Common Sense Media Review
By Dwayne Jenkins
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Mature role-playing & strategy mix to create massive fun.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 14+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Play
Videos and Photos
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord
What's It About?
In MOUNT & BLADE II: BANNERLORD, players will choose between six cultures: the Empire, Vlandians, Sturgians, Aseri, Khuzaits, or Battanians. They'll choose their skills, backgrounds, and motivations. Then, their conquest will begin. Rather than a bombastic, pre-determined story, players will get to decide the fate of their characters and kingdoms themselves. Whether it's through their cunning and deviousness, or their bloodthirst and need for domination, players will build their empires. They'll raise armies to either defend or attack, leaving everything on the battlefield. While you're away on business to broker peace with another nation or planning to forcefully take more land for yourself, it's possible for someone to sneak in and take what's yours while you're gone, forcing you to strategize as you grow. Perhaps it'll be enough – a small, defensible kingdom where you can live in relative peace, establishing trade routes and bargaining with other kingdoms to guarantee your safety. Or maybe it'll never be enough until it's all yours. But be very careful as to not get too greedy too fast, or your civilization will crumble beneath your arrogance. So, what's it going to be, stranger? Looks like you have some decisions to make.
Is It Any Good?
Few things are as satisfying as watching your armies use their siege weapons to take down a castle that's been the bane of your existence for the past hour. Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord may contain elements that have been done better in other games or franchises, but nothing has combined many tried-and-true action RPG (role-playing game) and strategy elements in as strong a package as this. You get to play the role of commander as you survey the battlefield, find the best places for your units, and watch as they clash with the opposition in a song comprised of battle cries and clanging steel. You also get to charge right alongside your men, throwing yourself directly into the chaos. There's something immensely gratifying about going into a battle knowing that your enemy has twice as many soldiers as you do – but using your wits to come out on top by way of hiding certain units within a nearby forest to overwhelm your foes when they least expect it. You have so many tactical options at your disposal that it can be overwhelming. This makes siege battles – where you're either taking a castle or town or defending it – breathtakingly thrilling. If you can imagine the most epic siege scenes depicted in a movie or TV show, this game will allow you the chance to be the conquering hero that uses battering rams and towers to overcome your adversaries.
Of course, you don't have to play the game that way. While the game's biggest strengths lie in its battles, that doesn't mean its other elements are anything to dismiss. You can earn influence and power in a much more subtle fashion – by doing favors for other kingdoms or persuading them that you're worthy of one of their "lesser" lands. You can walk around a town, talk to its inhabitants, and simply make yourself useful to whoever may need your help. There's a campaign mode present, but all the "stories" within it are largely superficial. This is a game that takes its hands off the wheel and tells players to forge their own way forward. If there's anything resembling a "flaw," it's that the game's battles are so grand, it makes everything else seem lesser by comparison. Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord may not exactly be "reinventing the wheel" when it comes to what's being offered, but it's so tactful in how it makes all its systems work seamlessly as a whole, it's hard not to recommend this to gamers looking for something that turns the familiar into something utterly unique and refreshing.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the impact of war in video games, as Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord makes the experience "fun." Is it irresponsible for games featuring violence and war to be crafted in a way where a person would describe it as "fun"? Does that trivialize the horrifying real-world impacts of violence and war? Where should the line be drawn between fact and fiction when it comes to the portrayal of war in mass media?
Can games like this be used to promote critical thinking in older audiences? Is a person's ability to think critically strengthened in this case by the fact that players must think their way out of tense situations over scenarios that may be more relaxed? What's the ideal scenario to apply critical thinking exercises in video games?
Game Details
- Platforms : Xbox One , Xbox Series X/S , PlayStation 5 , PlayStation 4 , Windows
- Pricing structure : Paid ($49.99)
- Available online? : Available online
- Publisher : TaleWorlds Entertainment
- Release date : October 25, 2022
- Genre : Strategy
- Topics : Adventures , History
- ESRB rating :
- Last updated : September 29, 2025
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