There aren't many games out there that let the player completely loose and give the player complete freedom of what they can and cannot do. Many games in the open world genre may be mistaken for being ultimate sandbox experiences, like Grand Theft Auto games. While you can roam around the city, complete side activities and initiate any sort of violent action, the games missions maybe are some of the most restricted and linear that can come to mind.
The type of sandbox I am writing about now, is one that does not restrict the player in any way, wether said restriction is a story or the gamedesign itself and the sandbox elements are present throughout the game in itself. There are many great games that follow this specific formula. Some honourable mentions would be Minecraft, the Arma games and, the game this article is all about, Mount and Blade Warband.
Mount and Blade is a very unique game gameplaywise. It combines elements from many different genres, for instance RPG mechanics, real time strategy and first and third person combat. Warband features many simulations during combat and in the political structure of the game. Those simulations act like the rules of the game, you can't do things that fall outside of the simulation, but you can do anything the simulation allows. Warband simulates wars, politics, even economics and you can use and abuse those simulations as much as you want.
How you play and behave in the gameworld of Mount and Blade Warband, is completely up to you. We established before that Warband is a game that functions and was built ontop of simulations and now I want to detail how diverse the gameplay of Mount and Blade actually is.
We have many different options on how we can play the game. I divided the game into three main portions:
You can focus entirely on some aspects of the game and completely disregard the others, but keep in mind that you can play this game while dealing with every portion this game offers. Let us say that we want to create a character that is focussed in economics.
So how can we earn money now? There are many ways, the most peaceful would be obtaining and selling resources. You can inform yourself in cities how much certain resources cost and how wealthy the town is in comparison to the other cities. With this information you can travel to the towns that sell a certain resource for a cheap price and then you can travel to another city, to sell the resources for a higher price to generate profit.
Trading is a viable way to make money in the game, but it can get rather tedious, so let us take a look at enterprises!
In any city you can buy properties to generate weekly income. These properties are very useful for funding your army and help you to get the equipment you need for your adventures. Depending on the economic and political state of the gameworld, some resources may be worth less than others, in turn, your properties might become more or less valuable over time too.
So trading and enterprises are good and all, but maybe you fancy a more action oriented and inhumane source of income?
What I am hinting at: You can earn a lot of money with plundering villages and human trafficking. You can imprison people that you or your men knocked out on the battlefield and you can sell these people to ransom brokers all around the map. Depending on the ranks and importance of the units, you get more or less money for their ransom. If you dare to fight a vassal of another kingdom, you can keep the vassal hostage until the kingdom offers money to you for freeing the imprisoned vassal.
Meanwhile plundering villages is (in a way) a much more risky task. You demand peasants to give you their cattle and resources, or you can plunder and destroy their village and get all the valuable resources to make a significant fortune. But look out! Nearby vassals will not appreciate that you destroy their villages and terrorise their people!
I hope this chapter gave you a little taste of how multifasceted this game actually is. The combat and politics oriented playstyles also feature many different ways to be played, but let us move on for now.
I mentioned before that Warband has certain limitations regarding its simulations. Those limitations form a certain dynamic in the world that keeps the game going. Some of these limitations are:
Important NPCs cannot die
Any NPC that is important, like a unique companion you can hire, a vassal or yourself, is immortal. If theoretically every unique NPC was killed by your sword and by other armies, the simulation would slowly fall apart and the game would lose its dynamic. Because NPCs cannot die, a constant powerstruggle between the factions arises. Wars are declared, vassals are kidnapped, peace treaties are signed and you can choose to be part of this dynamic.
Reputation
Your reputation and popularity can enable and also disable your plans. You cannot buy any properties and form enterprises in towns that dislike you for attacking them for example. Your reputation is also influenced by war and peaceful times.
Skills and levels
You need to level up your character to be able to use certain items, or to finish certain tasks in a way more effective manner.
Those limitations in Warbands simulations are what make the game enjoyable and particularly fun to play.
Mount and Blade Warband is a game that combines many gameplay ideas and mechanics, from many different genres. Even though Warband borrowed so much from other games, it manages to differentiate itself, due to how it uses these mechanics to create a ultimate sandbox experience.
The game allows you to play in any way you want and rewards and punishes you according to your gameplay style, but because you and every other unique NPC is immortal, you can always rebuild your army, even when you lost everything and everyone.
Mount and Blade Warband was built ontop of many simulations that constantly run in the background. You can use and abuse these simulations as much as you want, as much as a simulation allows you to. The simulations create the games rules and those game rules create a neverending dynamic in the gameworld, that keeps every faction, economy and barbarian in motion.
Tell me what you think about Mount and Blade Warband and if you would consider it a good example for a sandbox experience yourself. If you found this post interesting, consider following my account!
Did the game I talked about interest you? Consider supporting the developers and buy the game yourself! A free demo is available on the Mount and Blade Warband Steam page.
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