Forgotten Journeys: Chivalry: Medieval Warfare

Ah, Torn Banner Studios, what fun we’ve had together. We’ve had several ever so joyous encounters with one another every now and then since October 16th, 2012; when you made the fateful decision to release to the masses the delightfully gory combat simulator known as Chivalry: Medieval Warfare. I recently began to reminisce upon the most wondrous of times I’ve had playing Chivalry, whether alone or with a group of my good friends.

It was that very reminiscing that roused me to revive my long-dormant series of articles which I’ve taken to titling “Forgotten Journeys.” As is the case with every article which falls under this banner; the monologue I intend to deliver today in no way constitutes a full review of Chivalry, and should not be interpreted as such. With all the disclaimers and whatnot out of the way, let the chivalrous conversation commence.

I think the most burning issue I feel compelled to address in some fashion within today’s discourse is the fact that Chivalry has, as far as I’m aware, two main competitors which aim to dethrone what I consider to be the original medieval combat experience present on Steam. Namely, these competitors take the forms of Ubisoft’s 2017 title For Honor and, more recently, Triternion’s 2019 release known as Mordhau.

Admittedly, there very well could be more games on Steam that have attempted, or perhaps are currently attempting to give Chivalry a run for its money; if that’s the case, however, I’ve yet to learn of the existence of any such releases. Therefore, I’ll focus on this specific trio of titles throughout this article. Since this piece is a sort of measure of my adoration for Chivalry, though, I don’t want to turn this discussion into a simple compare-and-contrast sort of affair. I’ll do my best to avoid comparing the three games against each other too much with that in mind.

The backdrop for the events of Chivalry’s gameplay in lieu of any sort of plot, is remarkably simple. It is just the way I like it when it comes to games like this. You take up the role of an interchangeable member of either the Mason Order or the Agatha Knights, which are quite similar in various ways to the RED and BLU teams present in Team Fortress 2.

You may pick one of four customizable classes of combatant; Archer, Vanguard, Man-at-Arms, or Knight, as you subsequently charge into battle against the opposition in order to accomplish a myriad of objectives. These objectives depend on your faction and the current game mode. For example, there exists a game mode wherein the Mason Order must prevent the Agatha Knights from lighting a fire to signal ships which contain reinforcements. They must prevent the signal from being lit for a given length of time in order to claim victory.

Based on your chosen class, you’ll have a certain loadout and quality of weapons and armor. The offensive and defensive capabilities of your equipment, which are inextricably linked with its weight, directly affect such things as your movement speed and what sorts of skills your character possesses. For example, archers can move the fastest and eliminate enemies from afar, but their ability to do that means, by definition, that they have the lightest armor and can’t sustain much damage as a result.

Vanguards, on the other hand, tend to prefer what I call “medium-range” weaponry, such as longswords and polearms. Knights and men-at-arms have various types of shields at their disposal and if I recall correctly, knights can even equip and use the strongest and largest type of shield with a medium-range broadsword; a feat of which no other class is capable. I know I’ve certainly had more than my fair share of fun taking that loadout into battle.

I’d like to switch gears at this point and address the question of why I still enjoy Chivalry as much as I do despite the fact that there exists newer, perhaps more prominent competitors attempting to win me over. I’ll admit, considering how little I’ve played of both For Honor and Mordhau, I have had leagues of fun with both titles compared to the amount of time I’ve spent in the realm of Chivalry: Medieval Warfare.

As far as I know, Mordhau might offer players the ability to maintain their own custom servers with customizable in-game variables. I haven’t played For Honor in ages, so I’m not sure if it does the same. I can say with certainty, though, that some of the most fun I’ve had with Chivalry took place on these custom servers because of the aforementioned altered gameplay variables.

More specifically, I’ve always been drawn to what are called “low-grav” servers within Chivalry. As the name might imply, these are servers with very low in-game gravity. This means among other things, as you might expect, the simple act of jumping launches your chosen combatant skyward and virtually eliminates the concept of fall damage.

Why do I like these servers so much, exactly? I’m honestly not sure. I have a sneaking suspicion, however, that it might have to do with the sound of a grown man helplessly screaming bloody murder while slowly falling a distance that can’t be more than one meter, then immediately acting as though nothing happened upon landing.

That reminds me of the fact that I also love to spam the “help!” voice command, especially to annoy my teammates or alert an otherwise-unaware enemy that I’m about to charge into them. All of that isn’t even mentioning the glorious (or, more often, frustrating) concept that unless the server owner sets the server rules differently, friendly fire is always enabled. With that in mind, here you thought the simple act of repeatedly screaming for help was irritating…

On a final note, I’d like to transcribe and summarize some thoughts that have been on my mind since I started writing this article. Are there newer, shinier medieval combat simulators that wish nothing more than to see Chivalry fade into forgotten obscurity? Yes. Do I enjoy the two other simulators I’ve mentioned by name within this piece? Yes, greatly so. Do I think, however, that Mordhau and/or For Honor constitute a better Chivalry than Chivalry? I answer that with a resounding “nay!” Or perhaps “ni” would be more appropriate in this context…