Mount & Blade: Warband is set in the land known as Calradia in the mid-1200's. There are 6 Kingdoms (otherwise known as Factions), the Kingdom of Swadia, the Kingdom of Rhodoks, the Kingdom of Vaegirs, the Khergit Khanate, the Kingdom of Nords, and the Sarranid Sultinate, and each has their own set of troops that you can recruit to your personal "war band". Most of the time they are all at war with at least one or two opposing Factions. The main goal of this game is to conquer the whole of Calradia, and you can do this by either joining up with one of the existing Factions and helping them, or you can create your own Faction from the bottom and build your way up to the top. If you get fed up of the "Native" game mode, then there are hundreds, if not thousands, of mods available for M&B: Warband. If you want to conquer the galaxy in a Star Wars themed mod then you can, if you want to conquer medieval Europe then you can, or if you simply want to make the Native game mode more interesting by adding in new weapons, items and other ways of advancing through the game, then there's plenty of mods for you, which makes this game one of the most replayable games I've ever played.
The beauty of this game, is that it is completely non-linear. You do what you want, when you want (most of the time).

The game features multiple types of weapons, and most can be used in multiple ways and can inflict different types of damage, a club inflicts blunt damage and can knock out an enemy allowing you to capture them as prisoners, whereas a sword inflicts either cutting or piercing damage, and always kills an enemy.
When you are not in a battle, most of the time you will be looking at the game in the Overworld map, from here you can see the whole of Calradia, and can see your troops, and enemy troops. The Overworld map is basically the "home-hub" of the game as it is where you travel to and from cities, and is where you start battles. When entering a battle you will zoom into a predetermined area called the battleground, and depending on where you are in the Overworld map decides the terrain on the battleground. When in a battle you can command your troops to charge the enemy or hold a position if you find some high ground for your archers to take advantage of. Tactics are very useful when in a battle.
You are also able to besiege a castle or city, and you will construct either a siege tower or ladder before entering the battleground, from here you can also command your troops. There are also tournaments held throughout Calradia to increase your renown and to earn a fair amount of money, and are very useful in the early stages of the game.

The graphics are pretty outdated for a game released in 2010, in my opinion the graphics are the only thing that I am let down by in this game. The game offers 2 Direct X options, Direct X 7 & Direct X 9, which means that even older systems are perfectly able to run this game, but also means that higher end systems would be wasted on it.

My total rating for this game is a 9. Mainly because of the size of the game and that there are so many options with what you are able to do, and even if you get bored with the game you can easily download a mod to enhance your game or even change it completely. Unfortunately the graphics and the minor "clunkiness" of the controls stopped it from reaching a 10.