Recent reviews by Sloul Des Tucs

It had a pretty bland release, the same kind the 3rd installment had.
I rediscovered it a couple days ago, after the release of the Primal culture and the Wolf patch, and as I suspected the game grew quite a lot since release.

And while Triumph took some turn with the serie on this one: culture system, tome system and more importantly the new race system (only skin); I was pretty skeptical about the whole thing.
But with the new content added to the game, everything comes together, and it makes AoW 4 possibly my second favorite of the serie, just behind the very first one.

Races are solely cosmetics, and while they come with traits; those traits can be customised however the player wants.
The obvious pro is, if you wanted to lead armies of ratkins, there is no ingame wrong trait or wrong mechanic tied to that race which is going to make you rethink about picking it.
One little interesting feature on the side, is that you can make the ratkin leader from another race (appearance only).
You could possibly tailor some saurus folks lead by a slann.
That's pretty dope.

One of the issue of free-to-pick traits systems is that there are usually traits that win over the competition, and it usually ends up in most traits being obsolete.
While it still holds true to some extent, the optimal ones are still numerous enough to offer some choices.
Also, some generally unoptimized traits, might end up the goto pick for some niche builds.
Thus, while the trait system is not perfect, it is still good enough for optimizers and mutiplayer enjoyers by offering sufficiant valid choices to not make it completely bland.

There is no campaign so to speak but a number of scenarised maps that are available.
And that allow me to explain one of the perspective of AoW4: the game plays as if, everything was a multiverse.
Which might explain why races do not have specific traits, because from one world to another universe, two relatively similar races will actually evolve differently due to different cultures or inhabiting worlds vastly different.
It also explains why there is no campaign but separate scenarised maps, because the player characters (Godir) are portrayed as traveling from worlds to worlds.

Random maps: one of the key feature of the game is its map generator, and while in itself, it's a pretty good thing for strategy games, and possibly multiplayer games; this one, I think, is pretty good.
On top of selecting the size of the world, its landscapes, its ocean levels, etc.
It allows to had up to 4 special traits: like, this world is inhabited by specific races (like demons, or faeries), or giant races, its free cities are lead by a powerful king city... and a number of others goodies that make some maps quite epicly fun to play.
As of note, there is currently an issue with the game: if too many (sometimes, really only 1 or 2) races have a culture or trait which makes them start in the undergrounds, the size of the maps will be affected and will become extremelly small.
My workaround for that is to start only custom maps and add the trait ''small undergrounds'', in this way, the size of the undergrounds are fixed and do not alter the size of the whole map.


Anyway, pretty glad I gave this a 2nd look, it was worth it.

Quite a very good game. But the issue with hybrid games like this one is that people will complain that they aren't either ''4x'' or ''RTS''.
No, Dune: SW is its own game, with its own mechanics and identity, and a good telling of what it is exactly is the previous game from Shiro (Northgard), if you understand what is Northgard, you get a better understanding of what Dune: SW really is.
Although in this comparrison I would rate Dune: SW way higher than Northgard, simply because the formula has been so enriched.
You certainly have less factions to play, but at this point we are talking about 7 distinctive factions, that is imo, quite enough and possibly quite a task to balance out.

The combat mechanics are slower than most RTS, but combined with all the other mechanics, oh god, is this game interesting.
Didn't meddle in multiplayer yet, but the prospect sound quite appealing.

This game is about water, troopers, freedom warriors, politics (and possibly nukes), underground smugglers, and it gets quite spicey.

Would recommend to anyone who like board games, and are open to hybrid formula.

You get an active pause (pause & command) option in single player.

A true gem of PC gaming.
I see a lot of similarities with the Total War serie from Create Assembly, only here, everything happens in FPS.
Also, I've been mumbling to myself for more than a decade that TW mechanics are staling.
I think that Bannerlord made the changes that TW would need, for the longest time I've been thinking of a TW where you man a character that would travel the world with his mercenary company, and maybe evolve in something more.
That's what Bannerlord is doing, actually, the game does much more than just that.

It's an impressive game where, many time, at least as a new player, you will pause your game and ponder what is the best course of action.
Hiring troop is a good thing, but you need to know how to make money to sustain the troops, increasing your army size, might empower you, but you'll need to sustain your new army size, take care of food, party speed movement. etc.
And there are so many turning points in the game where you feel pressure and the need to adapt, only you're not certain where to venture to adapt.
You can craft and sell weapons, either by staying small, or by going with a pack of mule but at the risk of letting bandits catch up with you.
You can hire many companions, either to train them to fight, or as scout, or to lead caravan parties etc.

The possibilities are so many, that this is where you shall get lost as a newcomer to the game.


Of course, like in every other game, and moreover in a game with such diverse mechanics and possibilities, there are some formulas (starting activities, skills to level up, way to build your character, troops to hire, way to make money, how to increase reputation, how to deal with arena, etc, etc...) that work better than other.
Thus experienced players tend to use 2, 3 pony tricks to make their lives much easier.

Although I didn't try any yet at the time of writing this review, Bannerlord is also an extremelly modable game, and as such many mods will 'fix' what might kill the fun there and there for some players.
There are also many notable Total Conversion mods that turn the game into LOTR, GoT, even SW, and many more.


(+) Huge game with varied type of gameplay&mechanics (smithing, trading, fighting, arena etc.)
(+) Quite beautiful in its own way, while the graphics might not the best, the scenery with troops clashing on the battle ground is quite astonishing and exciting.
(+) Combat mechanics are guite good and demading, we are not in arcadish territory. You can shine on the battlefied, but it's going to require talent & dedication.
(+) Extremelly modable game with already a ton of mods available.

(+ / -) AI: In such a game the AI is put to challenge, because troops usually have two weapons, so they have to correctly time when to rely on each one.
They also have to know how to skirmish, and to have decent pathfinding.
They also require to know how to rush to a wall to defend it, to mount a ladder, to push a ladder with a fork, to rush a gate to destroy it, to man a catapult etc. etc. etc.
IN THE END, it's a mixed bag, units will know how to do most of their stuff, so that's quite good, but there and there, there will be bad pathfindings, skirmishing units that go charging etc.
On the store page, at the time of writing this review, there is a mini-gif video, where everybody can witness the ineffectiveness of spear troops vs. cavalry. Where spearmen would usually brace to stop cav., here, it's not really working.
Ultimately, it does create a imbalance between certain type of troops.

(-) Control & Command: simply put, I - highly - dislike it.
It's functional, it does the job. But if you're like me, many times, you'll end up giving the incorrect command to the incorrect troop, also it's a pain to split your troops into the correct stacks.
It always depend what you've in mind, some player will probably have no pain with this, because they are going to stack with 'casual' sort of splitting, but if you're trying to get away form the normative formulas, it's going to be such a pain, that you're probably going to abort any further attempt and rely on the casual way of dealing with everything because it's vastly easier to handle.
The unit command is a matter of selecting 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. and applying F1, F2, F3, sometimes doubling down to get the researched effect.


And finally, as for the CON (-) Very poorly integrated Key Binding.
From now on I think I am going to go to war with this thing, because the more I buy new games and the more I find out that this feature is so poorly designed.
I simply don't understand why ppl are not equipping their forks, stockpiling torchs and make ready to invade forums to dispatch hatred and revolution, and torture, and pillaging, and all the correct thing, in the correct amount that would be necessary to deal with this.
Hello ppl, we are on steam. That means we play on PC. And on PC, sorry to remind most of you, but, we have keyboards (and mouse), and we should be proud of that heritage.
I always switch W, A, S, D, for something else, ofc, it's only my deal, but there was a time when I didn't know a single dude that would play with W, A, S, D. and nowadays no one seem to bother.
Bannerlord allows to edit keybinding, and it did allow me to get my favored hotkeys to work, but it was a pain.
Because there is no auto replace, instead, the game will block any attempt to rename an hotkey if that one is arleady in use, so you have to scroll down all the action, to find the hotkey, to rename it into something else, that again, is not taken, in order to go back for your hotkey and edit it.
Sometimes some hotkeys will be used 3 times, and sometimes it's going to be an issue.
Also there are a lot of hotkeys.



CONCLUSION
The sums of its pro and con is probably misleading to what Bannerlord truly is, that is to say a titan of PC gaming. A cult-classic, and something that most of us should get their hands on and try out.
The fantastic mods, and, notably the total conversions, would probably deal with most nitpicking.
Still, Bannerlord is not exempt of faults, every one of its mechanics will probably hold one or two faults.
Still, there can only one highlander, and this one is a challenger.

This HD version = Cut content (a whole lot).

This is possibly the best tactical game I ever played.
This is also possibly the only D&D adaptation to a computer game that I don't find boring.
The game feels epic, and it starts with the music launcher reminescent of Conan the Barbarian main theme (mixed with pious/chivalresque tones).

This is the best thing I played since Archolos - Chronicles of Myrtana, and I have to say that I feel blessed for having two games of this magnitude released shortly the one after the other.
I do now believe in the resurgence of the rpg genre.


- Extremelly satisfying character and party creation (puts so many rpg to shame)
- A lot of tactical options during combats, martial artists are not just standing there idle waiting to get buffed in order to auto attack; They can wait in overwatch or rush to grapple, trip, disarm etc. to change the tide of battle.
- Size matters
- Speed matters
- Spells are many&wild
- This is not an adaptation of D&D 3.5, but a game heavily inspired by D&D 3.5 which means: new classes, new spells
- I am sure I forgot a lot of positive things to say, but keep in mind that your world is going to get a lot smaller when you set foot in this game (possibly the size of your living/bed/computer room).


There is no multiclassing system, but I would agree that the game is actually better off without it, in the first place because a replacement are hybrid classes and that they are well thought-out and tailored.
Like Storm Warrior a mix between a druid and a martial artist.


The graphics are possibly the worst thing here, there are multiple graphical options and I would rate the vanilla one the less interesting (moreover because it is unfinished).
I would advise any new player to play only with tokens.


Now if you'll excuse me, I got a cave to explore, creeps to beat and a paladin princess to satisfy with a psalm.

To think that a mod like that would come out in 2021, based on the foundation of Gothic 2 - Night of the Raven, is nothing short of extroardinary.
The quality of this mod simply beat anything that was released, in possibly, the past decade.
It stands on its own as a classical game and is a good reminder of what IS a PC game.
Why, in the first place, some of us fell in love with video games, the adventures, the narrative, the discovery, the mechanics...

For an extensive understanding of what this mod is about, I would suggest anyone to read a deep review of Gothic 1 and Gothic 2 - NOTR (or Gold).
Archolos do bring its changes, but the core of the game is the same.

An atmospheric A-Rpg which tries to revive the greatness of Gothic 1 and 2.
The beginning of the game achieve on every mark, but the game suffers from a short lifespan and lightweight amount of content (spells, items, quests).

A big warning on the technical side: there are multiple bugs that will cause crash and possibly graphic card over heating.
Be sure to install community patch 1.3 before launching the game.
And set your ingame refresh rate the same as your screen refresh rate
Also, if you're using a Nvidia graphic card (which is a good thing for this game), in Nvidia Control Panel activate FXAA.

One of the best game I've played in quite a long time.
The writing is impeccable, numerous scenes are quite memorable.
This is also the best Thief game since Thief 2, although, it cannot compare in term of level design, I thought the feat quite admirable.

The developpers of this game can be commended for the level of quality they delivered.


My critics would simply be about the lock system, after having weighted all aspects around this sytem, my conclusion is that it simply is bad.
I'd rather have the other system around (that most games use) where you play without lock and simply press a key to lock a target.
Oh and non implemented spears, hallberds, crossbow etc. I'd rather have those weapons added to the game instead of the various DLC that were added to it.

I have memorie playing this game when it was released, and I have memories using a tactical pause.
I bought the game only to dicover that the active pause was not part of the game anymore.

The game is so very satisfying to play, it has so much charms there and there.
Some ideas are very interesting/clever and not so much seen in other games: light/darkness, digging, cutting down trees...
I am so much complaining about uninspired spells and skills in other games where it all comes down to damage dealing.
There are so much thoughts put on positionning.
It's really clicking all my buttons in a good way.

As for the bad.
- The assistants are horrid. There is a really cool feeling about unlocking them, but they are so ''random'', so... ''non interesting''.
- Cooldowns: I didn't see any reason for them to be.
Why would a mage be capable to rain rock over and over and some other guy could not use his special moves at the cost of increased stamina.
- Unheroic heroes.


Warbanners is a must-have for any person who enjoy tactical games.
Imo, it completely beats the competition, and again, it feels like a project with low funding.
A next iteration could possibly offer some great improvement over its current mechanics.