Brutally Honest Bannerlord Review - Is It Worth It? 

If you're still using auto-block or don't bother with melee combat, check this video out: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-m6Xq48Ok6oY.html So I originally wanted to cover this topic because I thought it would be a nice break for me from all the intense guides. Then I made a nearly 2 minutes intro that took a full day to do and had to scrap because it was too long lol then I spent 2 days going through all the guides and campaigns to make a list of what needs to be fixed still only to cut it down to 14 minutes. During the editing, I thought about doing what most everyone else does - talk over some stock footage or a single battle without much editing or effort. Then I decided you all deserve much better than that from me - so here I am at 4am once again working to get this beast out on time lol This is a long way of saying I love you all and I appreciate the support you've given me - I don't take you for granted and the extra effort on this one is for you! I hope you enjoy it - I laughed a bunch making it :)

The late game invasion from an off map culture reminds me of a mod from warband where after a set amount of days a group from beyond the seas lands and starts invading with armies numbering by the thousands

It definetly feels like it's too hollow and they're hoping the mod community can fill in the gaps

This game has the potential to be my favourite game of all time. It is glorious. I like the suggestions about the end game. I usually get to a point where I just restart, because at some point in the campaign, total domination just becomes inevitable. An end times event would be amazing. Something to prepare for in the campaign long term, for the children...

I think that is what I enjoy most in my Bannerlord games - starting over. I just get bored 3 to 4 years in and want do a new build. But for some reason the "new" builds always end up being horse archers...No matter how hard I try for something else, plus commanding armies just cannot be done on foot. Maybe if there was some type of commanders view or mode that would give you a better sight I would try a full melee on foot character.

Outside of unhealthy amount of grind which I fixed with smithing and progression mods, I feel like factions NEVER dying completely and the fact that as you said after 2 to 5 years of in-game time, it becomes incredibly repetetive and boring. Even in Warband world was small enough so one campaign was indeed taking some time and battles were even worse, but it wasn't even quarter of its size in Bannerlord, which takes entire days on modded campaign and whole ass weeks on vanilla.

I really appreciate how you take the time to find the specific examples to back up your criticism. I love this game but the only thing keeping it fresh for me is the mods and they update it so frequently my mods can't keep up. I'll he happy when it's all the way finished and I really hope they add some smaller side stories, quests and events into the game

I'm running a sandbox campaign, slow burn of grabbing rebellious towns... I'm enjoying it, but full release and Workshop is what I'm looking forward to. The mod community really made M&B a hit... or multiple hits... I'm betting the replay value is similar here.

I want more village management. It still baffles me that there are more things to do with villages in Warband than in Bannerlord, such as adding buildings that boost production and quests that help boost the prosperity of a village. Early on, Taleworlds did show some things of village management, back when each village was its own fief. Two different production facilities could be made (for example, Olives and Grain, or hides and a stable). A castle could be built, but in consequence, that village would lose one of its production facilities. But then, I guess to simplify the game, they cut down on the number of fiefs and just gave everyone a castle and two villages, which always felt like a weird jump to me.

Silly little videos for youtube? My man, you made all the time with you enjoyable. For real, the sheer amount of dedication you put into them is easily shown when you play and whenever you bring something new to the table. Rock on!

I feel like you nailed exactly how I'm feeling. I love this game, it ties together multiple genres and games into one and does a great job. There are thousands of hours worth of replayability which keeps me coming back as it is highly addictive. BUT I do constantly burn out as I realize it's shortcomings. I think the scope was cast too wide as it's trying to take on too many things and only half implements them which leads to missed opportunities and frustration. I appreciated the development videos from TW early on but those quickly died off and communication has all but stopped which is disheartening. Will I continue to play bannerlord when it comes out? Absolutely! I have faith there will be additional content post release that will hopefully tie some loose ends (not all ofcourse) or we'll leave it up to the modders to close some of the gaps.

i remember there used to be a mod for warband where after some time an unknown kingdom would invade and start a conquest with no regard to diplomacy, it had a lot of fantasy units, but it was still a very good end-game challenge for the player, maybe something like this would be a good addition, if not a sea faring empire that would start guerrilla attacks on the kingdoms

Realistic battle made my overall commanding experience 3x better as I could actually be tactical with my troops instead of sending my best troops into a meat grinder.

Your ideas and ability to construct feedback is incredible. I'm not joking when I say that I honestly wish they'd hire you. Your experience with Bannerlord and your methodical way of testing out aspects of the game would probably be a huge asset to the team.

You know now that I think about it. It's absurd that there's no ambush battles in bannerlord when the most important battle in bannerlord lore was an ambush battle

The thing is, we can all see the foundation for something truly great is here, the foundation for a dream game. One where the game truly feels alive, like nobles playing their game of thrones that you stay unaware of till you too are among those in the royal court (eg: ambitious nobles are prone to scheming, making plots with other nobles and betraying them or warmonger nobles always thirsting for conquest and raising vast armies the moment war is declared, even doing schemes of their own to start wars) to those of the local level, low level notables having their own squabbles and even village and town rivalries, where an A.I army doesn't get distracted and wander off but actually stays on target. Where a faction that is on the losing side of a war may see clans break off, making separate peace deals to save their own skin and becoming sworn enemies of their former rulers. Where interfaction alliances, as you said here, become a real thing, which can also lead to more intrigue like finding ways to sabotage the alliance. Such as, the sturgians and vlandians making an alliance to fight a now united empire, so hire a cheap vlandian assassin to kill the sturgian king, assassin is found and the vlandians are blamed etc...

Ever since I started playing Bannerlord I have watched your videos. Just wanted to let you know that your work is fantastic and has helped me to enjoy the game even more! Thank you for being an amazing part of the community.

To be honest - every time you post a new video I'll watch it. Love your content man.

The dancing guy was pure content. Totally worth it.

So spot-on with your comment about the excitement of starting a new campaign. Planning a new character's look, skills, thinking about their long-term build goals, and especially that moment when it's just you on a horse near the training field, the world at your feet. Thanks for making this video, Strat! Also, loved the shout out to mid 1990s X-Wing.

On my first playthrough I just started my own kingdom and took over the map, relying mostly on imperial troops. Second time I wanted more of a challange and decided to become a vassal for the Sturgians and help them expand. But I am now so tired of the stupid AI that im starting up a third game, where its just going to be me and my companions, each with their own party (no caravans) and NO lords/vassals! In fact im probably going to execute everyone I defeat. Wish me luck!

While in early access, we were able to evaluate the game according to its potential - which is limitless. As a full release we have to evaluate the product as it is - which is a mixed bag. Therefore, I'm afraid that it will go from one of the best early access titles ever to a mediocre full release.

11:43 you basically described the nords in warband how they arrived. Now it would be cool to take part in the nords invasion and see if many of the kingdoms and yourself can try and hold em off.

The character creation and skill tree is really awesome IMO and the crafting is something I hope others take forward. And your criticisms are on point.

I have my fun share with Bannerlord but some parts definitely still feel unfinished at this point for the October release. My main issue is with the campaign map AI and the lack of interaction options with nobles. There are quite a number of interaction options where you only end up with the disappointing "Oh, never mind." option. Mods are definitely there too enrich the gaming experience but IMO shouldn't be relied on to address issues that the developers should deal with themselves.

Thanks for giving us an honest criticism and a few alternatives that fill part of the Bannerlord "genre". I think the only reasonable thing now is to test the enjoyment of playing Chivalry with your hands, Skyrim with your feet, and Hunie Pop 2 with your...well we'll see....all at the same time. Looking forward to hearing you report back on your success.

That's almost 6 months straight of bannerlord. Your review has merit sir lol

I'm really starting to like this game, the large battles look great, what little of the castles, walled towns and villages I've seen look do good. I just wish M&B had more depth; more to do inside the keep (Great Hall). Bringing allies (or not) inside for a "Face to Face" could help pass agreements, sway favors, Influence vassals to change their mind even help temporary alliances. Think, sometimes a quill, a glare, a smile, a dagger or a gift (kind or malign) could gain, change more than a thousand swords. Sometimes the wrong people are making the decisions, having friends in Low places and the shadows could change that possibly without anybody knowing you stated it. People in the dungeon(s) are going to be mad at somebody, use that. Mount & Blade does look like a great game, the systems seem to be understandable and I'll probably get it but it could be more than just fighting in the fields (everybody has fighting). By the way, Strat your video's are great.

Got a mod the other day for full plate and started a new campaign with all the full plate cheated in. It's incredibly fun, especially on seiges when you break the shield wall at the gates with your double handed axe like an old timey tank

To me, the game being a jack of all trades (still miss alot of aspects here though) gives the game the potential to be absolutely perfect. But the thing that seems obvious to me is that the amount of resources and time for development that it will still take (even after the release) is insane and i don't think Taleworlds has enough manpower nor resources to make it a reality. Which is just a shame, because something so beautiful will end up withering away...

As of writing this I have 777 hours on Bannerlord (nice number) This video is spot on, along with the latest videos I watched that highlighted some of my main issues. For me the worst part of Bannerlord is the late game stage, and sadly, the one I wish to enjoy the most. The AI is atrocious in its decision-making, and the climate of constant warfare (I play as a vassal) becomes a bit annoying for me. I do quite enjoy battles, especially since I've been playing around more with formations, but I wish I could also have some time to rebuild my army before one of our frontiers crumbles to any other faction. Ultimately at the end of the day, we still steamroll the other factions, but I don't feel any sense of reward because it takes years to properly conquer a single region, since we're fighting on all fronts. The AI seems to take into consideration only its total manpower when making diplomatic decisions, but not its territory, so despite having 22k in power, what good is it when you're using a fraction of it for each different faction, especially when yours makes frontier with the Khuzaits and the Battanians? That can be up to 2 weeks in travel. One of the things that makes me quite sad too is the fact that I'll never get to see my children come of age, most likely because my character will succumb to boredom and I'll start a different campaign. Rinse and repeat. The faction you grow is bland, and your territories serve to give you money to pay your troops and get extra ones for war. The main problem with Bannerlord, I believe, is that it lacks personality. You simply don't care about the world that surrounds you. The characters have traits, but it changes little about them and how they behave. In that department, Warband had a lot more flavour, god bless Harlaus and his feasts. You simply can't get invested in Bannerlord the same way you did with Warband. That is my opinion on Bannerlord. The game is beautiful and the Mount & Blade series do have a very special place in my heart, and that is why I'm critical. In conclusion: For me, 50€ is a good price for nearly 800 hours of gameplay, but even I suffered from sometimes months-long hiatuses, because even though I always end up comming back for Bannerlord, it becomes boring after a certain time. Still, I can't say I'd go out of my way to recommend Bannerlord to most of my friends. 🧈/10

Since warband implies a massive nord invasion occurs at some point it would be cool to see that in real time in bannerlord

IIRC off map invasion was something planned in very early M&B1 (Zombie Haralus early). The dark knight armor is a remnant of it.

I only build my companions as ranged so they tend to survive when they are with me.

Another pet peeve of mine is the endless supply of massive armies your enemies can muster. You can swipe away doomstack after doomstack, but it doesn't matter because they Just. Keep. Coming.

If i had spare time and enough patience i would definetely make a global mod for bannerlord. I like your ideas but I want to contribute I love the concept of this sandbox but a lot of things are unpolished or lack usefullnes -Making an overhaul for your army in tiers because lets be honest the basic ones suck except high tiers. Came up with a Escape from Tarkov idea of "researching unknown items" and when you start an empire you can try to make an entire overhaul of your army. Like when upgrading a unit it to a new tier there would be your custom one near a default faction unit - Making laws that dont just change numbers and taxes but ones that give you amount of control over your dynasty inheritance and control over all politics like saying your vassals to do smth (patrol, attack, create an army of lets say 500 troops, trade and bring money to your state or refill garrisons of someone's town etc) and ofc automation of politics like who to give town and whose dynasty is a priority. - The Crisis mechanic from Stellaris like you've suggested that a big army would invade your world but will eventually slow down to not conquer everything but this army should have unique troops - Rework perks because it doesnt give you active abilities e.g. an ability to counter attack or dodge attacks would be nice or making your horse to rear up or use back legs and attack someone when you're stuck - Make to live rebel factions. Like become a rebel, create a rebellion and attack city guards to take over a town would be awesome. - Rework sieges. Attrition should be a real thing. Mb we could make operations to poison water in town or to blackmail caravans to bring poisoned food. Destroy their morale and then attack. Or like in Total War Warhammer you can start a fight and make opponents units to betray and fight on your side! I want to attack from a different side of a city. Like a main army attacks front side but a small group would sneak on walls and like a shock troops will destroy those damn wall archers from the rear! - I want to see my officers in battle (where they are and are they alive at least) and what they're doing on map, cos' sometimes they call tactics like charge or advance but they're not doing anything or doing dumb things. And ofc KIlling officers and Commanders should lower morale of an army significantly . After 200 hours of playing and focusing on catching lords i havent seen that their morale drops or smth, there should be feedback on morale thingie like above with ArmyVSArmy line with percents - I want to have more quests that can change balance on the world map like sabotaging, creating events to hunt down lords on intel and executing them, placing spies inside enemy lines that will betray them once the time is right - I want sea battles. I mean we have sea raiders and Vikings as a factions and there're no sea battles still. There're no sieges from ships, like we have towns like Diathma i want to swim to them in ships and conquer them. Create a ship in Varnopavol and swim to Diathma would be cool - I want to have "Legendary" teachers after you get like 300 perk level that will teach you some OP thing. Like blacksmith would give you unique recipies of teach you how to make a sword of shit tier parts to be as good as tier 5. Or engineer would teach you how to make a trebuchet that throws corpses (good old Ivan the Terrible strat) to cities to lower their morale! - I want to create an army camp outside siege battles for example to train my units or to give orders to my officers to gather supplies from nearby villages/towns while im training my units - I need dismemberment in this game, like if damage and speed is high enough to cut off an arm if i hit it or head. - I want interrogations like if I capture a lord and after successful interrogation i would gain a buff to attack for example if im fighting against the lord that he was talking about. - Tournaments still suck cos' after early game like 2 hours they're useless, there should be something to encourage player to be the top 1 on the leaderboard and higher you are you will get better prizes and more renown. There're lots of things that needs a rework but those above should be a good start :D

Love-hate is pretty good description for most of us that have sunk a couple hundred hours into this game. Most of us see the great potential of Bannerlord, but know all too well it's many shortcomings. For me the greatest shortcoming is the lack of depth in personalities with NPCs. You have traits, different kingdoms, etc. but all the NPCs are basically the same. There's no conflict, no rivalries, just endless war. So much life could be breathed into game by having characters acting according to their traits. i.e. a Cowardly Lords would surrender easily, maybe Dishonest Lords would be more prone to rebel forming splinter Kingdoms, etc. Stuff like this would help a lot with the tedium that comes from the late game. And in theory it shouldn't be too hard to implement as most of this would be simple checks or score based. Unfortunately I cannot recommend Bannerlord in it's current state and most of my gamer friends are convinced my pining for this game is misplaced. There's serious balance issues that have gone completely unaddressed. IMO you need mods to make this game worthwhile, and while there are some good ones, there isn't a current collection yet that makes this the game it should be IMO. I tempted to throw my own hat into the ring of modding, but for me it'll really depend on how good the release version is, and if there's even any interest for the game within the wider community.

May not have as much hours into Bannerlord, but I have sunk many hours into Mount and Blade and other few games that struck the right chord. Skyrim is unpolished when compared to the whole Mount and Blade franchise. I never felt so upset when I first found out that my pirated copy of wFaS was one of it's kind when I was very young. I eventually bought all, except the first one, years later. The deep-ish melee combat was ground breaking for me. When For honour and other such games has these melee system in place, I will always first compare it to Mount & Blade. They never quite hold up to the fun and sometimes straightforward tactics when it comes to blocking or parrying. Even with auto-block, you are never invincible and can easily die to timing and the speed of the weapon. The whole skirmish map was my "Skyrim" moment. It had so much you could do! You could just walk in town, manually find the NPCs you want or explore the sights. Or you could even fast travel and talk to NPCs directly without the boring trek. The static and companion NPCs in skyrim feels feel very static-y, but in M&B, you could command them, give them a fief, let them influence the map on their own, and even get into battles not started by you. The dynamic AI is really cool. Plus, guns in a relatively medieval time is really a fun idea! I especially love the bar fights, the night bandits when you decide to do a night walk in town, and the occasional thug and gang fights The fact that you could become the ruler and influence the map while also having the option of being a first person, third person, and a top down-esque mode in a strategy game is very original. Every other game felt like a let down compared to how much feature and unique experience the whole series brings. It is especially a drag at times when I remembered that there is no M&B for the past 8 or so years, until Bannerlord. This is a work of love by Taleworlds!

I've waited ages to get a PC and this, Crusader Kings 3 and ARMA 3 were at the very top of my list of games I want to play. None of them disappointed AT ALL. Masterpieces in their own right

I died laughing when you mentioned ''All these gems on steam''. Damn, you earned yourself a subscriber.

I feel like moving on the campaign map should take much much more in game time (allow for more speed up options). It should take considerable time to muster and move an army. Starving our defenders never happens since it only takes a few days at most to traverse from one end of the map to the other. And only 1 day to traverse your own realm in most stages. Ergo reinforcements ALWAYS come. And sieges become sucker punchy-bud rushes

12:45 "Troops fight more methodically almost as if they fear death" Queue the one green soldier looking straight up, axe held high, charging at the enemy army....backwards...

I have bought Bannerlord two years ago for full price but I have yet to pass the tutorial. I have no regrets, lol.

Warband, Bannerlord,,, these games have always been like a single player MMO experience with that kind of a grind

I hope that over the last few months of minimal and infrequent updates Taleworlds have been saving up for the full release. Hopefully it breathes some fresh air into this game.

Honestly, considering how SaS is the heir to Freelancer which was almost essential to many mods back in warband, it's TW's fault that they didn't implement the mechanic in vanilla. At the same time, they REALLY had a good decision in taking a page from Skyrim and support multiple mods in a load order.

Honestly the absolute biggest issue about Bannerlord is that Kazuit archers stacked will simply obliterate any army regardless of how long it is. I've beat armies of 1500 with only 400 horse archers.

A good tip for playing the game and finally getting a kingdom, often in warband kings have feast, and do tournaments, idk if bannerlord allows you to host feast, but it’s a good way to immerse yourself than constantly fighting, it’s also a good way to sit back and relax after a long campaign (I currently have a game on the Bannerpage mod for warband and I decided to start off as an independent kingdom, So far I’ve almost taken the entirety of the Sarranids, but due to my grind it feels somewhat boring, so I took a break to try and immerse myself as my character)

This game could cost $150 and still be worth every penny. There is A LOT to do and ways to play.

That “particularly unique” sounded like “Think Neo, Think” around the 45 second mark 0:42

bannerlord just lacks the magic of warband. I´ve waited a decade for this game and only played it like 50 hours since its realese

I feel like everyone that’s played bannerlord has seen the farquaad trim and said ‘I know who I’m gonna be this time’ *drags height slider to the left*

nothing to add. perfectly summed up the good and the bad. very well done

5:19 beating up gangsters is the only reason to walk around town

excellent video, couldn't agree more. fingers crossed there will be workshop soon. also hope for a good quality DLC/expansions from indie devs, similar to Warband's Viking Conquest, that can alter the world to something else and add depth to the game.

I guess people forgot about late game crises from original warband: Black Knights. They always came after player almost completed world conquest. There was no opportunity to make a deal with them.

bought it 2 weeks ago, have 100+ hours in it and i fucking love it but they really need to make an option to overthrow your faction leader

Steam workshop, and a slowdown of updates (since they tend to break mods) will let modders solve most remaining issues. Being able to go full bandit king and take over bandit hideouts, being able to expand town/castle upgardes as well as have upgrades in the small settlements etc, more things for players to do in towns themselves, more activities related to sneaking into towns (maybe sabotage during a siege for example). All of these things will probably be handled by modders in the future.

If you are buying on any console, it’s not worth it. This is a definitely a pc game that requires mods to make it better. Console players do not waste your money.

I gotta gotta agree with everything man, tactics, roguery and trade are a complete pain to grind, getting parts for smithing is annoying af, and the AI in its entirety is a bit brainless, but I feel like these will all be fixed eventually, I'm sorta new to taleworlds but I'm still extremely hopeful they will fix everything and add more stuff, like an alliance system, in-depth banditry, a more cohesive AI and whatever else, thanks for the video and I loved the ideas mentioned like a off-map faction trying it's hand at taking over Calradia, sounds awesome, can't wait for more from Taleworlds and your channel

Haven't watched the video yet but if it ain't worth it after 3800 hours then there has to be some deep self hate going on.

I'm going to say it, but it's the truth. Viking Conquest was the superior game of bannerlord and warband. Good story, good Kingdom management, buy in, exploration, interesting character and fun combat.

100% agree on the late game void part. If they could just add some events/invasions/rebellious clans i believe that would add the right amount of spice that we need for the late game. And there is also that coop mod that is being developed.

I’m so ready for this to come to ps5. I was sad when I realized it wasn’t coming out on release for console.

Hey Strat, your BANNERLORD guides are priceless. Just saying, know that your dedication and work is greatly appreciated, along with your humor and love of the game. Cheers

There's a mod called Banner Kings that add a lot of non-combat mechanics inspired by CK, they will even add the off-continent culture invasion mentioned in the vid in the future. I haven't tried it but it sounds pretty good.

0:57 wow, I didn't know Honey Select 2 is on Steam, thanks

I want the battles to be like rome total war, not a moshpit, experienced soldiers should be able to engage well, protect themselves and fight smart, also how am i losing top tier soldiers to 20 looters when auto-resolving battles with 200 army, we should be able to stomp them in the ground without losses or wounded soldiers

they should look at how warband modders handled end game content, in pendor mode for example they have minor factions that "invade" or spawn an army that you can defeat with end game kingdom size army for special rewards, and those minor factions have unique weapons/armor and units.

Dynasties don't actually work in the vanilla game because unless they're married to each other at the start, no other AI will get married and have babies, so by the 3rd generation over half of all people alive are over 100, and even the very small handful of 20-40 year old nobles that exist they never let you marry them to someone else in your family because when you offer say, your son's hand the person will reply "Ah yes, we've been looking for a suitable candidate for (lady who is somehow over 100 years old in fantasy 1400s)". And no one else. Sucks that I have to download so many mods just to get a certain part of the game to work as it was intended to work, especially since the dynasty and family functions can be both so lucrative and so fun for my playstyle. The mods Life Is Short + Houses of Calradia are pretty much needed if you actually want to ever experience dynasties.

I think Bannerlord would be more interesting if they took the time to develop deeper Feudalism mechanics, kind of like Crusader Kings. If characters and noble families had conflicting vassalage ties and claims to different castles and towns, that would encourage internal as well as external conflict. Similarly, if there was a chance that during succession the holdings would have to be divided between different heirs and/or the succession would be challenged, that would make holding your empire together all the more challenging. Last I played Bannerlord, all those internal faction mechanics still felt extremely superficial. I don't even know if AI-instigated rebellions can happen. And the minor factions are cool, but they more or less function as mercenary companies, pretty much devoid of content.

Pretty much spot on what I would have made for a video. The best thing they did has been performance, which has been increased massively which is to say sad for a game. For mods, surprised your forgot Sika, starting your village anywhere and building up with a good story is amazing. It is by far the way I thought Bannerord should have been over a year ago as I suggested it. Placing a village anywhere on the map to build your clan should be the right way to do it. I thought factions breaking off was my idea for rebellion but the the put in a dumb system for rebellion that are just annoying more than anything. Random events would have helped out the late game so much and not make it so momentous and tedious. With over 400+ issues right before full release we are in for tough times. With over 5,000 hours into the game I think they have come a long way in just over 2 years but I can't help think to myself that they needed another year of development but money got in the way to rush it out. Some get upset when you say mods will have to save the game, but let's get real, mods are what made Warband such a long lasting game and Bannerlord with be the same. Bannerlord on it's own is decent to ok, with mods it's amazing.

As someone who plays Too Much Warband (tm) all the issues you pointed out were present in the earlier games. The "be a soldier" thing was modded into Warband for a bunch of mods. I can't help but think that Tale Worlds might be pulling a Bethesda.

Super shallow in many of its departments and a decent battle simulator cum sandbox rpg (combat perks and armor not roleplaying of any sort) is how I would describe single player Bannerlord. The hype for this game disgusts me. The devs made too much money for too little work.

Im a console player so vanilla bannerlord is still a MAJOR upgrade from vanilla warband. However atp it's 2022 and we should be able to get mods now. I'd they have to they could go the Bethesda fallout and skyrim route, where only authorized mods are allowed. Because even then the modding community in this game is so good, they would for sure have mods like eagle rising and a couple more total conversion mods. Even still it frustrates me to no end how easy it should be to mod console but the companies are just too hard headed.

This is one of the best games I have ever played by a mile. They keep adding decent updates every couple of months. I will buy every bit of DLC they bring out in future updates now that it is at full release.

The problem with bannerlord: it has the potential for greatness with all the good things that it has going for it, but it is held back by poor implementation of some key mechanics: The leveling/skill system quickly turns into an unrewarding grindfest. You don't feel your character grow as you play the game; you increase the struggle for ever diminishing rewards until you get artificially hardcapped due to lack of attribute and focus points. Then you die and start from scratch again. Crafting your own weapons is a cool idea...you can finally make the weapon you want...if you are willing to sink hours and most of your gold into trying to unlock the right parts. AND manage to drive your skill high enough to be able to forge legendary items with random stat bonuses. The economy is completely broken. If you don't utilize exploits, you will be broke forever. Workshops won't do much for you, unless you pick the same three shops out of your large pool of options for EVERY city. Ideally you can hope for a modest long term profit. Caravans are a waste of your time and money. You can count yourself lucky to break even. Companions are randomly generated, have zero personality, and, more often than not, have terrible stats which makes them nearly useless and hard to level. On top of that, you can only have a limited number of them in your clan, but you need them to hold castles and cities for you. That also raises another issue: culture! Don't have the right "steward" companion for the job? No problem: just dump him and begin the grind anew...otherwise your city will revolt, no matter what you do. Last gripe: quests and overarching story. I've rarely seen lower effort writing for a project of that magnitude. Feels like the writer couldn't be bothered.

11:42 a Warband mod called Perisno has this feature and its fking awesome. They will spawn at a set time and half of the map will be theirs in a week or so.

That's like $0.01 pretty hour, seems worth it.

The grind is the killer for me. I'm an adult with a life and important shit to do. I don't have room for games that require dozens of hours of investment to make progress.

I just want diplomacy and quests that makes it feel like the late Roman empire. In warband the fractured nobles/companion interactions really sold me that they lived in the shadow of the Glory that was Calradia

I understand that this game is a prequel and as a newer game it must have been more developed than Warband, but logically, it's a bit ridiculous that the cities of Calradia are much bigger and more developed than they will be 200 years later xD

That cyber f*ck gonna be popular after Edge runners 👀

Going to buy this gem when the next Winter Sale comes along. I'm interested in it, but not so much that I'd pay the full price.

I really want the last three Weeks to play my Dwarf Save of Total War: Warhammer 3... but every Time I see Bannerlord 2 I klick on it and play it with my Sturgia Save. So fucking good it is, this Game. And all this without even a Mod. There is everytime a Castle to take, to siege a Town or a Kingdom to fight. Or just some funny Arena fights, trades or (Micro)Management of your own Things. Or Family. A Lord or Ladys Work is never done...

After checking out 1.81 and 1.9's campaign mode with the new "end cut scenes" I realized the term "end game" is just wrong. World conquest is an _option_ but never was the "end game". Conquering *some* imperial cities and *surviving* the conspiracy was the end-game. After that the respective cutscenes are triggered telling an epilogue. You _can continue_ after that, of course, but that's on you.

Literally the map AI does my head, other stuff I can turn a blind eye too, but that overworld AI, Oof makes doing certain plans and ideas 8 times harder

I find that the transition from Mercenary to Vassal is where it jumps the shark…

YOU HAVE 3800 HOURS!?!? Damn I thought my 1800 hours was a lot. XD Looking forward to seeing the vid. :)

I started playing this game because of you and when you said your favorite part was stopping before you finish and starting a new game and trying something different I felt it deep in my bones I only got like sub 200 hours and it's pretty easy and I keep making it a little harder as I get better but I keep restarting Todo something different hahaha

The main thing that got me into Bannerlord (and M&B in general) is it being an RPG game where you can create and control an army from a 1st or 3rd person perspective. Makes it so much more immersive than other RTS games like total war and I feel like a badass. Despite all its flaws, I definitely got my money's worth out of it with hundreds of hrs of game time. With a little more polishing and adding a bit more depth to certain parts of the gameplay, this game could be so much better. I definitely recommend this to for people to try. I hope they'll be able to create a stable 2000 troop battle soon too, maybe even going up to 3000. It gave a whole different feeling controlling 1000 troops instead of 500, or 250 at the very beginning.

The game just tries too much end finally ended up being mediocre on all those levels.

the developers should add some spice in the game like court intrigue, or befriending other lords, there are benefits like them allowing you to rest in their castles or receiving gifts randomly from them or your NPC friends inviting you to feast, other than that, lord and nobles should have more interaction like hunting wild game like deer, forming their own group of friends that are always together, or you gaining favor from them by doing mission and you can use that favor to support your kingdom decisions, like waging war etc. what makes me feel upset is that interaction with the NPCs feels dead, atleast make the interaction way flavorful, like allowing you to benefit from your friendship, and them asking for your help, or random events that will make the world way alive, if they wont put it i wish modders will, once the game finished early access.

I knew this game would not fix any of the serious problems it had before. It simply does not succeed at what it's trying to do. Combat is fine and the idea is great, but come on, nearly a decade in development and this is the result? I saved my money this time.

10:35 I hope that they will add something for that, there are a few mods that I recall Warband had that added factions that invaded later on. I think Bannerlord needs 2-3 non-native factions that need to 'take root' (aka capture some stuff before spreading around) before they become a super power / another faction to join. Bannerlord definitely needs some help, I hope that with the.. "release"... that is coming, that we can get a solid foundation for modders to work with. For the amount of time I got out of Warband (12k hours) I hope to surpass that time with Bannerlord, but that can only happen if TW starts fixing some stuff, and hopefully helps out modders with a better foundation. Thanks for your time and effort not only on this video but for the nearly 4k hours spent in this game. While I know you're an odd one who likes numbers, I know it wasn't all fun and games (haha!) and required pushing through at points.

I’m glad I’m not the only one bouncing between banner lord and eu4

I'm at 200 hours and have been at that for a long time now. It will not increase. I have moved on.

Love your content and analysis, it's all so true, especially about the mod scene. I've been playing Skyrim for 10 years and have mods on top of mods to improve the trees in my game.

Man I just started a new campaign after not having played in a few months. I took a break to eat and watched this video and I remembered why I stopped playing - I dont think I can get motivated to play again till they do something about the campaign AI and late game.

Really a great review man! I don't know if you played Warband or earlier versions in the series. I played the original as well as Warband many hundreds of hours. What I note is that: the overall quality of the vision and the execution of the design in Bannerlord is significantly higher tier than in the older titles. Moreover, despite not being the fastest developers, nor the most communicative, I have the impression that TW are slowly but surely addressing the games shortcomings over the years and will continue to do so. I bet they watch your videos and take notes!