We already know a lot about Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord's multiplayer segments—including its five-on-five Captain Mode—but developer TaleWorlds Entertainment hasn't showed off as much of its singleplayer sandbox campaign. That changes at Gamescom this week, starting with a new trailer that shows some of the towns of villages of Calradia, as well as the sprawling campaign map.
It doesn't show the map in full, but there are ten settlements in that first shot alone (0:13), plus another six in the desert area at 0:20. It might not feel as big as other RPGs when you play it because you're not walking place-to-place on foot, but it'll still feel expansive if all of the towns are villages are varied enough.
The video gives you a look at some of those towns, as well as taverns and castles, and I already want to explore them. They're run-down, makeshift places by the look of it, and have plenty of NPCs milling about.
You can also see the new streamlined UI at 0:45—certainly an improvement from previous games—as well as plenty of combat, which will use the same physics-based system as the multiplayer portions.
TaleWorlds also said that each place will have a "town menu system" to make it easy to interact with NPCs, and players will be able to choose between 18 skills and "hundreds of unique perks" as they level up. There's a playable build at Gamescom this week, so hopefully the team will be able to get their hands on it.