I was a big fan of the Chivalry 2 beta, it had exactly what I look for in multiplayer games I can play with my friends. Enjoyable combat, great weapons to unlock that offer a decent amount of variety, some excellent maps. But most importantly, it’s having fun. Being able to mess around with your friends in video games with limited consequences will never ever, not be a great time. Chivalry has its frustrating moments for sure, but 99% of the time it’s just pure hack and slash fun.
Platforms: PC Epic Games Store, Xbox One, Series S/X, PS4, PS5
Players: Up to 64 players (Max 4 player party)
Genres: Melee, hack and slash, multiplayer
Developer: Torn Banner Studios
Price: £35.99
Chivalry 2 Review
I played just under 20 hours of the beta a month or so back and was completely sold on getting the full game. With more maps, more customisation, and some variations on game modes to come in the full game, there wasn’t really any doubt I’d enjoy it.
Getting to grips with things in Chivalry 2 doens’t take long. There is a quick tutorial to get you started which will introduce you to the main mechanics of the game. From there you’re free to jump in and start fighting.
With four main classes to choose from, each with their own subclasses. There is a good amount of variety. Each class sort of specialises in a particular weapon type. The Archer makes use of ranged weapons. The Vanguard uses big two-handed weapons such as the Dane Axe. The Footman also uses two-handed weapons like the Polearm, so is a little less brute force and a bit more finesse. Finally, you have the Knight who can use sword and shield combos or one-handed weapons.
Each class has their own health, stamina, and utilities to learn. Mixing it up and finding what works for you is part of the fun. But no one likes Archers, so don’t be that person…
Big Battles
The large-scale battles are where Chivalry 2 shines brightest. With 32 players on each side, one team attacking, the other one defending across multiple objectives. This is where the game is at its most enjoyable. The Team Objective game mode sees you fighting across large maps usually moving between different settings such as city outskirts, then fighting through castle walls into the keep itself. There are a number of objectives to fight over ranging from storming castle walls to burning villages and killing Dukes. They normally go on for about 20-25 minutes or so and are pure carnage from the get-go. This is where I spend all of my time playing Chivalry and where the most fun can be had.
The battles become big brawls with multiple players from each team all crashing together at once. Limbs will be flying, blood spraying and insults being hurled from many of the character’s silly voice lines. Cleaving through a wall of enemies has never been so much fun.
Sword Logic
For the most part, I spend my time wildly swinging my Dane Axe or Warhammer gloriously mowing down anything in my path. But there is some nuance to the combat and should you come up against and skilled player you could swiftly find yourself on the end of an arse-kicking. Taking time to learn when to parry attacks, or where to aim your weapon to get an early hit in can be the difference between life and death. That being said, you can find a good amount of success from just lopping away at people.
That is what is great about Chivalry 2. It’s easy to pick up and quickly get into the fight. But there is some depth to attacking and defending. There is a skill in knowing how weapons handle, their swing speed, and range. Mastering these can be really good fun.
It’s not perfect
The game isn’t perfect. I can’t help but feel like some of the objectives are either deliberetely imbalanced at times as some of them are just impossible. Although it feels like that is the point, in order to make the match last longer. If that’s not the point, then yea, they’re seriously broken.
Defending objectives that need pushing need some attention as you have to be in extrmemely close proximity at times for your contesting to register. I’ve also noticed them still being when the defending numbers out-weigh attackers which doens’t seem right.
But by far the worst issue is the party system on PC (not sure if it’s an issue on console). It was broken in the betas and is still very patchy. Sometimes to party up you have to restart the game numerous times just to be able to see your friends actually in-game. It’s annoying and really needs fixing.
All-in-all though, Chivalry 2 is just such stupidly good fun and that’s all I care about sometimes.
-Will
