Mount and Blade With Fire and Sword is exploring the questionable power structures established through the unlikely individual. What is challenging is a question of who is being promoted, who falls to the floor in a sea of musket fire, and how to play on the inherent strengths of new technology. At the same time, the technological hegemony of the firearm is shown nowhere so distinctly perhaps as here, where distinctions can clearly be made between the haves in relation to warring parties and the have-nots. The richness of a historical tradition of power structures redefined by technology is at play here in a way unique even to the series as a whole.
What is deeply concerting and challenging about the entire game is how the player is slowly embroiled in power struggles only partially of their own making, yet ones that cannot be ignored, for the sake of either an assumed principled stance, or for the ability to have some degree of control over the theoretical spaces being built. Thus the player is asked to take on the role of a historical actor, rather than re-enactor. Rather than asking the player to take on the role of Napoleon, having to also know of his downfall, the place of your character amid the turmoil of pre-industrial Europe is uncertain.
Though starting as a humble individual, with some skill and some luck, the politics of a world not quite unlike our own becomes apparent, with despotism, favoritism, cronyism, and backdoor deals being pitched all around. While tempting for the individual who has access and the cunning to take care of such problems, there is also something telling about the general level of corruption of the ruling elite in relation to the smaller, provincial towns who, not unsurprisingly, have smaller, provincial problems. The result is a game which asks the player to question their favoritism. To favor the rich, who offer a greater reward with less effort, or to favor the poor, who require more effort and provide less reward for their safety, due to their being endowed with less.
The social realities played out here are a surprising map to the host of problems we face today in relation to modern day imperialism and corporatism. History here is not so much repeating as explaining, allowing the individual not just to judge the interactions that were a reality, but to take a look at how those relationships shape the world around them, if only indirectly. There is a darkness to it, and yet perhaps what is so compelling is the idea that the player will, in some way, bring about a better set of solutions, despite what is likely a morally incongruous compass.
Recommended: Yes