Chivalry 2 Review (Bust in the Wind)
The negative reviews about this being a steamroll simulator are true. If you're looking for a fair, competitive experience where a skilled player can carry and turn the tide, this isn't it.
I figured out very quickly that Chivalry 2 was unfair, unbalanced, unconcerned with status, and unconcerned with whether individual skill is given room to change the outcome of a battle. Players can freely swap teams to get out of a losing situation and start kicking their old team in the teeth. If you find yourself in a 1v1 and hold your own for a bit, the enemy will ignore everyone else on your team to single out the distracted guy fending off his death, and jam a free spear into his undefended, unbaptized bits. Sometimes a catapult just obliterates you for 2550 damage with no hope of counterplay.
This is a big dumb meatgrinder where you beat other players bloody with swords and hammers, to unlock more swords and hammers. You run in and die, repeat, and every bit of the game's design acknowledges that it's meant to be this way. You even respawn freely at a full sprint and are equipped with loud, hammy, extremely-committed battle cries.
And you know what? I could cry tears of f-cking joy that they still make multiplayer games like this. It doesn't care about being esport material where celebrity-hopefuls have a ladder to climb, or whether it's watchable on stream.
It's betting every dollar it has on the idea that if it hands you a warhammer and lets you flatten Brave Ser XxKushSniper69xX like a soda can, then you, the player, will be having carefree, selfish fun... and then it gives you 31 other knights to try and clobber, because that's 31x as much fun. Yeah, it's messy, but I have so much fun just trying to bonk the guy in front of me that I don't care at all who wins, I'm just glad to have fresh skulls to crush.
Yes, you'll almost always see one team losing badly to the other, even on something as unstructured as an open-ground team TDM battle. It's okay to be bothered by this, but personally I don't mind this even when it's my turn in the washing machine full of knives. I find this adds drama and a personal element to these matches, where it's much more satisfying to send a plate helmet clattering across the floor when it belonged to a complacent knight that thought everyone on my team would go down so easily...
...this goes doubly for when you corner one of those much-hated archers, where they'll either win back some small dignity by putting up a decent scrap with their backup weapon, or die shamefully with a bow in their hands and piss in their grieves. There's just something about swinging a cannonball of a mace into to an enemy that's EARNED your wrath.
A couple more quick pros: as implied earlier, there's a progression/unlock system to offer you more options as you play, and the melee system is great, even if it translates kinda predictably over the net. Maps are ASTONISHINGLY gorgeous with some of the most beautiful mosques and churches I've seen in a game, and they rotate quickly without much downtime; everything about this game is constantly pushing you back into the fight for another reckless charge.
Overall, 10/10 for dumb multiplayer fun. I wish more online games were confident enough to implement a fun, simple concept and be content to let the damn thing breathe.