Mount & Blade: Warband (2010)

  One of the first recommendations I was given after I started playing video games on Steam, was that of Mount & Blade: Warband (2010). The reason became obvious to me after the first few hours of playing, this 3rd-person medieval fighting simulator not only is set in a realistic fantasy world but allows you to make your own stories. Whatever faction, style of life, and even companions you keep are left up for your decision. You always begin the same though, as a nothing peasant or low-level lord with no claims to land, trying to make an honest wage in the world. You can either bend the knee to a higher noble (becoming a vassal of him or her), gain renowned in the land as a helpful hand during the war (setting your price to conduct war as a mercenary band), or become a bloodthirsty cut-throat that pillages across lands with a band of thieves. Those are just some of the many ways that one may reach a point of accomplishment, of course, this game being open-world, there is never really an end-point.

In addition to the main game, a larger and thriving modding community has kept this now 10-year-plus game alive. Some were made to purely add content to the main story, while others recreate worlds known in pop culture. Mods that add the complexity of the Game of Thrones or Star Wars Universes, constructing new games with the engine of Warband. Another aspect that shouldn’t be overlooked is the historical community mods that have been popular online for Warband for over a decade. The Napoleonic Mod specifically was so popular that the game’s team created a DLC with the modding team that designed the original mod.