills.

At the start of each battle, you view the terrain from above and choose where you want your troops and siege engines to start the fight; using hills, valleys, and tree cover to your advantage to gain the upper hand against your foe is essential to success. Once the battle begins, you can give orders to your troops but not directly control them, while actively participating in the fight as an individual warrior. You use your sword, shield, and bow to defend and fight off enemies, and can move around to bolster your side's attack wherever it starts to waver. Another core part of the game is the multiplayer component, where you can fight enemies one-on-one in arenas, or in sprawling sieges with over 50 players on each side.

The result is a game that accurately recreates ancient medieval warfare, as you fight in close quarters alongside a disarrayed cluster of allies and enemies alike, lead a cavalry charge through a narrow valley, or scramble for a fallen comrade's shield, making for a tense combination of strategy and excitement.

Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord 4 weeks ago. It was re-examined by Ben Kendall and updated 3 weeks ago.