Tis’ but a scratch!
Charging in with my battle-axe drawn, a scream filling the air, I reached a group of Mason Order soldiers alongside my comrades. My ally of the Agatha Knights swung out in front of me, slicing off one of our opponent’s heads before they could lunge at me, grazing me slightly for a bit of friendly fire. I dodged to the side, avoiding another attack, before performing a heavy swing into my opponent’s shoulder. I could almost taste the blood spraying off him, as I swung one last time feeling my axe crunch into his bone and lopped his arm clean off, seeing him howl in pain. I smiled at my achievement and turned around to join my allies in our battle, only to see three more Mason's that swooped in and not only beheaded me and my ally but cut off my leg as well, then continued to swing their axes and swords into my already very dead body. Chivalry II is about those little wins that don't necessarily last long enough to remain satisfying before you're often outnumbered and left as a bloody mess on the ground, respawning back in, screaming at the top of your lungs, and heading back into the chaos.
Chivalry II knows what it is. It's a confidently made and delivered multiplayer PVP landscape of arcadish blood and gore that is so exciting and raw that I often laughed at even my own deaths. Charging into battle, having my character raise their axe and scream as I’d run, only to lunge right into a chaotic mess and die instantly, starting that run again and praying for better results. There is no campaign, no PVE aspects whatsoever, but what is here is a joy to experience, despite not having my own team or group of friends with me. I normally don’t find myself excited about PVP games, but Chivalry II just has something going for it that I really enjoy, even if I can’t fully explain it. Maybe it’s that everyone has the same overall move set or maybe it’s because it doesn’t feel as skill limiting as others in the genre. Regardless, I’ve really enjoyed my time with it, even if I am absolute rubbish at it.
Playing with up to 64 players, through either a free for all mode or the 40 or 64 players options, blood will spill regardless of your decision. I will say that the free for all mode is a bit too chaotic for my own tastes, and the 40 player mode can feel oddly empty when compared to the 64 player battles that are consistently chaotic. Each of the team battles are either objective or kill-based, so if you like a bit of purpose to your battles, the former is where you'll likely strike a fancy there.
Team Objective is where the real meat of this game exists as you'll find yourself either attacking or defending. Objectives range from battering down castle gates, pushing siege ramps, capturing the courtyard, defending prisoners, killing the opposing team’s leader, and so on. You’ll have a timer and progress bar alerting you to how close you are and how long you have remaining to complete that objective. While some objectives can feel designed to favor the attackers to allow matches to have a decent amount of length to them, I never felt like any objective was impossible to complete, or defend, making the game pretty damn balanced in regards to the task. Sure, some teams are going to be far better than others, leaving some skill involved, but nothing ever felt impossible to achieve.
Across all modes, you'll play as one of two factions; The Mason Order, or the Agatha Knights. While each faction is identical in function, they sport their red or blue colors with a wide variety of customization as you will earn gold and experience to purchase additional looks to change up your appearance. I’ll also point out that Chivalry II does contain a real-money store for speeding through their unlocks, so beware as the game does include microtransactions in the form of Crowns. That said, while nothing is pay-locked, there are a ton of options per class, and some of the designs are very cool, but come with a level and gold cost that requires some investment to unlock. Each faction has four base classes: Archer, Vanguard, Footman, and Knight, each with three subclasses of their own, so, there is a lot to unlock and work towards. My only complaint with the customization is that the faces are absolutely horrible and I couldn’t make anyone even remotely attractive. Granted, you’re never seeing your character’s own face unless your helmet has been knocked off or your head leaves your body, but still, I’d like my often killed soldier to at least not look like their face has been a constant punching bag.
While there is some overlap in weapons, most classes have at least some uniqueness when it comes to their weapon and ability combinations. Each class has its own set of stats, such as the Archer having far less armor than say a more survivable knight, but each melee class has to get in close for their kills, as opposed to standing atop a tower and raining down arrows from above. As mentioned before, each class has three subclasses that further look to flesh them out, offering a different selection of weapons and capabilities. You must level the base class up further to unlock these subclasses, so it makes you get familiar with how the classes work before you can benefit from their lineage down the line.
The Archer begins their subclass journey via the Longbowman, who has access to regular bows and has the longest-range attack in the game. You can place traps and use braziers to ignite their stock of arrows, allowing for some very enjoyable flamework against your unaware and likely already locked-in battle opponents. The crossbowman is a mid-ranged class that can deal significant hurt with their bolts but has a pretty vulnerable weakness while reloading; however, they do come with a portable cover. Skirmisher is a short-range class for the Archer but does bring the pain. Here, you have a throwing javelin and axes but does contain very little ammo to back this up. This will cause you to go procure more, or find weapons on the ground and keep going for as long as you can.
The Footman is the faster melee attacker of the bunch, and their first subclass is the Poleman. Provided with a very lengthy reach via the Polearm, you can easily get in and out of combat wielding such a lengthy weapon. You can also tackle enemies, and this can come in handy in locations such as the Fighting Pit. Its next subclass, the Man-At-Arms, my personal favorite, is a very agile and fast attacker with their sword and shield. This class has a dash reduction and movement buff but does suffer a bit of power as a result. The Field Engineer is a support-focused class, having access to traps and barricades, as well as relying on healing behind the chaos.
The Knight Class is your typical tank of the group, being able to deal out some megaton damage, hosting the highest HP, but lowest mobility in the game. You’ll start with the Officer class which is a solid choice to start your Chivalry career with. You’ll have more than enough armor, can wield daggers, and some pretty heavy weapons as well. You can also heal with your trumpet support ability, making this a very good class all around. Following up on Officer is the Guardian, which is a more defensive take on the class. You have a shield and a healing banner for your allies. Lastly, is the Crusader, an offensive-only class with two-handed weapons and a fun tossable oil-pot for setting enemies on fire; that, or using it as a choke point or blockade on stairs.
Lastly, is the Vanguard, a class I really enjoyed using until I discovered the Man-At-Arms subclass for the Footman. While the class doesn’t have a lot of health, it has pretty decent offensive capabilities and speed. The Devastator has the Crusader’s oil-pot right from the start and can use two-handed weapons as well. It also lacks the movement penalty while wielding as such, so it does in some ways perform better than the Crusader. The Raider can equip two different weapons but does sacrifice a throwing weapon because of it. The Ambusher, the last of the subclasses, is a less close-combat-focused class and is more based on ranged attacks. You have access to two-handed weapons as throwing weapons as well as a bonus to damage dealt from behind your foe.
Combat in Chivalry II is something you’ll either get the handle on its finesse or just randomly swinging your blade as you approach enemies. There is a weightiness to it that feels good, but there is also an unwieldy nature of how you perform your swings. Instead of focusing on the crosshair, you focus on where and how the blade swings. You have a light horizontal attack, a heavy overhead attack, and a stab. You can also block and parry attacks as well, but since most of that style of gameplay is more structured around one on one’s, it’s hard to get that sense of depth when during such an encounter, you’ll likely have three or four guys sneak up behind you and decimate you while locked in that more personal intimate struggle with another player. There is still depth to how you want to attack, given the nature of how your swings work, but due to the chaotic mess that most battles offer, some of that can be lost, and slamming down the attack button can often get better and more immediate results.
Combat is stamina-based, so you’ll need to watch yourself in order to use your attacks as well as perform some well-timed blocks and parries. It’s easy enough to get surrounded or double-teamed, so playing with a group or some friends and sticking together can often work to your advantage. You can also kick, or throw your weapons as well, not to mention each subclasses special attacks and sprint attacks. There are feinting attacks where you can feint by winding up one attack and then quickly switching to another while still in the windup phase, making it difficult for your opponent to defend with counters. You can parry or riposte attacks, perform counters via a perfect parry, as well as dash and duck, giving you a lot of variety that I honestly wasn’t expecting to see here. Because of all this, combat can feel varied in what you are capable of, and while there is a tutorial, complete with your teacher just screaming at you, some of the swinging systems are not as well explained as they could have been.
Now, I briefly mentioned it, but swinging your weapon by pressing the attack button is only one way of dealing damage, but isn’t exactly how this game is meant to be played. Chivalry II uses a dragging system for how you’ll wield your weapon. The game’s tutorials state: “When attacking, your weapon is what deals the damage, so don’t keep the crosshair on an opponent. Instead, turn your hips during the attack with the right stick to land your strike as early as possible, or turn away to throw off your opponent’s timing.” Now, the action with the right stick is where I feel it is a bit unwieldy as that also turns the game’s camera, making for an awkward transition to perform this type of swing. I have to applaud them for trying this type of system, but I could never really seem to master it because of how you swing the camera in the same motion. Did I feel like I was missing out on some vastly important mechanic? Not really, nor did my lack of being able to really take advantage of it ruin my experience whatsoever.
Chivalry II also includes cross-play which does seem enabled by default. You can turn it off in the settings if you don’t want to contest with keyboard and mouse players as they seem to have an advantage with dragging attacks. Due to crossplay, I never had to wait for matches as the number of players investing their time into this game is consistently impressive. The game also allows you to choose between third-person and first-person, so you have the option on how to play which is very much welcomed as I’m not sure I’d enjoy the game much being locked to just first person. Third-person allows me to have a greater sense of my bearings and surroundings, making survivability more likely.
Packed to the brim with plenty of gore, Chivalry II is a pretty good-looking game with lots of detail to their eight included environments and variety amongst all of them as well, even despite the little bit of pop-up during some of the opening camera shots. Character models are nicely detailed even if the faces themselves are something only a mother could love, and even then, I bet she can’t stand to look at them either. Regardless, there isn’t much here to really complain about visually, as locations are well crafted, and have plenty of lanes and areas to get into some bloody fisticuffs. As for performance, the Series X runs the game in 4K 60fps, with Ray-tracing being added in post-launch via a 30fps mode. Currently, the Series S and Xbox One versions of the game run at 30fps, but the developer stated on their discord that the Series S is currently bugged and will see a 60fps mode being patched in shortly.
Chivalry II is a game I hadn’t even had on my radar as PVP games often don’t intrigue me. But, after seeing it played on a variety of streams, I was interested enough to at least try it. While I find myself rather poor at it overall, I can honestly say I’ve had a fantastic and often hilarious time charging into battles with my character screaming at the top of their lungs, praying my head doesn’t leave my body three seconds later. But, it usually does, only for me to charge back in and hope for the best.
Developer - Torn Banner Studios. Publisher - Tripwire Interactive. Released - June 8th, 2021. Available On - Xbox One, Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Windows. Rated - (M) Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language, Mild Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol. Platform Reviewed - Xbox Series X. Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.