Where do I start... I love Chivalry: Deadliest Warrior almost as much as I hate it. I might as well start from the good.

The idea of the game is good and the formula improves upon its predecessor, but this one is targeted more for fun, rather than the competitive experience Medieval Warfare was. The class roster is well rounded and everyone is guaranteed to find a warrior that fits their playstyle. The combat system is essentially the same as in the previous game with some improvements- as in, the blocking now works more reliably, the combat seems faster, less clunky and more exciting, with a far better flow to it. The game also looks and sounds great: the models are detailed, the enviroments are pretty and the sounds are particularly well done- both the combat and the voicework, which, considering it wasn't done by proffessional actors, is nothing short of amazing.

Now the bad. This game is a buggy mess. It's not on the verge of unplayable, but you WILL get killed in combat due to game errors, and it is extremely frustrating when that happens. All sorts of things can happen- swings going through perfectly placed blocks, hits not registering even though the weapon clearly passed through the enemy, getting hit out of range while clearly seeing your opponent miss, animations can desync, making you receive damage without ever seeing the swing that delivered it, etc. Also the maps, while decent looking, have all kinds of objects with invisible hitboxes that you can get stuck on while moving, or your weapon can hit plain air and cancel the swing, costing you a fight. It happens and it happens frequently and it is extremely annoying.

Then there's also the balance issues. The weapon roster in this game is impressive, yes, but it's terribly balanced. There are some weapons that just triumph over others and in certain cases there's just no reason to pick an inferior weapon. The classes that seem to have a somewhat balanced roster of weapons are the Samurai, Viking and Pirate. The rest, however, have a superior weapon in their loadouts that generally makes the rest obsolete and rarely seen in high level gameplay. Which is a shame. Also, some weapon mechanics are unbalanced to the point of seeming broken- the Ninjato stab and the Spartan shield bash particularly come into mind. The former is riddiculously fast compared to any other attack in the game, which means you either guess right or you die, because there is simply no time to react accuarately, while the latter seems to have no reliable way to block it, again, relying mostly on luck. Both seem cheap, easy weapons to wreck an opponent with and stand out in constrast to the other weapons.

And the final problem with this game is that there is almost no developer support. While its predecessor, Chivalry: Medieval Warfare gets frequent upgrades and balance patches, Deadliest Warrior, with all its issues I've mentioned here, has been that way from the start. It has been over a year now and none of them have been addressed. There hasn't been any attempt to balance classes, fix the multitudes of bugs, or even add something new, save for a few cosmetic items. The votekick system, the autobalance and the chat post-match have never worked propperly and still don't.

Therefore, my final verdict is this. I can't in good conscience recommend this game to everyone. The only reason I play it myself is because I am a die-hard melee combat fan and both Chivalry games are currently the best the multiplayer game market has to offer in that category. But they are far from GOOD games. They can STILL be extremely fun to play- otherwise I wouldn't have dedicated almost 600 hours split between both games and counting. But at other times it can be an extremely frustrating experience and a constant disappointment in the regard of what it COULD be, but isn't, mainly due to apathy from the developer side. If you are, however, seeking a multiplayer melee combat game, then this is the best bet for now. If not, then there are far more well made and supported competitive multiplayer games out there and you should skip this one.

Where do I start... I love Chivalry: Deadliest Warrior almost as much as I hate it. I might as well start from the good. The idea of the game is good and the formula improves upon its predecessor, but this one is targeted more for fun, rather than the competitive experience Medieval Warfare was. The class roster is well rounded and everyone is guaranteed to find a warrior that fits their playstyle. The combat system is essentially the same as in the previous game with some improvements- as in, the blocking now works more reliably, the combat seems faster, less clunky and more exciting, with a far better flow to it. The game also looks and sounds great: the models are detailed, the enviroments are pretty and the sounds are particularly well done- both the combat and the voicework, which, considering it wasn't done by proffessional actors, is nothing short of amazing. Now the bad. This game is a buggy mess. It's not on the verge of unplayable, but you WILL get killed in combat due to game errors, and it is extremely frustrating when that happens. All sorts of things can happen- swings going through perfectly placed blocks, hits not registering even though the weapon clearly passed through the enemy, getting hit out of range while clearly seeing your opponent miss, animations can desync, making you receive damage without ever seeing the swing that delivered it, etc. Also the maps, while decent looking, have all kinds of objects with invisible hitboxes that you can get stuck on while moving, or your weapon can hit plain air and cancel the swing, costing you a fight. It happens and it happens frequently and it is extremely annoying. Then there's also the balance issues. The weapon roster in this game is impressive, yes, but it's terribly balanced. There are some weapons that just triumph over others and in certain cases there's just no reason to pick an inferior weapon. The classes that seem to have a somewhat balanced roster of weapons are the Samurai, Viking and Pirate. The rest, however, have a superior weapon in their loadouts that generally makes the rest obsolete and rarely seen in high level gameplay. Which is a shame. Also, some weapon mechanics are unbalanced to the point of seeming broken- the Ninjato stab and the Spartan shield bash particularly come into mind. The former is riddiculously fast compared to any other attack in the game, which means you either guess right or you die, because there is simply no time to react accuarately, while the latter seems to have no reliable way to block it, again, relying mostly on luck. Both seem cheap, easy weapons to wreck an opponent with and stand out in constrast to the other weapons. And the final problem with this game is that there is almost no developer support. While its predecessor, Chivalry: Medieval Warfare gets frequent upgrades and balance patches, Deadliest Warrior, with all its issues I've mentioned here, has been that way from the start. It has been over a year now and none of them have been addressed. There hasn't been any attempt to balance classes, fix the multitudes of bugs, or even add something new, save for a few cosmetic items. The votekick system, the autobalance and the chat post-match have never worked propperly and still don't. Therefore, my final verdict is this. I can't in good conscience recommend this game to everyone. The only reason I play it myself is because I am a die-hard melee combat fan and both Chivalry games are currently the best the multiplayer game market has to offer in that category. But they are far from GOOD games. They can STILL be extremely fun to play- otherwise I wouldn't have dedicated almost 600 hours split between both games and counting. But at other times it can be an extremely frustrating experience and a constant disappointment in the regard of what it COULD be, but isn't, mainly due to apathy from the developer side. If you are, however, seeking a multiplayer melee combat game, then this is the best bet for now. If not, then there are far more well made and supported competitive multiplayer games out there and you should skip this one.