If you're interested in Mordhau there's little for me to tell you about it: You know this type of game, a first person (or not, if you prefer 3rd person) swordplay-focused war game. Contrary to Chivalry's more involved controller scheme, Mordhau's scheme is enjoyably simple and very difficult to master, as your camera defines the direction of your swings, and you can mix up with feints, thrusts, kicks or throws. If you really want to master it though, there's detailed information on every weapon about their turn caps, their damage by body part, how much it is reduced by armor categories and even how many miliseconds it takes to complete animations, then you can apply this knowledge in battle as you chamber, parry, feint straight into throws or thrusts whether you're swinging with wild abandon on the large scale matches or having a competitive and highly technical ranked duel.

A similar philosophy applies to creating your mercenary. Instead of locking your gear and perks behind classes and roles, you have a budget with the which you can put on whatever the hell you want and the most you're limited as far as I'm concerned is carrying just one fire bomb, just so not everyone has to use the fireproof perk. Make it all javelins for all I care, 3 longswords so you can throw 3 pommels at other people, bring both a bow and a greatsword at the risk of running around naked or meme around with a carving knife and a lute. Idk, the battlefield's your oyster. Alongside with some decent customisation to express your feudal drip, just make sure to turn off team colors on the settings and enable teammate markers for the best look.

The maps that you fight in are also part of the fun, as there's open fields and enclosed castle corridors for you to stomp through with your team, alongside traps, chasms, static ballistas, ladders and rocks to use against your enemies and they're mostly quite fun alongside their specific objectives. And the people that accompany you are a big part of why playing this is so much fun, as the vibe is set by the plentiful shouts and voice lines you can choose to call in battle among the clashing of steel, and all sorts of (mostly) amicable critters are on both sides: crusader-obsessed weirdos that only run kite shields with white and red, medieval character cosplayers, bards playing lute covers, chronically online goobers that throw jokes in chat or have the silliest looking merc on the field... And the brief moments of kinship you have with them on the field, whether it means branching off to have a duel, sharing a conversation purely on default voice lines or toying around, are as much part of the delight as the gameplay is. I'm not fully in touch with the community to know if there's a cyst of toxicity I haven't seen, but at least during the match it is all laughs and games.

Even if the PvP isn't for you, there's horde mode for you to survive against waves of angry peasants and knights, managing your money and increasing your skills. I think it doesn't have as much room for wonder as the player battles, I don't think I've seen a pack of bards beating up the biggest fish in there, but it's another option to have fun.

Either way, Mordhau is what for a long time I've thought is a quintessential multiplayer experience that's detached from the corporate, cynical, stat driven approach to matchmaking where you can genuinely pick how you want to have fun at any moment, and most people won't care at the end of the match because defeat hardly feels like one at all when you're having this much fun.

[h2]Chivalry 2 could never hope to be what Mordhau accomplishes[/h2] If you're interested in Mordhau there's little for me to tell you about it: You know this type of game, a first person (or not, if you prefer 3rd person) swordplay-focused war game. Contrary to Chivalry's more involved controller scheme, Mordhau's scheme is enjoyably simple and very difficult to master, as your camera defines the direction of your swings, and you can mix up with feints, thrusts, kicks or throws. If you really want to master it though, there's detailed information on every weapon about their turn caps, their damage by body part, how much it is reduced by armor categories and even how many miliseconds it takes to complete animations, then you can apply this knowledge in battle as you chamber, parry, feint straight into throws or thrusts whether you're swinging with wild abandon on the large scale matches or having a competitive and highly technical ranked duel. A similar philosophy applies to creating your mercenary. Instead of locking your gear and perks behind classes and roles, you have a budget with the which you can put on whatever the hell you want and the most you're limited as far as I'm concerned is carrying just one fire bomb, just so not everyone has to use the fireproof perk. Make it all javelins for all I care, 3 longswords so you can throw 3 pommels at other people, bring both a bow and a greatsword at the risk of running around naked or meme around with a carving knife and a lute. Idk, the battlefield's your oyster. Alongside with some decent customisation to express your feudal drip, just make sure to turn off team colors on the settings and enable teammate markers for the best look. The maps that you fight in are also part of the fun, as there's open fields and enclosed castle corridors for you to stomp through with your team, alongside traps, chasms, static ballistas, ladders and rocks to use against your enemies and they're mostly quite fun alongside their specific objectives. And the people that accompany you are a big part of why playing this is so much fun, as the vibe is set by the plentiful shouts and voice lines you can choose to call in battle among the clashing of steel, and all sorts of (mostly) amicable critters are on both sides: crusader-obsessed weirdos that only run kite shields with white and red, medieval character cosplayers, bards playing lute covers, chronically online goobers that throw jokes in chat or have the silliest looking merc on the field... And the brief moments of kinship you have with them on the field, whether it means branching off to have a duel, sharing a conversation purely on default voice lines or toying around, are as much part of the delight as the gameplay is. I'm not fully in touch with the community to know if there's a cyst of toxicity I haven't seen, but at least during the match it is all laughs and games. Even if the PvP isn't for you, there's horde mode for you to survive against waves of angry peasants and knights, managing your money and increasing your skills. I think it doesn't have as much room for wonder as the player battles, I don't think I've seen a pack of bards beating up the biggest fish in there, but it's another option to have fun. Either way, Mordhau is what for a long time I've thought is a quintessential multiplayer experience that's detached from the corporate, cynical, stat driven approach to matchmaking where you can genuinely pick how you want to have fun at any moment, and most people won't care at the end of the match because defeat hardly feels like one at all when you're having this much fun.