LifeisXbox’s Chivalry 2 review | Medievil combat in its best realistic ridiculousness, that’s Chivalry 2. How else would you describe it when a knight with one arm and an arrow in his left eye rushes towards you, gets caught by a catapult impact, and flies meters high into the air. All that, while blood is pumping out of his decapitated arm? Yeah, it’s realistic but ridiculous at the same time and that’s why I love it so much. Before you start with chopping heads off, know that this is a multiplayer-focused game. So if you purely want singleplayer content you might want to purchase For Honor or Xbox One’s Ryse, or simply get that online connection and start with the chaotic experience from Chivalry 2! It is worth it!
We played Chivalry 2 on Xbox Series X for 10 hours. This game is also available on pc and Playstation.
What we liked!
- Combat: Deep and tactical | It all comes down to something very basic, you are one of the many knights on the battlefield who hopes to chop limbs off and throw chickens around, yeah it is that kind of game. The difficulty curve for combat is considerably lower than For Honor. There is timing involved for blocking or dodging and attacking is based around the fatigue of the defender. The more he blocks the more tired he gets, eventually losing the option to block attacks. What makes one-on-one fights exciting and very skill-based. For offensive you have a few options, you can thrust your weapon forward, attack overhead, kick to open up an attack when the opposition is blocking, or a wide big ranged attack if the environment allows it. Throwing your weapon is also an option, good in situations where an enemy is running away from you. Nothing feels more satisfying than hitting a player with an ax when he’s running away! The thing where skilled players stand out is the ability to anticipate attacks and counter them, it might take a while but this system really clicks after a few hours.
- Combat: Skilled combat but going in with a je mon fous attitude also works | There are three kinds of players in this game. You got the skilled player who defends well and attacks tactically, aiming for lonely players or holds a bottle-necked gate entrance or corridor. Secondly, you got the ranged combatant with bow or crossbow, who keeps clear from close encounters, the game jokingly mentions them regularly as cowards. Getting killed by an archer can be a bit annoying but it is well balanced as they regularly need to get resources for arrows. Most players are in the last category and I call them the headless chickens. They search where players are and rush in and start to spam attack buttons. You’ll always find a group of 20 players battling it out somewhere, friendly fire is on (damage is highly reduced against teammates) but these kinds of players don’t care who they hit. A bit funny but it works and players are having fun!
- Combat: Classes | Changing things up a bit on the massive battlefields are classes, especially skilled archers can change the battle immensely. Knowing who you are facing is important as reach, stamina and overall damage highly depend on class. My favorite is the pikemen, not only because of their highest reach but for their special ability to charge when running. You have four main classes and each of them has three sub-classes. A knight class is specialized with defensive capabilities, they have the largest health pool and a few useful special abilities like having a shield or healing players with a flag. Vanguards are the damage dealing class and they have one very specific dangerous class, the Ambusher, who deals a whopping 35% extra damage if they attack from behind. But balancing it out is very low health and range. The footman class is all about distance as they have the most range, heal other teammates and have spike traps or bear traps to keep control of the battlefield. Lastly, you have the archers who have a completely different playing style, other players often see them as red flags so if you play as one prepare to see many players rush towards you. Archers regularly need to restock arrows so they often leave the battle and come back.
- Combat: Skilled combat but going in with a je mon fous attitude also works | There are three kinds of players in this game. You got the skilled player who defends well and attacks tactically, aiming for lonely players or holds a bottle-necked gate entrance or corridor. Secondly, you got the ranged combatant with bow or crossbow, who keeps clear from close encounters, the game jokingly mentions them regularly as cowards. Getting killed by an archer can be a bit annoying but it is well balanced as they regularly need to get resources for arrows. Most players are in the last category and I call them the headless chickens. They search where players are and rush in and start to spam attack buttons. You’ll always find a group of 20 players battling it out somewhere, friendly fire is on (damage is highly reduced against teammates) but these kinds of players don’t care who they hit. A bit funny but it works and players are having fun!
- Progression modes | Castle sieges are a big highlight for me, there is something special about capturing an impregnable fortress with your force of knights. While the balance between attacking and defending isn’t fair (more on that later) the everchanging battle and objectives feel epic and a truly unique experience for console gamers. I will give a few examples, pushing siege weapons to destroy gates or breaching high castle walls, attacking or defending key structures or positions, burning tents, or killing a king or prisoners. Everything has one main purpose and that’s having an excuse for two teams to fight.
- Outstanding performance | I was really surprised about the rock-solid 60 FPS, a MAJOR improvement for players from the first Chivalry. Not once did the Xbox Series X struggle with what was happening, not even when a catapult hit a skirmish of over thirty people (This was beyond cool to see). Even better, I didn’t have any issues with lag or game freezes. So one thing is very clear, developer Torn Banner Studios polished it extremely well.
- Nice visuals and not afraid to show gore | Flying heads and blood sprays from everywhere, Chivalry 2 isn’t Gears of War but the gore levels are high and very detailed with the Unreal 4 engine. Environments look nicely detailed with lots of variety, one thing you’ll notice is how nicely the ground is textured. Large and open fields have impressive vistas and the fluidness of character animations is very pretty to look at. Especially the armor protecting the knights is very well done with sparkling reflections and battle marks. A remarkable difference with the first Chivalry, awesome to see that this sequel really improves every aspect.
Somewhere between
- Balance issues | Not all missions are evenly balanced for the attacking or defending team, especially when you need to defend tents from burning or when you need to kill the king of a stronghold. It isn’t frustrating but a bit more balancing would have been welcome. They managed to balance all the different classes so that’s good news!
What we disliked
- Shouting | I’m trying to place myself when Chivalry battles happened in real life and the screaming and shouting must have been ear-deafening. They try to simulate that but not very convincingly, it sounds like you are being hit by the little boy next door and not the huge knight with the mace on screen. After an hour or so I was already pretty done with hearing the rush-screams from the battle cry taunt, a bit more variation would have been welcome. Luckily, sound effects from metal and weapons are of a much higher quality.
How long to beat the story | online only
How long to achieve 1000G | 30 hours
Similar with | A massive For Honor with more players and easier combat
CONCLUSION
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