Mods greatly extend the game
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews
“It has theoretically endless possibilities with mods, and honestly cheers for all the modders out there, they make everything so much better.”
Steam review · 356 h played ↗
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Very Positive · 88%Very Positive · 88%TaleWorlds Entertainment2022Sandbox · Strategy · RPG
The verdict
A unique medieval sandbox with excellent large-scale battles and a thriving mod scene, but shallow campaign systems, weak AI and mod-breaking patches. Skip it if you want deep diplomacy or a polished vanilla experience.
Great for
Players who want epic army battles and sandbox freedom, and don't mind installing mods
Main risk
Shallow, repetitive late game and missing features; vanilla feels unfinished
What players love
Huge, satisfying large-scale battles
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 positive reviews
“The battles are the gem of this game. Leading an army of a thousand, climbing the walls and forcing an opening for your screaming bloodthirsty madmen to carve through defenders”
Steam review · 95.5 h played ↗
Addictive, hard to put down
Mentioned in ~1 in 9 positive reviews
“one of those games where you sit down to play for an hour and suddenly it’s 3 AM”
Steam review · 4.3 h played ↗
Open sandbox with many playstyles
Mentioned in ~1 in 10 positive reviews
“so many good mechanics, you can be a trader, a fighter, a gangster”
Steam review · 224.1 h played ↗
Rewarding rags-to-riches progression
Mentioned in ~1 in 21 positive reviews
“Seeing castles and towns turn green is among the most rewarding feelings in gaming to me.”
Steam review · 38.9 h played ↗
Naval DLC and updates add value
Mentioned in ~1 in 21 positive reviews
“Naval battles are fun and intense”
Steam review · 426.9 h played ↗
What players complain about
Shallow, unfinished campaign systems
Mentioned in ~2 in 5 negative reviews
“There are glaring voids where diplomacy, family, troop outfitting, smithing, and just general depth and breadth of various features should be.”
Steam review · 1017 h played ↗
Patches break mods; vanilla needs them
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“This game is an empty husk without mods and the devs kill them again with every useless patch they ship.”
Steam review · 117.1 h played ↗
Crashes, freezes and launch failures
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“Crash Fest - at launch, post wars, in the middle of having dinner, whenever really.”
Steam review · 115.4 h played ↗
Bad AI and buggy sieges
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 negative reviews
“Sieges are terrible, 9/10 times you are worse off defending due to terrible ai, poor troop management, and poorly designed maps.”
Steam review · 347.9 h played ↗
Repetitive, boring late game
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 negative reviews
“This is a very dull, repetitive game where you keep doing the same thing over a million times without ever really feeling like you are progressing.”
Steam review · 44.4 h played ↗
Hated stealth tutorial and stealth system
Mentioned in ~1 in 13 negative reviews
“Can't even get past the Stealth Tutorial.”
Steam review · 5 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: Playable60 GB
Minimum
OSWindows 7 (64-bit only)
ProcessorIntel® Core™ i3-8100 / AMD Ryzen™ 3 1200 / Snapdragon X Elite
Memory6 GB RAM
GraphicsIntel® UHD Graphics 630 / NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660 2GB / AMD Radeon™ HD 7850 2GB
Storage60 GB available space
Recommended
OSWindows 10 (64-bit only)
ProcessorIntel® Core™ i5-9600K / AMD Ryzen™ 5 3600X
Memory8 GB RAM
GraphicsNVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 3GB / AMD Radeon™ RX 580
Storage60 GB available space
OSWindows 7 (64-bit only)
ProcessorIntel® Core™ i3-8100 / AMD Ryzen™ 3 1200 / Snapdragon X Elite
Memory6 GB RAM
GraphicsIntel® UHD Graphics 630 / NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660 2GB / AMD Radeon™ HD 7850 2GB
Storage60 GB available space
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