Review: Chivalry 2
Chivalry 2 is an online multiplayer medieval battle game, that can be played from either a first-person or third-person viewpoint.
Throwing you into 40 or 64 player battles (your choice), it is up to you to help your fellow brothers in arms (who will either be from the Agatha Knights or the Mason Order) to defeat the opposition in epic battles ranging across a variety of locations and with different objectives to complete.
Beginning with a tutorial section that I’d say is a must play for anyone venturing into the game, I was initially a little overwhelmed by how much information was thrown at me, along with how detailed the combat moves are.
This isn’t a game for “button mashing” and it reminded somewhat of the hand to hand combat employed in Kingdom Come: Deliverance, where pre-empting and reacting to your opponents moves is much more effective than trying to go “full Rambo” on everyone.
After nervously completing the tutorial I dived straight into a 64 player battle and started using the skills I’d just picked up in the training area. Though I soon discovered that I still had a lot to learn!
It was after a couple of hours gameplay that everything began to click into place for me, and I vividly remember the point at which I fell in love with this game: I was playing as a Knight and wielding a huge 2 handed sword. Low on health I was engaged in a 1 to 1 battle with a Knight from the opposing team, and with a sliver of health left I dealt a fatal overhead blow to him and watched him drop to the ground. Turning around to face behind me I saw 2 other opposition players running towards me, and, remembering my moves from the tutorial, kept my turning motion going while also swinging my sword, beheading them both in a gush of blood and huge cheers from me.
Moments such as the one above appear regularly while playing Chivalry 2, those same “gaming highs” as when you score a 30 yard screamer in FIFA, or pull off a ridiculous kill in Call of Duty. I can’t remember the last time I laughed so much while playing a game.
You’re not just limited to Knights with swords, as you can choose to also play as either an Archer, Man-at-Arms or Vanguard, each with their own weapons, strengths and weaknesses, sub-classes, upgrades and ways in which they are useful on the battlefield.
All are customisable too in their looks, voices, and you can even pick their own animated emotes too…leading too much hilarity amongst the mud and blood of battle.
Carnage is not just limited to handheld weaponry either, with Ballistae, Catapults, Trebuchet, Battering Rams, Mantlets, Spike Traps, Ladders and more being used across a variety of scenarios. You can even kill people by throwing loaves of bread at them or hitting them with a fish that you’ve found. That’s not even mentioning the sneaky traps that can be set, all adding many more humorous moments when it all comes together.
Much like the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, you can lose a limb and still say that “it’s only a flesh wound“. Falling to the ground with barely any life left you can annoy the hell out of opposition players by punching them in the nether regions.
As well as the variety in the battle locations, tension rises as multiple objectives are set for you to either defend or attack, with each successful one opening up another section of the map and another objective until ultimate victory or defeat.
Allowing you to develop your own style of gameplay, along with the great customisation of playable characters and full cross-play between consoles and PC, Chivalry 2 is just at the beginning of delivering many hours of blood drenched entertainment for a long time to come, and I hope to see it well supported with additional maps etc incoming in the future.
I’ll see you out on the battlefields.
Chivalry 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S.
Review by Dave from a PS4 review code.
