Chivalry 2 - Review

Have you ever woken up one morning and decided you wanted to don a suit of plate armor and run out into the middle of a medieval battlefield and start wildly swinging a sword around in order to decapitate your rivals? Given the lack of sleep and nightmare infused fever dreams I have been having lately this is pretty much my first waking thought and thankfully Chivalry 2 from Torn Banner Studios has just arrived to help me be able to live out my dreams. Torn Banner Studios released the excellent and critically acclaimed Chivalry all the way back in 2012 and have spent the many years between then and now working on its successor the rather unimaginatively though rather aptly titled Chivalry 2, now you can quench your bloodthirst in even higher resolutions and in far greater detail.

Chivalry 2 is definitely not a game for children, with the number of beheadings, amputations and blood sprayed around the virtual battlefields in the game you would not be amiss thinking that this game was a surgery simulator in a hospital where the surgeons were very, very not good. The game is strictly an online game, save for the tutorial mode and a few modes where you can practice against bots, think of Call of Duty but remove the guns and replace them with massive swords, poleaxes, javelins, and executioner axes. The main game mode in Chivalry 2 sees two teams (The Mason Order and The Agatha Knights) in a 32 vs 32 player battle across 8 maps, some matches being as simple as team death match whereas the larger maps will see you trying to accomplish various objectives across the landscape such as pushing siege towers across the battlefield or protecting all important trebuchets from your enemies’ attacks. There is also a free for all mode where it is every man for himself, this mode in itself is worth the entry price due to the outright chaos and hilarity that it brings to the table.

There are 4 main classes in Chivalry 2 each with three subclasses to unlock as you rack up kills and gather experience in the game. Heading off the list and possibly the most annoying class to play against (but also one of the most fun to play as) in the game is the archer class. Archers have access to bows, crossbows and javelins amongst other weapons and are best used at distance from all the sword swinging chaos on the battlefield which will allow you to pick off opponents that are already engaged in melee combat, it is highly satisfying shooting an opponent through the back of the head before they even get a chance to see you but also highly frustrating when you are on the receiving end of the same treatment.

The other 3 classes in the game are all melee based, though they can also throw their weapons and various items strewn around, even decapitated heads and arms if that’s your thing! I think one of the funniest moments I have ever encountered in all my game playing years is when I sat back and watched one of my teammates beat an enemy to death with the arm, he just relieved him of via dismemberment. The melee classes are composed of the knight who has the choice of wielding a 2 handed weapon or a 1 handed weapon and shield, the footman who can wield massive long-range polearms or can also choose a handed weapon sans shield and the vanguard who is a melee/ranged hybrid class equipped with both melee and throwing weapons. There is a load of diversity in the classes and loadouts you can equip especially once you start unlocking the various subclasses in the game, and through experimentation you will definitely find a class that caters to your play style.

Graphically the game is astounding, the various player models lumber around menacingly in their big suits of armor and the levels themselves are pleasingly designed with lots of period relevant medieval architecture. The massive amounts of blood and dismembered limbs flying around the battlefield also help to add to the atmosphere. The audio in the game is of a similar quality and is composed of the awesome battle cries of your teammates as they run around the battlefield, the chunky sounds of swords rattling off armor and digging into flesh and the constant thwacking and thudding of arrows as they are let loose and find their home deep in an enemy's flesh. There are also lots of little quips and one-liners that randomly intersperse the soundscape and some of these will find you chuckling to yourself as you hear them especially if you are a fan of Monty Python, it’s just a flesh wound!!!

The combat system in Chivalry 2 is utterly fantastic, it is quite easy to pick up but also very hard to master, which means that button mashers will have some success on the battlefield but once they come up against even a remotely skilled opponent, they will find their head being handed to them on a platter, literally. Melee combat consists of a set of three swings, overhead, stab and slash, this may seem limiting but all of these swings can be modified by what is known as ‘dragging’ which in simple terms means that your sword will swing wherever your characters eyes are aiming at so you can start your swing and then drag it across the screen in order to hit an opponent on the opposite side of where you are standing, it is a mechanic that you will get more and more comfortable with as you experience battles in the game and works surprisingly well even on a controller, though PC players will always have the edge here due to the superior amount of control that mouse and keyboard provide in a game of this nature.

Attacking is not the only combat mechanic though as there are also parries and blocks to master, timing is key with blocking as although you can hold your weapon up and therefore block through a whole melee encounter this will drain your stamina at a higher rate so therefore it is important to time your blocks as your enemy attacks in order to gain initiative and be able to successfully counterattack. The combat is so much fun that you rarely feel cheated when you die and instead chalk it up to a learning experience promising yourself that you will get better next time, and you will as after a few hours practice I was frequently dispatching 2-3 opponents at a time which makes for a fantastic experience.

You gain experience and gold through playing the game, even if your team loses, which is great as it promotes a sense of progression even if you don’t win every encounter or match. Experience unlocks the various subclasses in the game as well as access to certain weapons and skins and gold can be spent on customising your characters armor and weapon via the various skins available in the game, all of these can be earned just by playing the game, however there is also the option to spend real life money in order to access some of the skins in an easier manner rather than just grinding out the funds in game. There are a fair amount of customisation items to choose from ranging from character voices through to sword skins, armor sets, helmets and even a couple of wacky skins such as a bouquet of flowers.

Watching videos during the games development I often dismissed the game as something I wouldn’t be in to as I general prefer FPS games like COD as my form of multiplayer entertainment, however from the first moment I picked up a sword and started swinging it around in Chivalry 2 I was hooked, each encounter and engagement felt fantastic and though at the start most of the time I was the one being robbed of my head via my opponents sharp pointy weapons, pretty soon I was learning from every encounter and getting my revenge, if you are prepared to put in the time and learn the intricacies of combat this game is highly rewarding. Unfortunately, not everything is perfect in the land of Chivalry 2, the games menu systems are one of the most highly confusing renditions of a GUI I have ever seen in a video game, and I had to fight my way clumsily through it for a good few hour until I understood exactly how to customise my characters and choose their weapons.

Equally so is the bizarre decision to only allow you to pick what class you want to play once the multiplayer match starts, frustratingly if you do decide to change classes every round this will add to your spawn timer at the start of the game, this could easily be remedied by allowing classes to be picked before a round starts. It would also be ideal to have some sort of way of seeing each classes skills, weapons and powers before entering the game but once again in bizarre fashion this information can only be accessed once you load into a multi-player game, I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t want to wade through menus reading about my skills and strengths during the heat of battle. Swapping weapons is also another sore point with the game and the system to do this feels clunky and unresponsive, left and right on the d-pad is used to cycle through weapons but it very rarely works as described especially when trying to switch to the oil grenades the knight uses, many times I thought I had actually switched but ended up throwing my sword instead of a grenade because my press on the d-pad did not register.

Most of these niggles should be easily fixed though and Torn Banner studios have already released a road map promising new maps, extra customisation, and a whole lot of fixes to the game. With the plans announced that they are going to support the game for a long time into the future, anyone who gets in now shall find an exceptional game, one I would highly recommend giving a go especially for the price!

The Score

8.0

Review code provided by Tripwire Interactive

The Pros

+Great graphics and immersive soundtrack

+Fantastic combat system, easy to pick up but hard to master

+Diverse range of classes and builds available

The Cons

-Horrible and confusing in game menus

-Swapping weapons feels unnecessarily clunky and at times unresponsive

-Archers, I hate them. I will smite every single one of them!