Chivalry:Medieval Warfare review

‘Been There Slain That!!!’

‘Chivalry: Medieval Warfare’, released on 16th October 2012, is a fast paced, first person ‘competitive multiplayer’, medieval combat, fantasy simulator game (also a mouth full) which as said by steam “seeks to capture the experience of truly being on a medieval battlefield”. The game was produced by developers ‘Torn Banner Studios’ and conventionally the game originated from a ‘half-life2’ mod called ‘Age of Chivalry’. It is evident that the mod inspired the development of Chivalry as both games share similar concepts of story and gameplay. Chivalry runs on the ‘Unreal engine’ (the same engine that runs ‘Unreal Tournament’), furthermore, the game sells for a standard steam value of around £15-£20 (fortunately for me , I bought it for £5 in a steam sale). Although, the game is a year old I enjoy playing this game so much, I just had to review it. However, before i begin to go into depth about the gameplay pleasantries, let me first fill you in on some background ‘lore’ of the game.

‘King Argon’ waged war across the sovereign and reunited the ‘kingdoms of Agatha’. However, uncontempt with peace and restless with power, Argon invaded the southern nations. To his dismay his crusade lead to his death but also left his armies and nations without a ruler. Within the chaos, the king’s peoples seized the opportunity to amass an elite group warriors called ‘The Masonic Order’. Yet, when the surviving forces of the King’s crusading army returned from battle ‘they discovered that much had changed’.

As the kingdom was split by civil war between 2 waging factions the game resembles elements of ‘The war of the roses’ and ‘The English civil war’.

As said , the game is played between two rival factions. ‘The Agatha Knights’ otherwise named as ‘Agathians’; who can be defined by their blue and yellow armour, watched over the kingdom of Agatha during the king’s reign. After the king’s death, in the crusades, the knights were in turmoil. Now, the Knights are led by ‘Feyd Kearn’ (the King’s advisor). Kearn intends to restore the power to the “rightful” ruler, Donum Argon (The King’s nephew). The Knights are loyalists at heart, made up mostly of royalty, nobility and Bourgeois aristocrats. They believe in nobility , respecting superiors , fighting with honour and dying defending the weak and the innocent. Yet, despite these noble traits greed and corruption arise from their ways, which is overlooked by the knights in the face of ‘keeping nobility in favour and power of the peoples.

Now, their deadly nemesis ‘The Masonic Order’, otherwise known as ‘The iron fist’ have become a newly founded order from the nations of Agatha. Their beliefs are, ‘any ends can justify any means ‘. They seek to rebuild the lands and furthermore to make Agathians harder and stronger. In lewt of their morally good intentions , the order use fear to intimidate men into their ranks. The Masons’ promise of a better future, resembles the ‘Bolsheviks’ and ‘Soviet Union’s traits. The order are popular with the lower class “the people” of Agatha. They bring hope.

In spite of faction, the game presents the option to play with four classes:

The Archer- typically the ranched specialist, best used in support to deliver deadly attacks from distance. Yet, despite his deadliness they are extremely vulnerable to close quarters combat.

‘Man-at-Arms’- the ‘Anti-Knight’ can be defined by his speed. He is light and quick , excelling in evasion. Think of him as a ninja, they can carry any combination of single handed weaponry including smoke pots. His best asset is ‘to land hits without taking any’. however, regardless of his elusiveness, the man at arms has a low damage threshold accompanied by small weapon effectiveness. I often fell victim to stronger classes because i couldn't kill the first.

‘The Knight’-essentially ‘the tank’ of the game. The knight is capable of dealing a great amount of damage. He is the most powerful and has the highest damage threshold. The knight is blessed with the ability to use both double and single-handed main weapons. He is an almost impregnable unit if used wisely and yet, i stress ‘almost’ as his abilities are hindered by his slow and sluggish movement skill. This sluggishness makes him easy prey to the Man-at-arms.

Last, but by no means least, my favourite class-’The Vanguard’. The imposes his aggression with his lunge attacks. Think of him as the wolverine of the game. This expertise falls in the line of pole-arm weapons. He excels in melee combat, but at a small distance as his weapons have the longest reach. That being said, he struggles from up close combat melee skirmishes as, he is unable to carry a shield, Torn Banner Studios establish that he is strictly offensive. I warn thee, do not get in his sites.

For those players who are into personalization, the game presents the possibility to customize your units with a variety of customization combinations, assuring you that your enemies will remember you.

Chivalry presents you with an array of game maps and modes to play through including:

• Last man standing
• King of the hill
• Team deathmatch
• Free-for-all
• Duel(for those who hold grudges)
• Team objective

The most enjoyable maps from my perspective are ‘The mines’, ‘Citadel’ and of course ‘The Arena’.

Alright, now that i've given you a little background now lets move onto my review (note* the review is just my opinion and should by no means be taken literally).

Let me start by saying- I love playing this game but it is NOT FOR NOOBS’. There are testing grounds and tutorials to get you started, of which give you some ground for improvement, but none of which set you up for online gameplay. Players are merciless and unforgiving. Expect to die a lot. I spent most of my gamplay looking at this:

Notwithstanding my plight, i must admit Chivalry is - beautiful. It is of my top most visually pleasing games that I've played this year. The developers have clearly put in all the stops in their portrayal of a medieval war. The pallet of colours used is all correctly chosen to the different levels. Examples of this can be seen with the utilization of warm bright colours, used in ‘stoneshill’ to represent the glamour of the monastery. This is contrasted with duller sombre colours used in ‘citadel’ to depict the hellish mood. To sum up the game truly delivers aesthetically, your first gameplay is sure to impress. Albeit, i found at times the graphics looked blurry as the game to render properly. i also noticed the environment would occasionally look clunky which is reminiscent of boxy PS2/ N64 polygons in games of the early 2000’s. Now, this may not have bothered me normally, however I had the same issue with unreal tournament 3. I would have thought that in the 4 year gap between the two games the unreal engine would have fixed the problem.

The sound is music to your ears, especially the sound of rallying war-cries. Moreover, the screams of dying men, are bone chilling but hilarious to listen to. The variety of sounds are enough to allow you to portray what a battle would be like, the roar of soaring cannonballs flying over your head, the meaty crunch heard when players get dismembered- all very delicious.

It is a spectacle to watch, albeit very violent and very gory. I thought at one point, it may be too much to be realistic, i mean not many pitchforks can cut a man’s head clean off in my opinion. Perhaps, realism isn't the main focus. Nonetheless, there is something awfully satisfying about decapitating your enemies (...I need to get out more).

Lets Duel

Combat in the game is both nerve-racking and exhilarating, there is a sense of realism from the system. The game plays out much like a real duel, where you must  be economic with actions due to the stamina bar, of which drains easily. However, for a rookie player it seems the odds are never in your favour. I advise you not to flee the duels, the ‘chase’ mechanic allows any class despite speed catch up to you.

The gameplay mechanics are smart, interactive and intelligent from my perspective. In order to survive and win over elite players one must consider

• Faking attacks to trick the enemy
• parrying, instead of taking hits to the face (*cough cough*….Fallout 3)
• Timing- parrying too late, leads to an unfortunate fate
• range- players will learn class specialty e.g archers at a distance, man-at-arms at arms length
• kicking and combing
• ‘The economics of stamina’-attacking depletes stamina, reducing all round effectiveness of every subsequent action- the most efficient players win.

Taking in all of these strategies into account, the best tool any player will have is teamwork. Players working together can create a wrecking ball force that can overcome any barrier, for instance, utilizing each class’ specialties e.g placing a knight in front of a Vanguard or Man at arms in front of an archer allows these units to challenge foes at ranged and close quarters combat, Ideally, you do not what to give your enemy a fighting chance (forgive the pun).

In lewt of the games’ successes there are a few things i had an issue with or would like to see. Since the game can be merciless to noobs, i believe there could easily have deathstreak perks for those who die frequently. Such as, extra ammunition, armor or weapon damage. I had the idea of a flaming sword as a perk. On the flip side there are no rewards for killstreaks. Is it too much to ask to add catapult artillery strikes perks for high K/D’s?

Another issue I had is there are no playable female characters in the game. Now, I have already thought- it is a medieval simulation, armies were male dominated back them- but there were women who fought in historical warfare such as Queen Boadicea. Its a 21st century game, times have changed. Torn Banner Studios is it too much to ask to put women in your games? I mean if COD can do it, so can you.

I would have also like to see horses in the game. Additionally more choosable or at least varying re-spawn points and reward for teamwork like perks. More to the point, the game doesn't seem to encourage the only way to survive, teamwork. Perks for using teamwork would be much appreciated and may give players a better experience.

Secondly, mission objectives are repetitive through maps- it feels as if you'll always be pushing something to somewhere. Objectives could include setting fire to buildings, or using man at arms to open the gates behind enemy lines as opposed to using the ram all of the time, What about ship warfare? or started a battle from a street riot. That's another issue, the cities seem lifeless, npc’s are completely oblivious to the fact that there is a war waging in front of them. Am I asking too much to include Women and children screaming and running for their lives or see buildings crumbling from the onslaught.

Lastly, i would have liked to seem more faction diversity. Despite looks the factions are almost entirely the same. There could be some alterations for instance, the Agatha knights ideally the wealthier faction could have better technology e.g trebuchets, armor and crossbows whilst masons, the common folk of the land, could have a stamina boost, greater thresholds and better agility or at least dirtier tactics like ‘kick-in-the-nuts’( I mean they have been subjected to manual labour their whole lives). both have balanced traits. Although these are just ideas, they make the gameplay more interesting to play.

Okay so taking in everything that has been discussed, I must conclude that despite all of the bugs and issues that irritate, the game is very fun and enjoyable- the amount of hours I've played on steam is evidence of this. It is one of the few games that can leave you laughing-off with your head!/

(Written by Denzil Forde)

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