Mount & Blade - Medieval Action RPG Game for PC | Open World Adventure, Strategy & Combat Simulation | Perfect for History Enthusiasts & War Game Lovers

If anyone has not purchased this game because of the low price (I paid $12 several years ago, now you can get it new for under $9), thinking it can't be any good, you should give it a try. It is by far the most replayable action/shooter/rpg game I have ever played.It is the only game I have that has realistic horses. Riding in other games makes you feel like you are on a mechanical horse with wheels. In M&B your character moves up and down as you go, giving a realistic sensation of riding. There are at least three separate gaits; walk, trot, and gallop.Ranged combat is as good as in any game I've played. Being mounted means you are not limited to one or two shots before the enemy closes. Melee combat is better than in any other game I've played. You can attack from four directions by moving the mouse as you left click. You can use an overhead chop, a forward thrust, or a forehand or backhand slash. Using the right mouse you can parry each of the four directional attacks or block if you have a shield. Realistically, some weapons are limited in the attacks allowed. You can't use a forward thrust with a mace, for example. Each weapon has a specific length, not just short, medium and long, like most games. The length really makes a difference. If you switch to a longer or shorter weapon you will have to adjust your approach when attacking. If the computer opponent attacks at the same time as yourself, his blow lands, yours doesn't. (ties go to the AI) You can't just stand there and left click as fast as possible like a lot of games. Damage done includes bonuses for speed and head shots. The only things that would have made it better would be a fatigue factor, the ability to duck (you can jump)and look over your shoulder, and weapon breakages.No more crawling around dungeons. The battlefields are large and open. The terrain in the 3D areas corresponds to where you were on the world map when you encountered the enemy force. It could be open fields, hills, woods, etc. A single battle can easily last over 30 minutes.In the big cities there are arenas where you can enter melee free-for-alls or sometimes tournaments. Both are non-lethal to your character and a lot of fun. In the tournaments you go through a series of rounds (assuming you survive) and they are always different. There might be 2 teams of 6, 4 teams of 3, etc. You never know what sort of weapon you'll have either. You might be mounted with a lance or on foot with an axe and shield, etc.When I purchased the game I knew there were mods available but at first didn't look into them. I'm not real tech savvy and anyway I only have a dial-up connection so there was no way I was going to try downloading a 100-300 MB mod. Then some time ago I discovered my local library didn't mind if I plugged a USB flash drive into their computers (with high speed connections). Since then I have downloaded over two dozen mods from [...] Many are in compressed form but there was even a link on the website for a free zip utility. ([...]) It works great. All the mods are free also and you don't have to register to download them.You don't have to overwrite files or anything to install the mods. Mount & Blade was designed with modding in mind. When you start the game there is a drop-down menu which shows all the mods you have installed. They don't interfere with each other and each one can have its own saved game(s). Admittedly all the games are similar in that they use the same system but there is still a different feel when you go from the original medieval with horses and swords to say the Napoleonic era with muskets or a Martian science fiction mod with rocket sleds, ray guns and two-headed aliens. There are mods for just about any era you can think of: ancient Greece or Japan, the old west, 1930's China, a post Apocalypse wasteland, or Star Wars. Some of the mods have even added troop formation commands and kingdom management features.I know many people have complained about the lack of a main quest. Some mods have even added that, although most of the quests are generic. To me that is a plus. There are many games I've played that weren't anywhere near as fun as M&B but I felt I had to continue just to finish the game since I had already invested so much time into it. There is no such feeling with M&B. If you get tired of a game just switch to another mod. Since they use the same system it is easy to switch back and forth. Mount and Blade is sort of like real life - its not about the destination, its about the journey.