Graphics aren’t everything - but they’re something. The sandbox-style RPG Mount & Blade: Warband

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“ One of the best parts about Mount & Blade: Warband is that it's not just about you.

Mound & Blade Console Screens 10 IMAGES

“ I found it hard to control my warbands most of the time.

Mount & Blade: Warband, which is likewise focused on a medieval setting, feels a little like that. It already looked a decade old when it first came out on PC in 2010 (and recieved a review score of 8.1 ), and some minor updates to its Xbox One and PlayStation 4 release do little to make it look remotely modern. Slight variations on the same eight or so ugly faces populate its six kingdoms. Knights and peasants alike jank about like robots. Details like grass often vanish when you’re just a few yards away, and tricky gamepad controls sometimes become annoying. And yet for all that, this remains a roleplaying game that does a better job of conveying the rags-to-riches journey than a game like Skyrim.Look past its shabby exterior and you'll find depth, replayability, and ambition that few competitors can match. It doesn't show you the ropes much, aside from a tutorial for its unique combat system (which lets you control your attacks with most weapons from multiple directions), and the way it drops you into its world with scant explanation can be off-putting in this age of carefully orchestrated, world-saving plots told from the perspective of gruff, named protagonists.Never once does it hint from the outset that you can win your own taxable land through a strategic marriage, nor does it tell you you'll probably have to fight for that potential spouse's favor in a duel. The character-creation screen hints at least suggest you can make your living as a merchant shuttling goods from the deserts of the south to the snows of the north along with fighting, but it says little about the opportunities to herd cattle rather than winning glory of the battlefield.Nor is it a place where a single dude can forge a place for himself in the world with pluck and plot armor alone. You’re not a superhero in this world, so captivity and failure happen often in the early hours, sometimes pulling you from near-greatness to crushing poverty within minutes. The frequent autosaves for the single save file per character heavily punish mistakes or just bad luck, such as getting overwhelmed by too many enemies in chance encounters as you gallop across the world map. As with many things in life, to survive in this cruel world you're going to need some help. More specifically, you're going to need a warband.A memorable band of brothers they're not. Warbands are usually little more than trainable troupes of mercs and peasants you pick up in towns, and they have little by way of personality. However, keeping them happy with steady pay is almost as tough of a struggle as actually fighting.That's far from the only point where Warband struggles to fit gamepads into its world. This is clearly a game designed for mouse and keyboard, and though it occasionally makes thoughtful use of the gamepad (such as the selection boxes for buying gear before multiplayer matches), it more often resorts to the mouse-style cursor that pops up while selecting multiplayer servers, and that’s never a good experience.Control problems frequently frustrate the combat as well. Multiple commands share the same buttons, which complicates the fun of the combat system that lets you attack from the left, right, or overhead. Since the camera's mapped to the right thumbstick that's also used to direct these actions, I sometimes found myself checking out the clouds when hoisting an axe over my head instead of keeping my eye on my opponent. It's fixable: a menu option lets you sacrifice much of the combat depth that sets Warband apart by automating the choice of attack angle. Yet even that doesn't solve other issues, such as the way I frequently found myself accidentally pressing the left thumbstick, triggering a disorienting perspective shift between first- and third-person.It's nothing I couldn't get used to. (Even the PC version has a tough learning curve in this regard.) And it's certainly never so bad that it takes away from the sheer fun of the eight multiplayer modes featuring up to 32 players besieging castles, fighting deathmatches, or simple dueling one on one. As much as I love Warband's deep roleplay elements, for me this is where its true fun lies.Few moments in games lately have thrilled me as when I charged up a ramped siege tower on my horse and impaled the two archers waiting on the ramparts with my spear. Then, whipping out my sword, I rushed down the wall cut down the four players in my way. If Warband had an Overwatch-style Play of the Game highlight, that would have been it. When all of Warband's combat elements come together – multiple weapons, great mounted combat, and sieges – and the controls get out of the way, it works so well that I almost entirely forget that it's as ugly as a bacteria sample from the Blarney Stone.