Southern Realm: Review Summary

[DeepComet5581]

Southern Realms

"This is Mount & Blade as you've NEVER seen it before. Southern Realms adds a lot of variety to the game, giving you more opportunities, skills, and... and I'll let the features list do the talking, since I'm rather chuffed with it myself." ~ Jubal

He's right. I certainly haven't seen it like THAT before.

Southern Realms is more of a massive expansion for Mount and Blade. It doesn't edit the content that is already there, but adds about 5 times more.

23 factions instead of the usual 5 to choose from, covering a map that is nearly twice the size of the original means that there is quite a lot of choice for any player, as each is unique, has their own troop tree and can offer the player different things. Among the new features is the ability to become the Town Watch Commander in any given town. This is good, as it allows one unprecedented control over the defence forces of that town. I haven't been able to try this feature out yet, but it looks to be quite good.

One feature I have been able to try out is the Naval Combat system, which is similar to the system in Europe: 1080 with a few crucial differences. The main difference is that, when a ship takes enough damage (Around 2000), it will "sink" i.e. disappear, after which all people on the boat at the time will simply keel over. This makes it a fairly good strategy to do as much damage to the enemy ship to prevent them destroying yours, and adds an element of risks for even seasoned fighters. This makes this feature a very worthwhile endeavour.

Like many mods, this one borrows quite a bit of popular content, including Foxyman's Formations, and the ability to hunt, also found in the incredibly popular 1866: Western Mod. There is also the ability to join one of 3 churches: Orinite, Varalite and Conirile. These churches give offers to the player of joining them. Once the player has joined them, they get access to the powerful healers and "Battle-hardened Religious warriors". They are considerably powerful troops, and if one joins a church early, they can be invaluable in helping the player develop the status quo.

SR also introduces the ability to use certain special abilities, like healing nearby troops, raising morale or even regenerating ones own health in battle. There are also several new locations independent of thw towns, castles and factions, including country taverns, 2 Universities and and (Uncompleted) Rogue hideout called Jarren's Rock. One of these new places will lead you to General Tataca, who, along with 2 other named characters, will teach you about certain skills (Barbarianism, Command or Assassination) independent from the regular skill set.

In addition, there are a ton of other special features; villages now spawn refugee parties when burned, new bandit types roam the map, several companions require quests to allow you to hire them, and troops can be hired in city marketplaces. There are gamblers and drunks in the Pubs. All these features help to add a new layer of realism and vibrancy to Calradia.

All in all, it was an ambitious project for our resident Administrator and Grand Overlord to undertake (More or less) alone. I believe that he has pulled off quite a feat with this mod, and I hope that it can be improved upon. I wish him the best of luck.

[Jubal]

Unpinned until there IS content.

But that said, looking forward to see what yous has to say.  

[DeepComet5581]

Just to draw attention to the fact that the review has FINALLY been done.

[Silver Wolf]

Great review ! + 1 rep