Mount & Blade vs Patron
Mount & Blade
Mount & Blade is the first game in a highly popular game franchise that boasts of being an RPG with one of the most sandbox-like gameplay ever. In this game, you can play as anyone you like be it a lone adventurer, a military commander or even the "mayor" of a small town in Calradia. The game also provides a rich and open world, allowing you to travel anywhere you like and discover all manner of points of interest ranging from farm villages to massive castles. You even have the freedom to interact with hundreds of characters, some of which will likely be hostile towards you. Due to this, the game provides you with an intuitive combat system that includes both sword-fighting and fighting on horseback that you can use to dispose of the hostile.Mount & Blade is an old game, and as such, its graphics may be a bit dated and its controls feel rather clunky. Thus, the game by itself might not be worth the money, but if you can get it along with Mount & Blade Warband or Mount & Blade With Fire and Sword - the two other and much better games in the series, then it'll be worth getting it.
Patron
Patron is a medieval-themed city-builder that is quite similar to Banished. In this game, you play as a pioneer sent by your King to colonize a new region. With a group of peasants to help, it is up to you to build a town from the ground up and develop it into one of the most prosperous colonies of the empire!The game is all about optimizing production chains and subsequently, pursuing advancements. So, at the beginning, it’s important to produce enough raw materials so you can have enough materials to “fuel” your other production facilities in order to craft more profitable items. As your town expands, you’ll need to make sure your production scales up accordingly, be it by upgrading existing structures or building new ones. This is where the challenge really comes in.
Of course, besides upgrades and expansions, you’ll want to invest in research so you could unlock better and, hence, more productive buildings, as well as new production facilities which will then allow you to produce items that are usually more luxurious and lucrative to trade. From time to time, you will receive various edicts from the King or news of certain events. You’ll then be expected to choose between the two decisions provided.
All in all, Patron is definitely a much better version of Banished in every way, and this saying something since I’ve enjoyed playing Banished. This game’s a solid medieval city-builder with a nice level of difficulty which matches what a midcore gamer like me can handle. The game is definitely worth the cost!