Mount & Blade: Warband - Viking Conquest

 PC
User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 61 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 40 out of 61
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 61
  3. Negative: 6 out of 61

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  1. Guinness
    Feb 18, 2015
    5
    When I first heard about the Viking Conquest, I was so sure that it will be the absolute win. What bad can happen to a DLC which is in large developed on grounds of very popular M&B Warband, by moders who delivered one of the most popular mods for Warband, and with topic of Vikings?
    All three items in itself are ingredients for perfect mod, or shell we call it DLC for purpose of this    When I first heard about the Viking Conquest, I was so sure that it will be the absolute win. What bad can happen to a DLC which is in large developed on grounds of very popular M&B Warband, by moders who delivered one of the most popular mods for Warband, and with topic of Vikings?
    All three items in itself are ingredients for perfect mod, or shell we call it DLC for purpose of this review.
    When the DLC first released, the feedback was overwhelmingly negative, mostly because of functional issues and bugs,... or at least that is what I thought.
    I acquired the game after 1.3 patch, and after stability reportedly got better.
    I have not played the DLC long enough to expose the bugs, but from few hrs I spent with it, it seems stable and no issues with run-time and performance. Where I see major issues is with game mechanics and appearance, which is the most disappointing aspect of this release considering that part was ok even in Native. First, the human meshes look horrible, and in large resemble gorillas rather than people. Many objects including weapons are oversized and just don't look right. Textures are overall weak compared to 1257 or Brytanwalda mods. From what I understand, developers plan to work on the DLC more, which I would understand in case where this was free of cost fan mod, but since this is professional release, these shortcomings are absolutely unacceptable. It is almost as developers never played the Warband, and they totally lost the sense of expectation on what the DLC should deliver. In addition to obvious visual issues, battles are horribly imbalanced, which is another area which worked better in Native. The speed characters move on the battle map is completely silly. Overall, my whole experience with his game involved me installing it, playing for few hrs, getting increasing disappointed with each minute until I started laughing, and uninstalled it shortly after that. It is absolutely sad that this DLC fails on some of the fundamental features of Warband. Too bad considered Viking orientated mod is very desired and unfortunately not well represented with other available mods. Perhaps in a year, when developers get it together, this DLC will finally compare with 1257 or Brytanwalda. Right now, it is simply embarrassing.    … Expand
  2. MGTE
    Jan 11, 2015
    6
    Mount & Blade: Warband - Viking Conquest is the lastest, and probably the last DLC for a beloved RPG Mount & Blade: Warband. It was made by the creators of a very popular mod called "Brytenwalda". To start off, no, the game still looks atrocious. The DLC does bring higher quality textures, but the overall look has not changed, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The question is, how'sMount & Blade: Warband - Viking Conquest is the lastest, and probably the last DLC for a beloved RPG Mount & Blade: Warband. It was made by the creators of a very popular mod called "Brytenwalda". To start off, no, the game still looks atrocious. The DLC does bring higher quality textures, but the overall look has not changed, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The question is, how's the gameplay?

    Mount & Blade games have always offered more freedom than your average RPG, and this has not changed with Viking Conquest. As always, you start off by choosing your ''path'', was your father a respected viking, or just a regular henchman? It's your choice, and this will affect how people will treat you at the beginning of the game. They've also added the option to pick a religion, nationality, and personality which is really nice.

    Ok, so after completing making your character, you are thrown in into the tutorial level which will introduce you to the new sailing mechanic, and basic combat. The first thing I've noticed is how clumsy everything feels, the boat controls are very not responsive, and overall a pain in the ass to control. I was kind of expecting that, don't get me wrong the combat in M&B was always fun, but it was also clumsy as hell. I hope that Tale World is going to fix that in the upcoming M&B Bannerlord. Let's get back to the review. After completing the dull tutorial, and talking to some people on the boat, you sail into the sea. And this is where the story starts, while sailing, you get attacked by a feared Viking, whose name I don't recall. He destroys your boat, captures your crew, your mother and that's it. You wake up the next day, and your goal is to find your mother and kill the Viking who captured her. At first, I thought the story is going to be the generic "I got a princess, go find her." but, no. The dialogue has changed dramatically, it's much better than in previous M&B games, there a ton of new lines and choices which help you immerse into the semi-historically accurate world. I can honestly say that they have captured the feel of Dark Age Britain perfectly with historical and random events, even historical characters which is really great if you are a history buff. To sum up the story, it's interesting, it has intriguing plot twists and interesting characters.

    Now that we talked a little bit about the story, let's move on to the technical side of things. I have got to say that this DLC is not in finished state, it's not. Week after release, the game was crashing constantly(go to the Steam forums, and look how many posts about constant crashing were made). They did fix the constant crashing, but you will still experience the horrible lag in the campaign map. You know that something is wrong when M&B is lagging on GTX770. The game is full of bugs, sometimes in-battle mode, you will be spawned under ground, unable to do anything. And also, don't buy this for multiplayer, stick to Warband. At launch the multiplayer was a buggy mess also, which made the multiplayer dead as a result. I know that a lot of people want to buy this to play multiplayer, just because of the setting, but don't. Honestly, don't.

    The AI. You will never see lords leaving Norway to invade Britain, because of the horrible AI. There is no Viking Conquest, the whole concept of the game is undermined by awful AI. The lords will just attend ceremonies and do other stuff, but never invade anyone. I've only seen Vikings invade Britain once, in a scripted section of the story mode, but other than that nothing.

    What surprised me the most is the small amount of items added to the game. I remember when Fire&Sword came out, they've added a ton of new items. There is barely any armour to choose between, and by this point, I don't even know if there are any two-handed weapons in the game. I honestly never came across one. It's just a shame, because it looks like they put a lot of effort into designing the map, and the villages which look great. Why could not they put the same amount of work into the weaponry.
    To conclude, I can not recommend this game at full price, not in this state. Yes, the developers fixed a lot of major bugs, but there is still a lot of them. Buy With Fire & Sword or Napoleonic Wars instead, they run smooth, there is a ton of new items, and the story(at least in Fire&Sword) is also really interesting. When the Viking Conquest goes on sale, buy it just for the story alone, but a developer who releases a DLC in this state should not be supported until the bugs get fixed.    … Expand
  3. itchipod
    Mar 5, 2015
    7
    A Very good DLC. Mount and blade is already great, and Mount & Blade: Warband - Viking Conquest made it a lot better. Nice plot, graphics, simulation, combat, and computer A.I. Full of bugs and glitches though, so you have to save your progress all the time.
  4. Liljestin
    Dec 17, 2014
    7
    The new DLC Viking Conquest is not a perfect game. In its current condition, the game itself has quite a few bugs and there isn't much graphical improvement.

    But it is just a DLC and its primary goal is offering new content for the main game, Mount & Blade Warband. The Viking Conquest delivers this perfectly by opening doors for Scandinavian settings. It brings over 200 historical    The new DLC Viking Conquest is not a perfect game. In its current condition, the game itself has quite a few bugs and there isn't much graphical improvement.

    But it is just a DLC and its primary goal is offering new content for the main game, Mount & Blade Warband. The Viking Conquest delivers this perfectly by opening doors for Scandinavian settings. It brings over 200 historical characters like Harald the 1st and Ivar the Boneless. That's quite some content we are talking about.

    If you play Mount & Blade, then you must somewhat like the Medieval theme. And there's not a time and place for M&B fans better than Dark Age Britain.

    As I said, Mount & Blade Warband: The Viking Conquest has some flaws and old graphics. But the Viking Conquest DLC alone does what it needs to do perfectly. Now we just need some hotfixes and patches for the bugs.    … Expand
  5. Yufuk
    Dec 17, 2014
    7
    I Thinks this game Really Good! & Cheap!
    But a need little attention for scenario and gameplay.
    But price/performance ratio really really good.
    Go M&B go!

    Only Try this game!
  6. Selvaganapathy
    Feb 3, 2015
    5
    Viking Conquest is a very good changeover for the original game. But the problem is that it occupies your RAM like a Sumo Warrior in a car. But the update v1.3 is working cool. I like the story line except one part, Why is we always going to save our mom or world or something?.It would be more cool if it doesn't have a mom character.I hate sympathies and Sentiments. And the CharacterViking Conquest is a very good changeover for the original game. But the problem is that it occupies your RAM like a Sumo Warrior in a car. But the update v1.3 is working cool. I like the story line except one part, Why is we always going to save our mom or world or something?.It would be more cool if it doesn't have a mom character.I hate sympathies and Sentiments. And the Character designer part of the game took a full changeover and it is amazing. You can choose your Temperament also.And a new part which I like from this game is The Refuge, built by us. I love it.… Expand
  7. UncleEd
    Nov 27, 2020
    6
    Viking Conquest introduces a story mode to Warband. Admittedly, I was impressed in my first few hours at Viking Conquest. There is a moody Viking music and the story is interesting enough. There are competing religions in the world of Viking Conquest, nicely designed villages and new weapons as well as other inventory items which fit well into the setting. The game takes place as much onViking Conquest introduces a story mode to Warband. Admittedly, I was impressed in my first few hours at Viking Conquest. There is a moody Viking music and the story is interesting enough. There are competing religions in the world of Viking Conquest, nicely designed villages and new weapons as well as other inventory items which fit well into the setting. The game takes place as much on the see as it does on the land. Presumably, you will be playing the story mode and the new heroes, characters and scripted story events will give you a fresh take. But the more you play it, the more you will come across annoying and -at times- game breaking bugs or other game design problems which will be hard to turn a blind eye to. I kept playing anyway, determined to beat it, until such time I had to be involved in an unavoidable battle, based on my earlier choices. Having saved the game right before the battle, and losing it every time, I looked it up and yes, this is a known issue. Your options to progress are cheat your way through the battle, go back to an earlier save and put only the best soldiers into your army removing all the archers and other ranged soldiers. That was the last straw for me and I can’t recommend Viking Conquest. Regardless it may still be interesting to experience some of the novel ideas implemented into Mount & Blade. That said, a free mod might give you a better experience than this paid expansion.… Expand
  8. erdogfu96
    Feb 8, 2020
    5
    Worst single player campaign. It has naval wars but worse than mods. Map is confusing and unrealistic. Graphics are better than fire and sword and mods but still bit worse than average. Story is bad. Gameplay is better.
  9. Xe0m
    Feb 16, 2023
    7
    Basically, a story that M&B extremely needed. Also, improved graphics and many other game mechanics. You should definitely play this if u haven't as a M&B fan. On other side, story is stupid but hey, this is a story

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
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No score yet - based on 3 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. Riot Pixels
    Mar 19, 2015
    69
    Viking Conquest’s multiplayer mode pales in comparison to the expansive, highly detailed, albeit somewhat flawed single-player campaign. It’s not downright bad, it just doesn’t offer anything new, and there are too few servers online. So, if you’re going to the unforgiving Nordic lands, do it for the story.
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  2. Attack of the Fanboy
    Jan 19, 2015
    60
    By making full use of the aging game engine, the Mount & Blade experience is further enhanced and made more enjoyable. Unfortunately, a large host of bugs and stability issues spoil the show, while likely fixable, cannot be ignored.
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  3. Merlin'in Kazanı (Turkey)
    Dec 16, 2014
    84
    If you like Vikings TV Series and Mount&Blade, The New DLC, Viking Conquest is calling you. Viking Conquest offers satisfying experience with rich content and new game mods.
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