Chivalry 2 (PC) Review

Chivalry 2 wants to get the player in matches as soon as possible to join the fight as your knight of choice. There are four classes to choose from, three of which are melee focused. Make no mistake, this is primarily a melee combat focused title. After the tutorial, you're put straight in a lobby, and off to the field! That's really all that one can ask for. Get in on the action and have a good time.

Now, in fully multiplayer games, the player base is a very important factor for longevity. This is an issue that Torn Banner Studios wants to address. The series has come to consoles; albeit with a caveat. At least, that's what is said at the time of writing. While crossplay is possible, and can help players get into matches quicker, allowing lobbies to sustain themselves for long periods of time, Knights cannot party with each other across platforms. Here's hoping that later down the line the developer implements a cross-platform party system, because that would give this title a lot more life - and with combat this good, Chivalry 2 deserves it.

As stated earlier, Chivalry 2 offers up four classes to choose from. Not all of them feel distinct, but the weapon diversity surely is. Each class has its own share of usable weapons that you need to unlock as you play. There is no paying to progress here, which is greatly appreciated. At the same time, the final weapon in a class may not suit a playstyle, and has its own strengths and weaknesses like every other. In a sense, the more time is put into each class, the more variety is available. While each melee weapon feels different from one another, there is no rock-paper-scissors style or hierarchy, because skill is most important. However, for good and bad, longbows and crossbows in the ranged class receive a lot of criticism and there are good reasons why.

Adding balanced ranged weapon options to a primarily melee title is never easy, and to the game's credit, longbows and crossbows are enjoyable to play. At the same time, it's hard to say that they're fun to play against. To try to level console and mouse-controlled players so that they might equal in efficiency with ranged weapons, the auto aim is incredibly generous. So much so that the camera will even center itself on enemies far away enough to see. Of course, this does not change the fact that arrows might not reach the opponent, but being able to scout so far, and land shots easier, can be seen as unfair to melee players. There's a reason why you'll hear voice lines throughout the match literally spouting "slay those cowardly archers!" Thankfully, the modes and maps do well to balance the somewhat one-sided class balance.

Chivalry 2 does offer up stereotypical Team Deathmatch in its 32 and 64 player playlists, but it also has push-and-pull Objective modes. Each Objective map is well designed with opportunities to flank each side of the field. The TDM maps however don't offer much map complexity. The choices are either a straight line, an area with pits and obstacles (which is probably the best map for this mode), or a large open field where chaos ensues. There is some context for each side of the battle, but it's very minor as gameplay and fun factor are the stars of the show. All of these are enjoyable regardless of class choice, but Torn Banner Studios makes a curious choice to even the number of players per team.

This operates with matchmade online lobbies. Players will come and go as they please, and when they leave, bots are put in as stand-ins until the slot is filled. Surprisingly, connections have been very solid throughout. The trouble here is that if you care about winning and losing, this may work against it. For one, if the side has spots open, you can switch to the opposite side. However, to balance the amount of bots on each team, you may be forced to switch without notice. While some may find this frustrating, this can be seen as a way to just take it easy and keep negativity low. This is especially true, since at the time of this review, there is no ranking system whatsoever, but one is planned for the future.