The Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord - Calradia Awakens Mod is full of features that turn a fairly grounded game into a fantasy game, with everything from mystical auras to gunpowder troops. There is magic, items, auras, technology, kingdom troop trees, and multi-projectiles.

A strong contender for paid DLC

If this were a FarCry game, then the additions to this game would be considered paid DLC. Development was clearly a long process because the additions are perfect. Even the less convincing demon characters have been executed and published flawlessly.

Window dressing, but good quality window dressing

After exploring and smashing a few orcs, you will start to settle back into your old gameplay routines, and this mod doesn't do a lot to change that. Yet, the modifications feel like part of the original game rather than extraneous additions, and that is what makes this mod one of the best Mount & Blade mods in existence.

Like a fancy WOW or cheap Witcher

This mod is not bad by any stretch of the imagination, and it has clearly had a lot of work put into it. However, it is caught between the Witcher and WOW games. It has less focus on magic and adventuring than WOW, and doesn't have the single-player magic RPG elements that Witcher has.

Fine for people wanting a change

This mod doesn't have the sort of replayablity that the base game has, and that is only because the new features are not developed enough to hold the game for a long time. Eventually, you will fall back into playing the base game elements, while perhaps bolstered by some of the new projectile tech.