Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord charges out of Steam early access in October
Two years on and Bannerlord is ready for battle
Horse-rush action RPG Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord launches on October 25th following a two-year-long early access period. It’s journeying onto consoles at the same time, too, but its 1.0 release isn't going to be the end of the road for Bannerlord. Devs TaleWorlds Entertainment say they’ll continue to update it in “the coming months” after launch, although in what capacity they haven't said yet. In any case, have a watch Bannerlord's sweeping launch trailer below.
Mount & Blade 2 was first announced just shy of a decade ago with a trailer that we likened to a PowerPoint presentation, eventually coming out for real in 2020. During its time in early access though, Bannerlord has become one of those games that just pumps out interesting tales. Brendy tipped his hat at its gladiatorial arenas and love connections, for example.
But Bannerlord’s real charm might lay in its mods, many of which we've rounded up in our comprehensive best Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlords mods page. From giant horses and an MMO to Crusader Kings 3 battles played out in the game, Bannerlord is something of a modder’s muse.
Even without modding it to high heaven, though, Bannerlord continues to be one of the best RPGs on PC today. It's suffered its fair share of technical problems during early access, no doubt about it, but when we revisited Bannerlord last year, Sin said she still got a kick out of "fecking a javelin at a nobleman's horse and watching his doomed tumble into your gang of frothing axemen." However, there were also still parts of the game that left her wanting back then, so we'll have to wait and see whether its 1.0 release has improved things any further.
Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord launches out of early access on Steam on October 25th, and costs £40/$50/€50.