As open a medieval sandbox experience as the original Mount and Blade was, it and its sequel Warband were missing a few key features which would have made the games even more of a time sink than they already are. Graphically they could both have done with some more work, as they look years behind the times even at release, but there was also the rather passive nature of castle sieges which irked many.
It was almost a tease, with catapults and battering rams placed on the battlefield, but unusable. Players instead were forced to walk into ladders and passively shamble behind a siege engine to magically push them to the wall.
But that's not how things are happening in the sequel.
Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord, set many years before the first game, looks much prettier, has more fluid animations, and more importantly, better siege mechanics. With rocks to sling, rams to batter into gates, it's all much more interactive.
You can see it all in action in the new trailer Taleworlds has released, along with footage of castle and fiefdom management, world-map movement and interaction, as well as character customisation.
It turns out you can even play Checkers in the time before Calradia was formed.
