GCEGalotta
Recruit
As stated above, this is my first look at a M&B game. I am aware that some things might change during beta and that I am quite possibly not that skilled at playing it. Overall I like the idea and concept of M&B but still think it`s one of the most underwhelming and disappointing games I´ve ever come accross. Yet I still spent some 30 plus hours with it - which is a pretty weird combination 
Anyways, here`s a list of stuff I have some problems with and would like to see improve:
1) Tutorial: Doesn`t prepare me for commanding troops and managing my faction
2) Looks: The graphics are not that good and there is close to no spoken dialogue. As a result the world (especially in cities where the NPCs don´t seem to have a routine) looks and feels lifeless, which breaks the immersion
3) Combat: Is stiff and clunky. No dodging, no sprinting, two-handed weapons feel almost as fast as one-handed ones, no stamina.
4) Battles: Almost always amount to a giant blob of soldiers hacking away at each other. Formation and tactics don´t really matter. No impact on a cavalry charge. No way to pause the game. - yet this might be an aspect I suck at.
On to my biggest grievances:
5) Storytelling and Quests: This is some of the worst writing I have ever seen and quite honestly I don`t know why even bother having that in the game. The main quest starts with me being in a hurry to get back my siblings yet chases me across the whole map to gather information about a battle. One Vlandian lord was last seen in one of his western castles. When I got there 2 days later, had been captured by the Sturgians and was now imprisoned in one of their cities on the other side of the continent. And one day before I got there he got released and was instantly chilling back at his castle in the west.
The generic and random quests are repetitive and make no sense. At one time a lord asked me to broker his mercenaries to another noble. I convinced the one standing right next to him to take them up. Another time I helped in that family feud quest. When I convinced the one who`s son got killed to keep the peace and the quest was done, he himself gave me the same quest. So I had to protect his apparently not so dead son. Oh, and there are quite a lot spies running around.
NPCs reactions make absolutely no sense. I was playing as a Battanian who played a hand in the decline of the empire. Yet the game started smack in the middle of imperial territory and everybody - even kings - was just fine talking to me. Why even have these different cultures, when they just matter for some perks. The late emperors spie master was just fine telling me the location of a piece from that sacred banner - me, a barbarian whom she doesn`t know and has never before met or seen - just because I told her that I am willing to reunite the empire. And that wasn´t even my original intent. I wanted to sell that thing to make money and might even have started the conversation by telling her exactly that (btw: when asking her about how to reunite the empire, she doesn´t give me an ingame explanation but instead lays out the game mechanics). Quite the trusting one with all those spies running around. And speaking of spies: While completing the spy party quest, the first commoner I ask tells me that word of my search has made the rounds (how exactly?) and when I finally encounter the spy (who does look a lot like the 371 others I already found) in a dark ally full of thugs, he is quite eager to duell me instead of idk running or paying the thugs to jump me.
I guess they should have hired me instead, cause through the power of my encyclopedia I am fully aware of the location of any lord even though I am on one side of the map and he`s on the other.
6) Map design: Why is it that all bandits within a hideout are encamped in different places and groups from 1-3? Do they like to get murdered one at a time?
As stated in the beginning, I like the basic idea of the game, but when I break it up into it´s segments I can easily find other ones who did it far better.
Strategy: Total War. RPG: Even Skyrim does tell a more compelling story. Only thing the time might be worth for is forging and managing your own kingdom, but then again there`s Knights of Honor.
My 2 cents
Anyways, here`s a list of stuff I have some problems with and would like to see improve:
1) Tutorial: Doesn`t prepare me for commanding troops and managing my faction
2) Looks: The graphics are not that good and there is close to no spoken dialogue. As a result the world (especially in cities where the NPCs don´t seem to have a routine) looks and feels lifeless, which breaks the immersion
3) Combat: Is stiff and clunky. No dodging, no sprinting, two-handed weapons feel almost as fast as one-handed ones, no stamina.
4) Battles: Almost always amount to a giant blob of soldiers hacking away at each other. Formation and tactics don´t really matter. No impact on a cavalry charge. No way to pause the game. - yet this might be an aspect I suck at.
On to my biggest grievances:
5) Storytelling and Quests: This is some of the worst writing I have ever seen and quite honestly I don`t know why even bother having that in the game. The main quest starts with me being in a hurry to get back my siblings yet chases me across the whole map to gather information about a battle. One Vlandian lord was last seen in one of his western castles. When I got there 2 days later, had been captured by the Sturgians and was now imprisoned in one of their cities on the other side of the continent. And one day before I got there he got released and was instantly chilling back at his castle in the west.
The generic and random quests are repetitive and make no sense. At one time a lord asked me to broker his mercenaries to another noble. I convinced the one standing right next to him to take them up. Another time I helped in that family feud quest. When I convinced the one who`s son got killed to keep the peace and the quest was done, he himself gave me the same quest. So I had to protect his apparently not so dead son. Oh, and there are quite a lot spies running around.
NPCs reactions make absolutely no sense. I was playing as a Battanian who played a hand in the decline of the empire. Yet the game started smack in the middle of imperial territory and everybody - even kings - was just fine talking to me. Why even have these different cultures, when they just matter for some perks. The late emperors spie master was just fine telling me the location of a piece from that sacred banner - me, a barbarian whom she doesn`t know and has never before met or seen - just because I told her that I am willing to reunite the empire. And that wasn´t even my original intent. I wanted to sell that thing to make money and might even have started the conversation by telling her exactly that (btw: when asking her about how to reunite the empire, she doesn´t give me an ingame explanation but instead lays out the game mechanics). Quite the trusting one with all those spies running around. And speaking of spies: While completing the spy party quest, the first commoner I ask tells me that word of my search has made the rounds (how exactly?) and when I finally encounter the spy (who does look a lot like the 371 others I already found) in a dark ally full of thugs, he is quite eager to duell me instead of idk running or paying the thugs to jump me.
I guess they should have hired me instead, cause through the power of my encyclopedia I am fully aware of the location of any lord even though I am on one side of the map and he`s on the other.
6) Map design: Why is it that all bandits within a hideout are encamped in different places and groups from 1-3? Do they like to get murdered one at a time?
As stated in the beginning, I like the basic idea of the game, but when I break it up into it´s segments I can easily find other ones who did it far better.
Strategy: Total War. RPG: Even Skyrim does tell a more compelling story. Only thing the time might be worth for is forging and managing your own kingdom, but then again there`s Knights of Honor.
My 2 cents
