Theres just a magical gripping feeling Warband had over me.
Sure, the community is next to garbage with kids screaming "U MAD BRO U MAD BRO I SCHOOLED YOU FAGGGGGG." And Team killing archers and crossbowmen who shoot into your melee and kill you, The annoying cavalry, but the experience overpowered all those problems. Warband was so polished, fair, and the designers took care and patience into creating one of my favorite games of all time. Every class could be countered by something of another class making strategy and preparation a must. The level designs and campaign were absolutely amazing. And honestly i was not sure how fire & Sword would turn out.
When i started playing fire and sword the first thing that bothered me was the absolutey dreadful looking hats. I could not put one on that looked good at all. So i wore nothing on my head. I know this dosent seem like a big deal, but i want to conquer in style. Not in some foot tall fur hats. I also miss the ruggedness of the armor/clothing in warband. With some tribal warrior/nomad armor and a Vagier helmet, you look like ranger which was great. But i have to say the later armor in WF&S looks kick ass. The Swedish armor in multiplayer was probably one of their best work on the design of armors.
Also, to be honest. There alot more Fire than Sword right now, and i'm not sure thats going to change. The people spamming grenades in multiplayer is a HUGE problem and is really starting to get on my nerves. Countless times has it made me leave servers. It also seems to happen on almost every server. When one person starts to do it, another one starts, and another one, and another one, and it it redundant, annoying, and it ruins the fun.
The melee is extremely slow and much easier. I also find there a much less variety of weapons. Even on the fastest settings it feels like your swinging through water. It just didn't sit well with me. It also seems like the rifles and pistols kind of cheat the skillful people. I see guys going around doing great in melee when some random kid comes along shooting him with a pistol while barely even aiming. And dont get me started on horse archers in this game. Its even more of a problem than it was on Warband. Even if you have a gun of some sort you might miss or not kill him with your shot and you cant even reload because he's peppering you with arrows. And since shields are basically non existent in WF&F it should have just been left out.
And speaking of horse archers, the bows in WF&S are pathetic. They're just little shot bows. I can understand that times ares changing and technology is getting better, but they couldn't have ONE bow that did at least a little damage? Even if could only be used on the ground. Like an English longbow or a recurve bow. That would have been nice, but then that would be a problem for the designers because UH-OH! They have to make shields.
Speaking of the shields, they are in my opinion bad. The turkish and steel shields are the only non-laughable shields in the game. And they cost a fortune to get. ANd it wont help because there will be 50 Musketeers shooting your ass left and right.
TL;DR
Its just not warband, warband was polished, balanced, fun, and amazing. I think WF&S could have definately used some more work. But it is a breath of fresh air and a good break from wrband. But i will definately be going back to warband.
But they also added alot of features in the campaign like fighting people in money for taverns mercenary camps, and alot more.