It is absolute chaos during multiplayer, and breaking even with a foe only spells either your or his doom when a third element joins the fray, depending on whether he is you or your foe’s ally or neither, if you’re in free-for-all mode. Forget that there is a damage bonus to attacks that strike the head, a penalty for those that strike the feet, that there are things like stamina to prevent hacking and slashing, slower and faster weapons, and that different attacks have different levels of damage and time to animate. It becomes about taking advantage of players already in combat. However, the fact that the game is multiplayer kind of ruins pretty much any measure of elegance the combat system might have. So, as you have probably noted, there is a lot to fighting someone in Chivalry. A too-enthusiastic offense could result in the inability to put up a good defense. This is also tied to the fact that you have a limited amount of stamina, so exchanging blows must be taken at a certain pace. A canceled attack means a wasted parry, which means you cannot parry again quite so soon. Blocking at the right time means more than waiting for them to attack, but to anticipate if they will cancel their attack or follow-through. What makes this timing even more important is the fact that the animations for attacking and defending take time to occur.

It is all based on timing, being able to learn how your opponent works and fake them out or give a kick at the right moment to throw them off and get an attack in.

The combat is, as stated earlier, superb. There is everything here for a player to be happy about the audio. The most important goal, having enough feedback, is achieved. The grunts and voice work are also fairly well-done, though the parts in the tutorial were kind of bad, even for trying to be funny. The audio design is very high quality, the clash and bash of the battlefield sounding excellent, giving the impression of distance or closeness very well. This is true success in the creation of a class-based multiplayer game. I would even argue it nearly has the effectiveness of Team Fortress 2’s silhouette-based class differentiation, though each class is almost identical in size and shape. There will be no confusion as to what type of enemy is on the battlefield, even at a fair distance. Armor and weapon designs are high-quality and reflect the classes very well. Developed using Unreal, it has unrealized potential, but the details are pleasing, and the maps have enough variety to please artistically. You might say it’s great when you find out that it’s an independent title and is only $25. Since it is multiplayer-only except for a tutorial and some bots, the combat doesn’t quite fit the scope in which it is implemented. However, despite its excellent design, it is myopic. The great timing-based fighting works incredibly well with but one caveat that I cannot bring myself to name a game that has better first-person melee combat.

Chivalry is a game about one-on-one combat that is of unprecedented quality for a primarily first-person game.

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