Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord 2022 XBOX Series S/X Review

TaleWorlds delivers a long-awaited knock-out to the XBOX Series S/X

All photos in this article are by the author.

Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord has finally come to the console two years after its PC launch.

Mount and Blade has always been a love letter to gaming. It harkens back to a feeling that has escaped most new games. With its challenging situations, realistic battle and troop command system, and a large dose of free will diluted with a drop of fate; anyone playing any Mount and Blade game will find themselves invested and enthralled by its refreshingly raw game mechanics and an organic story that will make you feel as though George R.R. Martin is writing your headcanon.

The character creation process is one of the signature staples of the franchise and is a rare beast to behold in the modern gaming scene.

Created by a small studio from Turkey called TaleWorlds Entertainment, the original Mount and Blade was, interestingly enough, developed by a married couple.

When first hearing the title name spoken aloud from a friend in 2008 I always thought it was “Mountain Blade”. I came to find out later this was an XBOX Achievement on Mount and Blade: Warband involving the mountain people, the Kingdom of Rhodoks. I laughed for a good few minutes.

Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord has been long awaited by fans with a solid 4.2 out of 5 stars on the Microsoft Store almost two weeks after launch it is safe to say the people are pleased. With glowing reviews such as:

“This is a great strategy sandbox RPG, a game worthy of praise. Warband was good, this is great.”

“Been waitin’ 10 years for this!”

“Best game ever”

and my personal favorite

“Well, my wife don’t like competition, but I’m loving the dog house”

If you’ve never played Mount and Blade before, those reviews should tell you everything you need to know. It’s a fantastic franchise.

Family member’s appearance are based on your character’s appearance.

Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord sets the player off 210 years before the events of Mount and Blade: Warband once again in the realm of Calradia. Same world, earlier stuff. The factions are now earlier proto-versions of themselves featuring the remnants of the fractured new-old faction known as Empire.

A few things that set the sequel apart from the original are as follows. There is no “camping” on the overworld map like you could do in Warband and With Fire and Sword. Apparently, that feature where you could rest on the map with your army and possibly be attacked by other parties where the battlefield is your camp is now gone. It was never actually part of the original Mount and Blade. I had totally forgotten this.

There’s a smithing system. You can craft your own gear or assign a hero in your company to do it and piggyback on that person’s skill. One consensus from the PC crowd is that smithing is almost “cheating” when it comes to its income potential.

There is a campaign mode. Sandbox mode is the standard Mount and Blade mode. It was one of the most satisfying aspects of the game. Choosing your character, the backstory, and all that jazz, and then setting out into the world from your home faction was always a refreshing experience.

The land of Calradia is so big I can’t even fit it all on the screen at once. The player’s character’s expression changes with the moral of your group in the icon when you zoom out.

You could be a hometown player and hang around and serve your monarch, go find another to serve, take up trading, become a traveling tournament competitor chasing the thrill of the win, or you could set out for a life of bounty hunting and capturing looters and bandits to sell into human trafficking which made you a… hero! The world was your oyster!

In the new campaign, you are given some family members and some stuff happens! It’s really cool to see the family members because they’re based on how your character looks. The sandbox mode is a returning option. I recommend doing your first playthrough in campaign mode. Save the sandbox for when you reach maximum edge lord.

Corena searches an imperial tavern for new recruits.

The character models are really what the whole “new game” was needed for. Bannerlord is almost identical to all its earlier incarnations and this is a great thing. What this whole new game is really about is the upgrade to the character models. Mount and Blade had some of the goofiest characters I had seen outside of Ark: Survival Evolved.

Let me tell you what a massive upgrade these new characters are. The facial movements of these characters, especially during combat, are so lifelike. I don’t mean texture, although the texture is nice, but the facial movements and reactions on people’s faces when you stab them in the gut with a sword are absolutely hands down, the best facial mechanics I have seen in a game especially a game with this many NPCS loaded in at once.

So much blood.

If someone gets a javelin through the neck — they grab the neck. It’s just not something I can recall seeing in, I dare to say, any game so far. I’m sure this sort of technology has to be in other games, but you don’t notice it the way you do in Bannerlord. Every single death in this game feels intimate.

Tournaments are not only exciting but also profitable.

This doesn’t mean you won’t laugh, a lot. The warfare is brutal, but when you see the guy who just took you out of a tournament catch an arrow to the head as he charges the guy after you it is impossible to keep a smirk off your face.

The NPCs take this just as seriously as you on Bannerlord difficulty mode.

The large scale and small scale, mounted and unmounted, 1v1 and 1vX combat can be tweaked to suit almost anyone’s playstyle. First-person, third-person, and TaleWorlds even added a target lock, which I will reserve my opinion about, to the console versions of the game. I will say this, it’s not very good because unlocking is a bit clunky, and isn’t really anything I heard anyone asking for. It seems a bit silly in a HEMA game. It honestly got me killed more than it helped so I personally disabled it.

Corena soaks it in after delivering the winning blow in a final one-on-one fight of a tournament in the city of Myzea. Taking home the blade known as Dawnbreaker. Nice, Corena, nice.

The first and third person both have their necessary moment in this game. Don’t try to commit to just one, because I guarantee you that there will be times when you press the left joystick to accidentally switch views. Be ready to react if you have to because there isn’t always time to switch back before that blade comes down on your head.

Everywhere you go in this game beauty will follow you. This is the inside of an imperial lord’s great hall.

I suggest giving the highest level of difficulty, called Bannerlord, a try once you get comfortable or reacquainted with the game. Enabled death for all heroes, including you as the player, for a truly riveting playthrough. Make sure you have a kid if you want to keep playing after your inevitable death from old age or early death because you stuck your nose where it didn’t belong.

For an extra twist try using a dice roller to roll for your character. It’s a fun way to truly experience being someone real, strange stats and all, and not just groomed for success by min/maxing out your backstory. I even roll for my character’s appearance.

The game itself runs very well on my XBOX Series S. I do crash every now and again, but no more than any other game. Make sure you turn on Ironman mode and turn up the autosave interval in the options.

One last thing I would like to applaud TaleWorlds for. Bannerlord like the previous games has no cash store or in-game purchases. Thank you, TaleWorlds for making a game and not a new money pit. You are a dying breed.

Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord was released on October 25, 2022 on the XBOX One and XBOX Series S/X and is available now on the Microsoft Store. It is also available on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. Go and try it out today. You won’t be disappointed.