
At its most basic, Chivalry 2 combines the accessible action of online shooters with a fantasy theme, swapping grenades for poleaxes, and AK47s for arbalests. Among other nuances, there are also jabs and kicks and attack cancels, and a lot of variation in weapon speed, range, and damage, from knives and cudgels to kriegsmessers (really big curved swords) and pole axes.For those who have never heard of Chivalry, let’s just back up a moment.
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If they successfully block, however, they have the initiative on the next swing, and if you’re too predictable, they may counter and get a free hit in. If you hit an opponent before they hit you, you’ll interrupt their attack, dealing damage but taking none yourself. As you swing, you can aim your blade, and swiping the mouse in the direction of the swing rotates or bends your torso into attack. The slash, stab, and overhead strike attacks aren’t rigid animations. The casual atmosphere somewhat belies Chivalry 2’s complex and challenging melee combat system. Instead, it’s a low-pressure game in which you can casually focus on individual performance (yeah, yeah, it’s about the objectives, but we all hit Tab to look at our K/D ratios after every death). Games with smaller teams, such as Rocket League or Rainbow Six Siege, are the best gaming experiences I’ve had with friends, whereas I don’t feel like pulling friends in would improve Chivalry 2, except maybe if we organized dueling parties on empty servers. Like Battlefield games, though, most teamwork in Chivalry 2 is incidental-you’re all just trying to do the same objective, or kill the same guys, though now and then you have the opportunity to revive someone or intervene when they’re outnumbered. Even when my team and I are just screaming and rushing toward an objective as the clock ticks down, though, I feel a kinship that I don’t get from the Battlefield games. Most directly, you can hit a key to send a commendation to the player who just killed you if you think they got you good, and I enjoy giving those out sparingly. I usually keep text chat off (it does attract some annoying players), but each match feels like a conversation anyway, or a bunch of little ones. Like Rocket League, which has also spawned some idiosyncratic player behavior (look up “Rule 1”), Chivalry 2 is about a love for the game as much as winning it.

(Cowardly archers would go after an easy target.) 40-player servers for team deathmatch I never attack someone who’s goofing off, and when I really need a break from the fight, I’ll pick up someone’s head or whatever else I can find lying around and stand around shaking it and shouting, even when arrows start piercing my chest. Sometimes you’ll come across two players bowing at each other, or crouching up and down. Chivalry 2 is part theater and it’s better for it. I always try to win, sometimes completing objectives by myself when my teammates are clueless, but treating Chivalry 2 like an esport is like expecting a WWE Hell in a Cell match to adhere to the rules of Greco-Roman wrestling. This is an essential part of the Chivalry 2 experience.

Hustling from the spawn zone to a contested objective provides time to build camaraderie with teammates by joining a chorus of yelling and babbling using quick chat lines-there’s everything from tactical orders to ‘your mom’ jokes, each with VO from multiple actors. Each map tells the story of a battle between two factions, the Agathians and the Masons, a setup that could have been superfluous, but which is treated with such comedic seriousness that it feels essential.

Some objectives are more fun than others (carrying gold from one spot to another is a bit of a chore, but escorting payloads is always entertaining) and I find attacking more satisfying than defending in every case, so there is a better side to be on. Return to the ultimate medieval battlefield! You spawn a short jog away from the front line, where one team is trying to accomplish a typically medieval goal (burn the tents, push the siege towers, destroy the trebuchet), while the other stands in the way. Subsequent lives in Chivalry 2’s objective maps have quieter beginnings. Usually, someone chops my head off first. If I’m lucky, I break through the line and chase down the cowardly archers who stopped running 50 yards short of the fight. My approach to these charges is to smash the ‘yell’ key to howl stupidly, throw my shield into the mass of bodies in front of me, chuck my sword at them, too, and then meet them with hacks from my secondary axe.
