Game: Chivalry: Medieval Warfare
Release Date - December 1st, 2015
Platforms - Xbox One, PS4
Developer - Torn Banner Studios
Chivalry: Medieval Warfare was released on PC initially and is now available on Xbox One and this is awesome. Torn Banner studios has brought the game to consoles and a reworked HUD allow for easy use, which is key for most PC to console ports. Chivalry never loses sight of what type of game it is - a first person, fighting game that focuses on the fun of the fight along the lines of a Monty Python movie.
Once in the Battlefield, my teammates were under pretty much immediate fire. As were our opponents. Running through the field with weapons held high, screaming our battle cry out loud hoping you're not drowned out by the sound of your fellow teammates' blood gurgling from an arrow to the throat. Some of my teammates were winning their individual battles, while others were immediate victims and yet others set on fire. Yep, on fire. After two losses in a row I couldn't lose another match. I just couldn't. I ran right past all the enemy Knights threatening me right toward the in game objective (we'll cover those later). There was one "objective enemy" left and I didn't have time to battle it out with the all the enemy guards. I ran past several of them and got caught by the last one. As he tried to hit me, I dodged his sword after blocking it with my shield and ran right past him. **Note to self, next time, hit the guard don't just run** I located the objective and my battle axe said hello to him. Of course, although this took about 15 seconds after the guard, I still forgot about the guard himself as I got caught up in the moment. Next thing you know my head gets chopped off and boom......I'm dead. Luckily though, the objective enemy was the last member of the royal family and since we took them all out, our team won.
The fighting is so much fun that I found myself literaly laughing out loud at the sheer volume of blood that was spilling and the manner in which it was portrayed. I mentioned Monty Python above. Remember that scene where the fighter gets his arms and legs chopped off and he's just a torso on the ground yelling at his opponent saying "I'll bite yer arms off!"? That's the fighting in Chivalry in a nut shell. At one point I chopped a guy's left arm off and while he was staring at it in apparent disbelief, I went in for the kill and lopped his head off. Now, these abilities along with the accompanying animations make Chivalry absolutely hysterical. There is A LOT of ending animations and I only saw the same one repeated once or twice due to the game's varying character selection and maps. In addition to how you kill your opponent, the surrounding environment also plays a role in the kill animation shown.
Some of the funniest moments happen in the beginning of the fight. Picture a moment from Mel Gibson's Braveheart with each side of the battle running toward the center of the battlefield. As you're running, you are able to trigger a battle cry. This isn't your normal Battlecry oh no no. It's the best, funniest cry you'll hear. Over the top screams of "GWARRRRRRRRRR" as you're tramping over the fallen adds so much to the fun and immersion to Chivalry. In no way, shape or form is Chivalry a "realistic" fighting game and that's ok, it's not meant to be. What it is, however, is a brilliant fighting game that knows it's a fighting game and injects the fun and humor into it as part of the conjecture and main focus.
The attack system in Chivalry is centered around four types; Swinging attacks, overhand, thrusts and parries. Each character is focused on different attacks mainly and the setup of the parry system adds a challenging portion to the basic fighting techniques. In order to dodge, you'll need to have the camera focused on the weapon that is attacking you after you block. It's difficult at first as the timing granted to you to perform the task is decent but not too long. After several times, however, usually of getting stabbed through the gut, you'll get the hang of it and be able to get a steady stream of back and forth going with your opponents.
While fighting, you'll need to choose from one of the four main character classes in the game. There are Knights, (of course) along with Archers, Man-at-arms and Vanguards. The Knights are the most well rounded class of the bunch as you can choose to be either an attacker or a tank. As a Knight, your attack mode of choice is either a longsword or axe, both double handed. If the fight gets too rough or your fellow fighters need help, you can back off and deploy your shield in order to take some of the heat off your team while letting them attack in the process. The Man-at-arms is your quick strike character. With little armor and just a short sword, they can parry and attack rather quickly, especially compared to the more heavily armored knights. The Vanguards have the most impressive attack repertoire in the game, however, with both ranged and heavy damage weapons. You can deploy a claymore or halberd if you choose as well as your special thrust maneuver which introduces the insides of several enemies to the outside world in one full sweep. Last and most certainly least is the Archer. They have little attack other than their trusty bow and, as a result, hide in the back of the fight trying to reign down fire like a little b***h. Ok, I'm exaggerating a little there, obviously, as the Archers actually play a vital role because a couple of times I was about to get lambasted by an unseen enemy only to have my teammate rip an arrowhead through his dome before he delivered the final strike to me. Oh, and by the way, it's AWESOME when you see the arrow rip by your head and land in the opponent's head. So much win.
As you progress in the game, you will be able to unlock additional weapons once you get enough kills and XP with the default weapons. The best part about this is, unlike games like Call of Duty and other shooters, the unlocked weapons aren't always "better". They have similar design and may have different features or allocations, but depending on your style of gameplay they may not be for you. I enjoyed this type of setup as it allows for a somewhat level playing field for new players as well as continuing to make veteran players experiment for new options. The combinations for each character allow for you to carry two weapons and one extra piece of equipment. Depending on your strategy, this can be a shield, explosive or or ranged/throwing weapon.
Blocking is key in battle and not just something that is glanced over in many fighting games. Chivalry uses a precision hit detection technique that makes it all the more challenging while blocking. For example, if you have a shield and raise it up to block your face, it won't do much good now if your leg is about to get chopped off now, will it? Sometime the best block is not to do anything all. One battle, while experimenting with alll the classes, I was pretty much beaten as I was using a Man-at-arms against a Knight. As heavily armored as they are, I was at an obvious disadvantage one on one even with a faster character. Blocking his attacks with my sword would have knocked me back and off balance, therefore vulnerable to follow up attacks. On the flipside, I simply backed up and let him flail at me, waiting for my perfect time. As luck would have it, the player messed up and dodged rather than attack me, which left him open for my kill shot. Now, the vulnerability was presented mainly b/c of the error at the hands of the player controlling him, but it's that ability that is presented in Chivalry that makes for a truly, well rounded fighting game with both a hell of a lot of fun and strategy at the same time.
A grant total of five separate game modes are available consisting of Free-For-All, Team Deathmatch, King of the Hill, Last Team Standing, and Team Objective. These are self explanatory for the most part and the best one I found most enjoyable was Team Objective. As mentioned above, in addition to slicing off limbs and all that good, family fun, you'll need to earn certain objectives to win. As noted, although I was killed I still completed the objective to kill the royal family and therefore my team won the match. That's not all though as there are A LOT of different objectives you can complete. In our time playing, we were able to defend or attack a castle, assasinate a high end target or, yes this is true, haplessly murder innocent civilians.
One of these matches took place on the map Hillside. Located in the map are various places and things you can light fire too while able to help your fellow invaders from taking over the battle. Of course, the other faction needs to prevent this. There are two factions in the game called Agatha and Mason. While trying to help the invasion force come in and take over, I was able to wantonly slay innocent civilians as they ran away screaming for mercy. It sounds bad, but it's really not. The animations involved, strategy that needs to be taken into account for both attack and defending along with your choice of weapon loadout make Chivalry's battles both intensely bloody and hysterically funny. As psychotic as it sounds to say the more bloody the more funny it is, it's due to both aspects working in tandem that allow this easy transition.
Now, as you may or may not know the Xbox One version of Chivalry runs at 30 FPS while the PS4 version runs at 60FPS. As we all are aware, framerate is HUGE over resolution and the more is generally the better. We played Chivalry via Xbox One thanks to a code provided by the game's PR firm. We also played the PS4 version at a nearby neighbor's console. Yes, 60 FPS is better than 30 FPS in the grand scheme of things. On the other hand, the Xbox One version at 30 FPS ran perfectly for us. Over the course of multiple matches we encountered a few minor issues, but they were more server based oriented as the PS4 counterpart maintained the same issues at 60 FPS. With 24 player online battles it's only normal for some minor issues to pop up, but nothing major creeped its way into gameplay. Also, I should note that the only times we DID see issues were when most of the players just said "Screw it" and the battle became one big ass mosh pit with all 24 of us were fighting it out Gladiator style. Even then, granted, the 30FPS Xbox One presented the same issues as the 60 FPS PS4. Outside of major battles with many players in close proximity, the framerate on Xbox One flowed well. Admittedly, I was a little surprised as 60 FPS is usually more optimal for these type of up close action fighting games. Even in one on one battles, there are still plenty of other things going on around you in Chivalry. Archers in the background fire their arrows right past you, other players running by you fighting an enemy to get to an objective. These things generally put a strain on lower frame rate restrictions, but thankfully and surprisingly this didn't happen in Xbox One at all.
For pretty much most of the game there weren't any major, daunting issues in Chivarly. The things which I would like to have seen improved are minor ones. For example, there are plenty of weapons to choose from but armor types are slim pickins'. Those who like to focus on defense rather than attack may get a little tired too quickly. Also, at some points in matches there are giant siege weapons that you can interact with. Once you run up to them, the animation scenes felt a little clunky and forced with how you interact with them and could use a little more polishing. Although a check in the negative column, I didn't find it to be that much of a killer as the siege weapons don't have an overwhelming impact in the match's outcome.
In addition, I would have liked to have seen more maps. Although the number of maps itself isn't overwhelming, in fact there are only six in total, the areas you can use in the maps themselves are extensive. Catapults, spike filled moats, bridges, valleys, castles and more are available depending on the map of choice. With so much variety in each map, in no way is it a downfall to only have six maps. I only would have liked to personally see more maps as I'm one for experimentation in games of this genre and like to continually find new things. That being said, the fact that there are only six maps in Chivalry is a minor inconvenience ONLY if you are like me and need to constantly find the newest way to do something. If not, then Chivalry is pretty much a giant heap of blood spewing fun.
Bottom line
Chivalry: Medieval Warfare by Torn Banner Studios is a great port from PC with all the bells and whistles. Redesigned HUD's, easy menu navigation and attack techniques coupled with the coolest, funniest and bloodiest kill scene animations make Chivalry a brilliant fighting game that pretty much anyone will enjoy. Chivalry: Medieveal Warfare knows exactly what it is and plays to its strengths. It's a stellar game of fun, fighting and strategy that allows both new and veteran players a way to enjoy it. It's available on both Xbox and PlayStation as well as the previously released PC version from 2012.
Pick up Chivalry: Medieval Warfare immediately and experience the laugh out loud fun of blood spewing decapitations. It's the oddness in that statement that makes Chivalry as much fun as it is.
