For years I have been waiting for a console port of Chivalry: Medieval Warfare. I thought it would work perfectly on a console considering the game is fairly simple. Now, it’s finally here and it’s a great game, but it does come with some slight issues.
Chivalry: Medieval Warfare is an incredibly violent multiplayer arena game in which you play as knights, archers, and other class types from Medieval times. You can customize your character to have a sword, mace, throwing knives, or other brutal weapons with which to dismember your enemies. Unfortunately, there is a fairly limited amount of weapons to choose from. Although there are class specific weapons such as bow and arrows or long swords, there are only two to three varieties for each type of weapon. Say you want an axe, you can open the axe weapon menu and select from only a couple different axes that all look the same and have somewhat similar stats. If you want the cooler stuff you must buy separate DLC packs. It’s a bit silly that Chivalry costs $19.99 and offers not one, not two, not three, but FOUR $7.99 day one DLC packs, which include better weapons and cooler armor. The game feels incomplete. Content from the game is missing and consumers are being charged for it, which is incredibly annoying.
The highlight of Chivalry is by far the gameplay. Matches are set up to have two teams, 12 versus 12, and you spawn in a pretty small battlefield for close quarters combat. The chaos that ensues is completely up to the players. Charge head on into battle with your team for a cinematic experience or kill your teammates and wait for them to inevitably kick you from match or murder you. You can feel the weight of your weapon as you swing it at the body of your opposing target. This game really isn’t as simple as it looks; you have to be precise with your swings if you want to hit your mark. Your character won’t lunge forward on his own to hit a target like when you go to stab someone in Call of Duty games. You need to get close to an enemy so that you can expertly time a block or perform a feint before using a well-timed strike to stick your sword straight through their chest.
The game is much more strategic than it first appears, and that’s not a bad thing! You have to be aware of your surroundings, not only wary of the enemy that you’re fighting head on, but also of others around and above and below, who could very well shoot an arrow at you from across the battlefield or stealthily plunge a knife into your back. Not only are your enemies a threat, but your teammates are too, in some respect. Friendly fire is pretty much always on, and some people are very careless with their weapons, swinging them all over the place frantically. Sometimes you’ll get hit by some moron with a sword he doesn’t know how to use. However, I believe that makes the gameplay even better because it keeps you on your toes and keeps you thinking strategically.
The only real technical issue I had with the game was that it would lag at random times, sometimes for entire matches. It made the game pretty much impossible to play. People would appear to be in places that they weren’t, I couldn’t land any hits on enemies, and it would sometimes just start disconnecting people from the lobby. The problem seemed to fix itself the more and more I played, but I figured I should mention it since it was a massive frustration for me at first.
Summary
Overall, Chivalry: Medieval Warfare is an awesome game with some great gameplay that mixes chaos and strategy to create intense moments that constantly keep you on your toes. Although the game has some technical hiccups, it is too fun and addictive to pass up. My only major complaint is the four day one DLCs. I’m fine with releasing DLC a few months after release, but taking content out of the game and releasing it as four separate DLCs for $7.99 each on release day is insane and is a problem that continues to plague the industry. Apart from that, Chivalry: Medieval Warfare is a blast.
Cade is a games journalist, Gaming Writer at ComicBook.com. They contributed 108 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, and Xbox news: served as Editor-in-Chief at GameZone before joining ComicBook.com.