Recent reviews by ember

It is buggy right now, and there are a number of immersion-breaking and game-breaking issues, but putting that aside, this is not just the perfect Mount & Blade game, this is a game all pc-gamers should at least try out.

Cons:
* Boring and eventually repetitive early game, if you are a returning player from other games in the franchise.
* Large battles (>600 on my system) are very laggy. Reducing battle sizes in performance menus result in an unfair splitting of enemy troops vs. friendly troops.
* Some countries are overpowered. Almost always, the southern empire wins the most land, and becomes unstoppable.
* Mouse controls feel a little unresponsive, and it seems like there is a lot more input lag, when compared to other entries in the franchise.
* Uncanny faces and facial expressions.

Pros:
* A graphical masterpiece. The beauty of this game cannot be understated. Everything from the map, to the individual town, to the battles in the middle of nowhere, to the armor plating of a soldier, looks absolutely amazing, and has clearly had a lot of effort put into it. It holds up, even on medium settings. The fact that people can run this game with hundreds of soldiers at once in these detailed environments baffles me.
* Great multiplayer system that shows a lot of potential. Winning in multiplayer is very rewarding, and when losing, it doesn't feel like it was the game's fault you lost, it feels much more like it was just you, who was outmatched.
* Great and fleshed-out tactical command system. You are able to use actual medieval combat tactics effectively in this game. Enemy and allied AI troops respond dynamically to changes on the battlefield, and (most of the time ;p) intelligently pick tactics for tackling the opponent.
* Intuitive and customizable controls.
* Realistic combat system. It takes time to learn, but every now and then you get small epiphanies of how the combat system works.
* A fairly good menu system for single-player, that makes micromanagement easy and understandable. For being such a relatively small part, the political system is quite detailed. Comparing the strengths and weaknesses of different weapons, armors and horses is easy.
* Incredibly detailed siege system. Even in multiplayer, while sieging, your troops or individual players have to mount and use medieval siege weapons, such as catapults, battering rams and trebuchets.
* Modern yet stylistic unintrusive interface that puts important information in intuitive places in an easy-to-read manner.
* Detailed and immersive lore, which more than makes up for the game's lack of a strict storyline, which is still work in progress, as far as I can tell.

This game is hard to learn and hard to master. I still lose to the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Polish sometimes. The ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Polish.

This game is the sole reason that I have glass cleaner on my desktop at all times.

if you're 16 or under, prepare to get kicked off the stage no matter what.
if there's white supremacists in the room, be sure to blend in. they'll call you a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ if you don't agree with them.
if there's actually funny people on stage, don't go on stage. you are not funny.
if people are just saying random ♥♥♥♥, expecting it to be funny, leave the room.
if you find normal people that are just as funny as you are, prepare to laugh a lot, and have a fun time.
but let's face it. that room doesn't exist.

buy the game while it's cheap.