The combat is a little weird right now, but yes, it definitely reminds me of Mount & Blade. That being said, you shouldn't purchase any video game when expecting Warband mechanics unless it actually is a Mount and Blade game. There are four directional swings, feinting doesn't work like it does in Warband, and blocking is a little bit closer to Chivalry. There's only one blocking animation, but you need to aim your weapon in the same direction that they're swinging in order to successfully block them.
The game is basically 65% building and 35% combat in its current form. The skill progression system forces players to do certain things before they can unlock the ability to do other things. For example, if you wish to use two-handed axes, you must progress down the tree in a specific order:
(side example: if you want to get to skill B, then you need at least 30 points in skill A to even unlock skill B. To progress past 30 in skill B you need at least 60 points in skill A.)
Two-Handed Swords to 60, Plate Armor Usage to 60, and then you can start using two-handed axes. I personally don't like this system, because while it does enforce a form of balance, it doesn't logically make much sense. Spears and other weapons with primitive designs should be the first weapons you're capable of using, but instead the first weapons you can use are swords. Swords have been basically unobtainable because leather is required to craft them, which is extremely difficult to make / obtain. This means that for a good while, the only weapons being used were pitch forks and tools (which suck cock in combat.)
Really, progression is the only issue in the game so far. Leather and ropes are required to progress past the stone age, yet the leather / rope crafting skill tree is by far the most tedious, boring, thing in the game.
Farming (easy enough) - Animal Lore (takes so long to level up) - Procuration (leather, ropes, bone glue, etc) - Cooking - Tailoring
In order to level up animal lore, you must first catch hares and chickens with snares, and then put them into coops. To get animal lore XP, you must harvest and clean the coops every 24 hours or so. You don't really get much XP for cleaning the coops and you can only harvest coops that have chickens in them.
tl;dr shit takes forever
edit:
Also, in order to wear chainmail (at all) you need to have warhorse riding to at least 30. Warhorse riding can only be increased during character creation, since it hasn't been implemented yet. So, remember kids, set your warhorse riding to 60 during character creation if you want to use chainmail!
