Remember when games were more about gameplay and less about being a tech demo?
Gameplay:
Excellent.
At the core, the controls walk a fine balance of having depth and precision without being unintuitive. Directional attacks, blocks and parries are all player controlled (or you can tweak the options to make it slightly more streamlined). You and your mount control independently of each other, and one thing that really sold me was how flawlessly the controls work when playing as a mounted archer. It just works well, and I hope all the big time developers are taking notes.
Meanwhile, there is a well rounded RPG skill system running under the hood. Along with the now requisite slider-based face maker, you have the ability to craft your character in many different ways.
Once you create your avatar, the game basically just drops you down on your lonesome in the middle of the game world. There 'is' a tutorial that will familiarize you with most of the combat mechanics, but little else, so at first this may seem intimidating since you don't have a particularly good idea of what exactly you're supposed to do next. Since I tend to gravitate towards non-linear gameplay in general, this wasn't an immense issue for me. After recruiting a few tribesmen in a handful of towns, I was raiding towns and robbing caravans in distant territories until the wee hours of the night. It really is to the game's detriment that it doesn't outline a lot of the content for the players; there's a large amount that's tucked away here and there that you don't really expect to find, besides the tedium of most of the "quests". Bottom line being that, yes, this is "your" story of conquest and "no" the game will not hold your hand while going about it or even offering any words of advice. You basically just have to "go" and hope for the best.
The game world progresses at it's accord. Cities will be taken or defended even if you don't have a hand in it, and it's at your leisure that you choose a faction to affiliate yourself with, should you choose to at all. There's a working economy within the game world so, if you like, you can beef up your trade skill and run trade routes for hours or days if that's your thing.
Besides your own character there are other "hero" characters in the game world that can be found in taverns and recruited. These other hero characters gain xp and level the same as your character does, and you have complete control over how their skills are distributed once you hire them, as well as what they're equipped with.
There's also a decent reputation system that comes into play the most within your own faction. If you're steamrolling over the enemy time after time, your standing within the faction rises, and the other general may put your name forward as becoming the Marshall, which basically grants you the ability to control where all of the other armies in your faction go and what they do, enabling you to broaden your strategy on the world map.
Graphics:
Below Average.
The area that the game is most lacking in. In some cases they do an adequate job. In other cases it's extremely noticeable in how aged it appears. The upside to this is that low end systems should have no issues running this game. I must say though that the rag doll physics work surprisingly good, especially when you slay someone on horseback and they topple over the flanks convincingly.
Sound:
Average.
Most of the sound effects sound spot on. Although nothing spectacular, more often than not the sound effects lend towards the action instead detract from it. There are a few misfires here and there, but they're usually overshadowed when you notice how effing sweet the horse gallop sounds when your sword is cutting through some fleeing footman you just rode down.
Bottom Line:
If you're searching for an open-ended, realistic, medieval combat/strategy game with a fair amount of depth and can overlook a sub-par graphics engine, then look no further. This game is for you. If you're looking for a hack and slash with high speed graphics then you'll probably be disappointed.
It should be noted that the fan base that developed during beta is extremely dedicated and have already produced a dozen or so mods for the release version, with many, many, many more to follow I'm sure. I wouldn't be surprised if the community itself polished and/or added needed features in the near future.
Hope this review was helpful to you.