In contrast to the relatively static land of the Elder Scrolls, this isn't a place where the inhabitants wait around for you to do something before pursuing their own self-interests. All the while you're out clearing bandits for lords or delivering letters for kings, the diplomatic relations of the surrounding kingdoms are shifting and evolving, possibly making once-comfortable jaunts a risky prospect but a few in-game days later.

Few other combat-driven RPGs do such a great job of creating the semblance of a living world. “One of the best parts about Mount & Blade: Warband is that it's not just about you. And yet for all that, this remains a roleplaying game that does a better job of conveying the rags-to-riches journey than a game like Skyrim. Details like grass often vanish when you’re just a few yards away, and tricky gamepad controls sometimes become annoying. Knights and peasants alike jank about like robots. Slight variations on the same eight or so ugly faces populate its six kingdoms. It already looked a decade old when it first came out on PC in 2010 (and recieved a review score of 8.1), and some minor updates to its Xbox One and PlayStation 4 release do little to make it look remotely modern. Mount & Blade: Warband, which is likewise focused on a medieval setting, feels a little like that.

Some parts look like kindergartners made it, but it has soul and heart, and its images remain better embedded in my memory than some of the busy masterworks of the renaissance. Background details barely show up at all, the people look two generations removed from Gumby, and the weavers couldn't even keep the lines on the border straight. The sandbox-style RPG Mount & Blade: Warband is perhaps best compared to a work like the Bayeux Tapestry, a 230-foot long strip of cloth in northern France detailing one of the landmark events of the European Middle Ages. Graphics aren’t everything - but they’re something.

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