Combat is fun, good weapon variety, good reactions to being hit. Maps look nice and are varied. They fixed the crouched helicopter sword swinging style of the last game. Even easier to get into than most games like this but still offers enough options for better players. Typically just a enjoyable fairly mindless good time as even if you make full use and understand the mechanics it is unlikely that your team will be even remotely working together to make victory something to care about. Always satisfying to throw your Dane Axe into someone.

Would be nice to have a bit more class customization, at least when it comes to swapping out your charging attack and special ability (healing flags, healing horn blows, healing kits you throw at teammates, ammo refills, oil pots) and I'm not sure why some weapons that make sense for a class to have are locked to others. You do have a good amount of armor and weapon cosmetics that can be earned by spending the currency you gain from playing. Strange respawn system where it won't allow you to change your class default class and weapon outside of a match, might lock you into your formerly used class when it begins, and will usually cause you to wait for one more death after spawning to change your class even when changing while waiting for the last seconds of a respawn. Has the hit detection issues that come with all games like this where some weapons seem to have less range than your bare hands would or you will clearly see stabs and slashes go through enemies and miss (or yourself). For some reason this game adds an issue where it seems to be easier to hit your teammates but friendly fire damage is at least reduced, there are so many moments where I hit teammates not in my view or where the game declares closer enemies out of range while hitting my further off teammate behind them. I've spun completely around to avoid teammates with vertical swings and still hit people that were formerly in front of me, stabbed the ground to avoid hitting teammates and still hit them, arrows for ranged classes can seem to pull into teammates when the same kind of shot would miss an enemy. Third person should be removed from these kinds of games, never liked the eyes in the back of your head in a PVP focused game.

A year later

More recent updates since the Steam release have added new maps, weapons, cosmetics, and horses. Horses have become a much larger part of the game, which is kind of hit and miss. Fun to use if you are good with it, never really that fun to fight them though. Didn't start running into any rampant exploits a year later like you do in some games like this. Have not played the recently launched Winter War update.

Gameplay close to first release
https://youtu.be/X8tstqm5s_s
https://youtu.be/737zbH5hD74

Gameplay after Steam release and updates
https://youtu.be/Wi3lLXd-OpI

Chaos, heroics, goofiness, and skill, all churning together at a staggering scale, make Chivalry II a sight to behold. One moment, a hoard of players crest a hill striking terror into those left standing. In another, you are running around bonking people from behind in the head with a hammer. You can go from making a final, desperate push to take a point at the last second to stealing pigs and presents as your next objective. It refuses to be taken seriously, yet cannot help but be epic. It rewards skillful play, but leaves an abundance of room to hardly interact with its systems at all. But overall, it is true-blooded chaos that should be experienced by anyone with a remote interest in it.

Probably my favorite multiplayer combat game since Battlefield Bad Company 2. The multistage objectives are consistently fun even when I’m on a bad team and getting rolled, and its medieval combat is surprisingly deep. Plus, it offers several options to help the team beyond deathmatch sword prowess. A playful sense of humor subtly pervades everything, without being the needy sort of wacky in-your-face humor that a lot of “funny” games have.

I’ll be playing this for a while, and it’ll possibly tick up to a higher rating if it hangs around long enough.

Played from – to: (2023-10-08 – 2023-12-06) – PC keyboard.
‣ 7/10 – I hope they paid the voice actors enough.

‣ Thoughts: I have never played Chivalry I, nor do I have a lot of experience in these type of complex combat online games. The only one that I had played before that is similar to this was MORDHAU. So, when I speak about Chivalry II, I speak from the perspective of a newbie who enjoys a few matches a day, gets his ass kicked and then complains that the teammates are bad.

In any case, this was a fun and unique experience. The complexity of combat could be dumbed down to simply provoking a pattern in an enemy and forcing him to block and attack while mixing it up with a kick to break the cycle. Obviously, there are more ways to trick your opponent’s when it comes to 1 on 1’s like fainting or swapping to heavy delayed swings, but for the most part you attack and block in a pattern and mix it up as much as you can to win the fight with a quick mind game. However, this game absolutely stinks in group fights. You either get a player who blocks 5 strikes in one go and sweeps everyone’s legs away or you get instantly decimated by three guys screaming their lungs out. The best way to describe this game would be chaos.

The atmosphere of Chivalry II is incredible. It truly captures the feel of a bloody massive sword fight in a mist of arrows. When you charge into battle you truly feel like a part of an army rushing straight to the unknown and it is great. If I had to compare how the game feels I would say it comes close to matching the mood and vibes of Battlefield 1 where everything around you moves, explodes and dies and all of that is caused by other players in real time.

In conclusion. This is a great multiplayer experience that has a huge learning curve and can be hard to get into, since the left-over player base is all veterans who sweat their balls of to ruin your fun evening with the boys. But it manages to immerse you better than most online pvp games and that is its magic charm. The complex combat can sometimes feel unfair and group fights are best to be avoided but you can also use that to your advantage and have tons of fun. It is all about positioning.