The controls can be unwieldy, especially on horseback. Targeting and interacting with items and characters in towns and on battle maps is still imprecise and sometimes unresponsive. Especially early on, itвЂ™s easy to get the feeling that youвЂ™re just playing Warband with better graphics. For something thatвЂ™s been in development for about eight years, thereвЂ™s still a fair amount of jank on display, which is probably why itвЂ™s got that Early Access caveat. Not everything else about Bannerlord does, though. But itвЂ™s still such a huge step up from WarbandвЂ™s janky interface that it feels like a big breath of fresh air. There are also a few screens that are difficult to get to and donвЂ™t even have a hotkey you can look up in the keybind menu. However, there are certain things that donвЂ™t have tooltips which I wish were better explained, and thereвЂ™s a significant amount of lag when switching between menus that kind of gets on my nerves. ItвЂ™s visually pleasing, well-organized, and easy to work with. The interface has been drastically improved as well. And theyвЂ™ve done away with the weird, blocky, edge-of-the-map geometry blobs that made WarbandвЂ™s map look like the gods hit a certain point and just gave up. The level of detail really makes me feel like IвЂ™m in a living world. The lighting, textures, and terrain are all impressive. The map looks gorgeous, allowing you to scroll completely seamlessly from practically right over your characterвЂ™s shoulder all the way up to a high-level strategic view. On one hand, itвЂ™s a whole lot prettier than its 10-year-old predecessor, Mount & Blade: Warband. Since it launched into Early Access this past Monday IвЂ™ve spent about 20 hours with Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord so far, and it definitely makes a mixed impression.

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