REVIEW : Chivalry 2 (XBOX Series X)
While previous first-person sword fighting games, such as Mordhau and Kingdom Come: Deliverance, have tried to sell themselves on the realism of their hitboxes or the high skill ceilings of their combat systems, Chivalry: Medieval Warfare has always been unapologetically arcadey. Chivalry 2’s sequel follows that tradition, and I believe it provides a superior multiplayer experience as a result. There’s still a lot of skill needed, but it’s much easier to jump in and start collecting some deliciously gory kills without feeling like a sheep in a wolf’s den. That is how you develop and maintain a solid community.
Chivalry 2 launches you into gorgeous, crowded battlefields with up to 64 players in objective-based team modes or a massive free-for-all. There aren’t many maps right now, but I’m impressed with the ones we have. Each offers a strong combination of offensive and defense objectives, intriguing landscape and architecture, an effective blend of open spaces and bottlenecks, and a terrific overall tempo. The next thing you know, you’re pulling giant siege towers up to a wall with ballista bolts shooting at you from above, and the next thing you know, you’re trying to steal as much gold from a village as possible and get it back to your cart before time runs out.
I also liked how special powers within each class tend to focus on assisting your team rather than simply making you a better single combatant. Even if you’re not the best one-on-one fighter in the world, blowing your war horn and granting a large area-of-effect heal to your side of the melee may make a huge impact in massive fights. And, in yet another great design decision, you recharge these powers faster by doing things your class is strong at and should be doing anyway, such as killing enemies with your charge attack as the angry raider or blocking attacks as the stalwart guardian.
Of course, the fighting system is at the heart of everything. And now that I’ve put in more than 30 hours, I’m loving it. This isn’t the most realistic medieval brawler I’ve ever played, but it’s a power fantasy, not a documentary. The entire flow of it, as well as how it limits how much a skilled player can control the battlefield, struck a chord with me. But don’t expect to reach the top of the leaderboards by furiously swinging a mace around.
There are so many different methods to attack, parry, riposte, dodge, and counter that it pays to be able to think quickly and react to what your opponent is doing. However, after you’ve made a decision, executing those moves doesn’t necessitate godlike reflexes or highly accurate mouse movements. There is a high skill ceiling, but the gap between a decent player and a great player is narrower than in a game like Mordhau, which I believe is a wise option.
Bad and average players will always outnumber truly excellent ones, and they must be able to have fun or they will abandon you. Even if you are the most skilled blade master in the realm, you will require teammates to stand on the objective. It also doesn’t feel overly arcadey, which was a problem with the first Chivalry.
Aside from the first couple of days, the servers appear to be holding up fairly well. Getting into a match is lightning fast, due in part to the willingness to include a few bots to get those massive, 64-player matches up and running. While playing for at least a few hours a day, I’ve rarely had any big connection troubles. The skill-based part of matchmaking might still use some development.
It will auto-balance teams if one side appears to be dominating, but there doesn’t appear to be anything preventing switched players from returning to their old squad if a position becomes available. And I see it all the time. So, if people are just being jerks and insist on wearing their favorite hue, it can lead to some lopsided conflicts.
Another issue I’ve noticed is a lack of visual customization for your character. It’s fantastic to be able to play as a woman for the first time, but each class only has one voice option and significantly fewer face options than the boys. Also, some of the girls appear strange, almost as if they grabbed an existing male face model and stretched it out like the Super Mario 64 title screen. There are some strange male looks as well, but the quality difference is very obvious.
At the very least, there’s a wide range of armor styles, heraldry, and weapon skins available for purchase using premium currency or in-game gold earned by earning up. Some skins require you to reach a particular level with the weapon before you can purchase them, so you can show off your prowess with a gleaming, gilded blade. And, as far as I can tell, there’s nothing that’s solely dependent on spending actual money.
