Chivalry II PS4 Review

It has been almost a decade since Chivalry: Medieval Warfare was released on multiple platforms, as a game that has its roots in a Half-Life mod. Tom Banner Studios has finally produced its sequel, Chivalry II, which features a variety of options from customizing your medieval squad to purchasing specialty items that purportedly give you a real edge in battle. Does this make for a worthy sequel? Find out in our Chivalry II PS4 review.

Chivalry II PS4 Review – First-Person Slasher, with a Royal Twist

Nothing is more aggravating than trying play a battle royale with a steep learning curve; dying before loading into a map counts as a ball buster. Have you ever wondered if you would be any good at a big battle royale-esque experience without firearms? Enter Chivalry II, a blood-filled, picturesque first-person slasher game with a medieval flair—minus the guns. Chivalry II takes place in medieval times, where players can swear their allegiance to either Agatha or Mason and face off against countless enemies who are lining up to protect the kingdom. With four classes to choose from players can find their niche fighting style and achieve victory by means of stopping the opposing team’s progress. While there are no penalties to switching classes or defecting to the other side mid battle, there are some benefits to sticking to one side.

Each class has a primary weapon, secondary weapon, and an item that they are able to cycle through as they fight on the battlefield. Archers in typical ranged weapon fashion are the DPS class that deals damage from afar and while they are unable to withstand large amounts of damage, they are able to construct barriers to prevent enemies from dealing frontal damage. Vanguards unleash damage with long ranged primary weapons such as battle axes, great swords and glaives; their secondary weapons are meant to deal damage in close hand to hand combat with knives. They are equipped with throwing mallets as an item to throw at incoming enemies, and while you can throw any of your weapons, the throwing mallet is a replenishable item that can be disposed of when you do not want to be left completely defenseless.

Footmen rely on spears, swords, shovels and even pickaxes to deal damage in mid to close range combat. This class has a variety of weapons to choose from as a secondary weapon but are left with only a shield as their third and final item. Knights are considered the jack of all trades class with the ability to equip axes, swords, warhammers and spears as primary weapons and a variety of short weapons like hatchets, maces and short swords as secondary weapons. They can equip either a shield or throwing knives or axes as a third item. All weapon and armor customizations can be managed in the armory where players can design a character unique to their own fighting and fashion style.

Chivalry II PS4 Review – Upgrading the Upper Classmen

Upgrading weapons for each class is based on a leveling system where experience is distributed based on the number of kills and items used by a player. Players can be disarmed if they block too much and run out of stamina. Shields can also break over time if you block too much, encouraging strategies that aren’t purely defensive. Weapons and items can be replaced via supply wagons and stray weapons placed sparsely throughout the battlefield. There are three playable modes available to battle in: 64 player mixed mode, 40 player mixed mode, and a free for all mode. The mixed modes switch between a team-based “attack or defend” mode to an all-out team deathmatch where the side with the most kills leaves victorious. If you are trying to get a feel for the game, I would recommend a team-based mode first and then switching to the free for all to help earn some experience for the class or classes of your liking.

As a beginner in the battle royale-like massive multiplayer action genre, the free for all was an easier mode to get accustomed to when learning how to fight against large crowds of players. You can learn to take advantage of the chaos to earn some free kills while other player battle it out unbeknownst to your plans. Certain classes deal better damage to depending on the mode you are in, for example archers tend to survive in modes where the objective is to defend or push the convoy. However, they can take advantage of all the chaos of a team deathmatch and earn free kills from afar if you are quite the marksman. Knights, vanguards and footmen are favorable for all out hand to hand combat if you are want to be a part of the action and enjoy a game of footsies in the battle arena.

Chivalry II PS4 Review – Modern Medieval Warfare

Now that you’ve learned what Chivalry II is all about, lets get into the game mechanics. If you are looking for a game with instant control feedback, Chivalry II is not the game for you. Going through the tutorial you learn the basics of combat, blocking, parrying, feints, heavy and light attacks. The tutorial is great, it’s immersive and you learn a lot about how you can trick your opponent or opponents. A unique feature to the battle system is timing your strikes with the analog sticks to make contact faster than your opponent, this does take some getting use to but it actually makes landing hits easier. The faster a player is at moving their hands on the sticks the faster they land a hit, this also means that you don’t necessarily need to be strategize only to be faster than the enemy.

One major setback to the tutorial is that it only presents at most two enemies to fight; when battling it out in the arena there are many more enemies that you face. Most victories that I scored were from underhanded tactics of kill stealing, and although not honorable, it does replicate how war probably took place in medieval times. Another issue that I noticed was the counter system, there is a very precise timing for the execution of parrying and countering an enemy’s attack so precise that it would almost seem impossible to do so in the actual game.

If you are looking for some mindless fun or a way to vent your frustrations of the Mondays, this is definitely a great game to pick up for casual play. I wouldn’t recommend it if you are focusing on grinding for rewards. At most you do gain new weapons and currency to purchase new weapons from the armory; but honestly there is no benefit to these new weapons besides aesthetics. I’ve seen players fall by the hands of a beginner that just got lucky landing the finishing blow. Obviously there are benefits to playing the game for longer periods, you gain new equipment and you get better at the game but with war nothing is certain and a bout of bad luck can cause the enemy to gain the upper hand in battle.

The sequel to the classic is indeed worthy in most ways, and Chivalry II is a much needed upgrade to the original game. Combat has a lot going on, and while many players will behave as non-chivalrous bastards, there is a good amount of fun to be found on the medieval battlefields of Chivalry II.

Chivalry II review code provided by the publisher. Version 1.02 reviewed on a PS4 Pro. For more information, please read our Review Policy.