Game:

Chivalry: Medieval Warfare (2012)

Category:

Review

Duration: 4:05

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2

Chivalry: Medieval Warfare's gory encounters. Well-placed killing blows send limbs and heads flying, accompanied by fountains of blood spewing from drippy stumps that call to mind the iconic Black Knight duel in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It's hilarious at times and excessively gruesome. Gutting foes has a lot more weight to it here than in other recent entries in the Medieval combat genre like War of the Roses or Mount and Blade: Warband. That alone doesn't make Chivalry the best in its class, but it does incite a certain bloodlust that'll keep you charging into the chaos.

Before heading into the crazed multiplayer matches that are Chivalry's lifeblood, the cleverly designed single-player tutorial is a fun little diversion that serves as an introduction to the conflict between the underhanded Mason Order and the virtuous Agathian Knights. Roaming different regions of the coastal settlement, you tackle training for basic and advanced combat, test out siege weapons, and take each of the four core warrior classes for a spin. Then it's off to war.

The quartet of unique class types is more versatile than it first appears. On one end of the spectrum you have heavily armored Knights -- powerful and capable of absorbing lots of damage at the cost of speed. Vanguard look similar but are more moderately armored, can charge short distances, and are adept at wielding heavy spears and polearms. Sacrificing armor for speed, Men-At-Arms are zippy warriors who can quick-dodge. While these three melee-oriented classes each let you make substantive contributions in battle, Archers are the weakest link.

Using a bow in Chivalry is sluggish, imprecise, and far more of a hassle than it's worth.** Other classes also have access to secondary short-range missile weapons too. Admittedly, I love the Archer's arrow cam, which is a cool feature, but long-range combat is nowhere near as fun as it should be -- it feels unnecessarily punitive.

When you get down to it, the broad range of weapons is what really set each warrior type apart in function and helps complement their inherent strengths. Each class' basic loadout can be expanded by hitting certain kill quotas with a given weapon, unlocking the next one in line. There's a lot of different gear to open up for each character. You can carry a heavy primary weapon, a lighter secondary weapon, and an unlockable special item into battle, which leaves ample room for tinkering until you find the sweet spot loadout-wise.

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