As someone who reviews as many games as I do, it’s a bit difficult to pin down titles that I consider as my go-to games. Rocket League and Grand Theft Auto Online would definitely be contenders, with Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout being a more recent addition. These mostly come in phases, though. However, one game that I’m able to drop in and out of for anywhere from five minutes to five hours? Chivalry. The medieval first-person slasher has always been a game that hits all the right notes whenever I boot it up. It’s a game that I can play as a warm-up for a long night of gaming, or one that I can spend hours upon hours in - in varying states of inebriation, no less. It’s a game I never knew I needed a sequel to. That said, I couldn’t have been more thrilled to have had the opportunity to check out Chivalry 2’s recent press preview and cross-play beta weekends, taking in the sights and sounds of the game’s glorious bloody battlefields where the only rule is that there really are no rules.
Chivalry 2 is seemingly taking everything amazing from the original game and somehow making it better. Battles can now wage with up to 64 players, twice the amount of the first game. An overhauled combat system has been implemented to make fights feel more weighted and realistic. You can keep on fighting even when you might be missing a limb (it’s just a flesh wound, after all). And almost everything can be used as a weapon, ranging in everything from flaming chickens to the head of your recently decapitated foe. All of this sounds great in theory - an expanded and more fleshed out hack-and-slash experience - but is it a step above the original game that is, in my mind, almost perfect?
The answer is a resounding yes. Pretty much everything in Chivalry 2 is familiar immediately upon entering a game. You’re dropped into a match where you right away go running towards the fray before actually taking control of your character. From there, you’re left to your own devices. Do you run into a group ready and unleash a heavy attack despite the fact that it’ll probably do a ton of friendly damage as well? Or, do you take a bit more of a strategic approach and pick off unsuspecting singled-out enemies? Whatever you decide, you’ll definitely want to make sure that you’re comfortable with revamped combat mechanics of Chivalry 2.
Whereas the original game had more of a combat system where reckless abandon was often a fine enough strategy, Chivalry 2 rewards those who understand the complexities of the new system. This is especially true with the transfer of momentum during combat. Swinging your sword has always felt good in Chivalry, but now there is a more weighted feel behind your swing and the effectiveness of the angle in which you’re swinging. This extends to the times when you need to pull back on your swing if you’re trying to fake out your opponent and come at them from a different angle. The new combat system is easy to learn, but is a bit more difficult to master. Having familiarized myself with the new system, I’ve actually uninstalled the first game just so that I’m not tempted to lose my muscle memory (which took longer to learn than I expected).
The confusion and chaos of Chivalry’s battles make their return in the sequel. Of course, with twice the amount of players in a single game, that confusion and chaos is even more prevalent. I consider myself a relatively decent Chivalry player, but the sheer amount of enemies aiming to lob my head off makes each match that much more difficult. During the playtests, I found myself averaging a three-to-one kill/death ratio - for every three kills I had in a match, I would be killed once. Not terrible, but definitely different when compared to the first game where I, on average, tend to rack up seven to nine or so kills before dying. I’m hoping that my K/D ratio will improve as I continue to familiarize myself more with the new combat mechanics, but I imagine that the 64-player matches will continue to have an impact on that.
I only played the modes of Team Deathmatch, Team Objective, and Free-For-All, all of which were as familiar and fun as the first game. The humor continues in Chivalry 2 with character emotes and battle cries that had me chuckling, sometimes resulting in my taking the eye off the prize and meeting my untimely end as my laugh turned to a facepalm. One of my most memorable funny moments came after decapitating an enemy, accidentally picking up his head that had caught on fire, and hucking it at an oncoming enemy and killing him. I’m sure it helped that the enemy was already low on health, but it was one of those rare moments that I wish I had captured on video.
There is a lot to be loved in Chivalry 2, which releases on June 8 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The new features that the sequel brings only improves upon the original that was released in 2012, with cross-play being a massive pull for a game that is best experienced with a group of friends. If my early preview of the game is anything to go by, Chivalry 2 will be another major success for developer Torn Banner Studios when the game launches later this summer. I have little doubt that Chivalry 2 will become my unquestionable go-to game.
A PC copy of Chivalry 2 was provided to TheGamer for this preview Chivalry 2 will be available on June 8 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.