Chivalry Review
We’ve reviewed a lot of arcade shooters over the past few weeks and with good reason: they’re becoming the new MMO. No longer does the average multiplayer gamer want to explore vast worlds and spend hundreds of hours in quests, they want quick snippets of action, a decent friends list and the chance to be part of a wider community while taking part in tighter skirmishes. This week we’re looking at a game that offers perhaps the tightest skirmishes yet: Chivalry: Medieval Warfare.
Forget everything you know about the first person genre and prepare yourself for a battle to the death. Chivalry Medieval Warfare is a game that puts you into the action of a medieval battlefield, puts a sword in your hand and a set of objectives to complete and then leaves you to it. Is it a battle worth fighting?
Chivalry Gameplay Review
Ready for Battle – The battle system in Chivalry is excellent. If you’re looking for a close comparison, my closest point of reference would probably be a slightly more complicated Skyrim. You can stab, slash and bash, dodge, parry and shield yourself, all with only a little effort from the user. It feels very natural and with a little practise you find yourself dominating the battlefield.
Level-headed – Each map looks fantastic, not just graphically (although it’s more than passable) but also in design and layout. Taking a cue from castles of the past, the developers have expertly captured that mix of rural and manmade that was such an important part of some castles in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It’s a pleasure to look around and soak in the nature as you’re charging towards the enemy team with a sharpened piece of metal in your hand.
Class Warfare – There are several different classes to choose from before entering battle. From the ranged archer through to the tank-like knight, each class will have you performing slightly differently in battle. Choosing your fights is an important part of this game anyway, but it becomes more important depending which class you choose to represent.
The Screams of Battle – The sound production in this game is stunning, it really is. There isn’t a great amount of music or anything to speak of, but the sound effects more than make up for this. Soldiers scream as they run across the battlefield towards their enemy (especially if you spam the V button) and the sound of sword on sword (and sword on your enemy’s skin) never gets old.
Being Objective – I don’t want to say that Chivalry would be boring if it had nothing but a deathmatch mode to keep you going – it’s so different from the norm that I just don’t think that would be the case. Thankfully, each match also provides certain objectives to the player. Whether it’s as simple as storming a castle or setting fire to crops, or pushing a cart of corpses through enemy territory, you’ll have your job cut out for you if you plan to ace combat AND the objective.
Outnumbered – The best of Chivalry Medieval Warfare comes when two people face off against one another mano-a-mano. It becomes this mass of swinging and defending that’s just downright thrilling. The developers have captured the fight system perfectly. However, this 1v1 battle happens very rarely, and it’s far more likely that you’re going to find yourself surrounded by two or three people. That’s instant death. It’s not a fault of the game, of course, but there’s nothing more annoying that preparing to deliver the final blow and then being hit over the head from behind.
Learning the Moves – There’s a tutorial in the game, but it’s a little bit messy. Sometimes things aren’t explained very well, some of the characters have voices while others don’t and a lot of it is basically optional – especially the more advanced stuff. It’s also delivered rather quickly, so some of the advanced moves can go in one ear and out the other.
No Knight Bots – This is a game where you can’t just go out and top the leaderboards. It takes time and effort to raise your skills, and even then you might come across something who just gets lucky. What Chivalry desperately needs is a single player “bot” mode, where a player can hone their skills away from the tutorial and without impacting the games of others online.
Chivalry Review: Conclusion
Chivalry offers a glimpse of the future, because I strongly believe some clever MMO developer is looking at it today and working out how to make it work on a massively multiplayer scale. A lot of people expect this sort of thing from The Elder Scrolls Online, and now that I’ve seen it working in Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, I can’t help but agree with them. Bethesda NEEDS to work out how to do it, and I’ll be far less enticed by that game at launch if they can’t at least match the high quality battle as portrayed in this game.
If you like this Chivalry review, why not follow us on Twitter?
Similar Games
War of the Roses, Skyrim
