To the delight and excitement of fans of medieval combat games, Chivalry: Medieval Warfare 2 will be launching June 8th. The world of swordfighting games has come a long way since the launch of the original Chivalry in 2012, but at a preview press event and early play weekend, Game Rant was able to get a sneak peak of Chivalry 2 and so far, tidings are good. There is a lot to cover regarding what may well be one of the best multiplayer games of the year, but from the start, Chivalry 2 lives up to and surpasses the original.
Before Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, there were several attempts at swordfighting multiplayer games. The likes of War of the Roses were generally hyper-realistic, and therefore clunky, obtuse, and complicated. Chivalry, though, was fast-paced, gory, and hectic, playing more like a melee-only FPS than a realistic representation of swordplay. While it had plentiful flaws, it showed the potential of what a medieval combat game could be by focusing on the feel of PvP, and ultimately paved the way for titles like For Honor and Mordhau. The sequel, then, has a lot to live up to.
From the get-go, the developers' presentation before letting the assembled journalists and content creators get to gameplay assuaged most doubts. They reinforced the notion that Chivalry 2 is not a sword-fighting sim, and that if it strives to be accurate to anything, it is the chaos and bloodshed of bombastic Hollywood battle scenes. Sprinkled with a bit of Python-esque humor and charmingly excessive gore, it became clear that limbs would fly, the ground would become slick with blood, and characters would shout obscene taunts to one another in frantic 32-v-32 battles.
Once in-game, Chivalry 2 lived up to that promise. The preview build was a version of the game that the developers called "90% finished," but in the current landscape of early-access and massive day-one patches, Chivalry 2 at 90% felt better than most multiplayer games at full release. The real test of its polish (and servers) will come with higher player counts during the upcoming beta, though.
Combat itself feels like a gentle evolution of the original Chivalry's core components, but with much more polish and a few more tools put in players' hands. Like any great FPS game, the controls are both simple and precise. There are no directional inputs for sword strokes or complex combos to memorize; every class has three basic attacks that can chain together or be held to become heavy swings, a block with precise parry timing, a kick, a bash, a special attack, and the ability to throw anything in the player's hands. That simplicity and precision free players to push their own skills and mastery to the highest levels.
One could run in swinging wildly, but with enough skill and timing, the game opens up in new dimensions. A well-timed parry allows for a fast counter-swing, but the enemy is prepared for that, so tapping block can be used to feint out of the first attack and transition instantly into the second strike of the chain, catching the target off-guard. Quickly aiming to his left means he will be hit by the very start of the animation, preventing him from having enough time to react and cutting his life short with a comical spigot of blood gushing from a now-headless neck.
It isn't all high-speed maneuvers and tactical strategy, though. Most lives are spent dueling one opponent to a clumsy standstill until another player comes up from behind and lops someone's leg off. There's a constant balance between heroic stands in which one manages to fend off and kill six other players, and goofy lives that end with getting a weapon-arm chopped off and running around punching people until being swatted like a fly. Chivalry 2 feels almost like Team Fortress 2 in its ability to coat high-skill-cap gameplay in a thick layer of silliness and lighthearted fun.
The full game will have cosmetics, multiple weapons to unlock for each class, and all the other trappings of a modern competitive multiplayer title. From its polish and improvements, it's clear that Chivalry 2 has learned from similar titles in the nine years since its predecessor came out. But, by returning to its roots, Chivalry 2 has also shown that no one else has quite managed to beat it at its own game either.
Chivalry 2 will release on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on June 8, 2021.