Looking at: Chivalry: Medieval Warfare

For King and Country

Large weapons like Battle Axes hit hard, but are slow and unwieldy.

There, in the center of the battle, we met. Two armor-clad titans, with sword and axe in hand. The battle around us raged, but there we stood, for but a moment, before our own storm erupted. Blow after blow was struck, some getting through, but most being parried. A tale for the ages, even if it only lasted a moment. All good things must come to an end, and after a while my opponent made a fatal mistake. I swung with all the might I could muster and off came his head like so many before. I was victorious, if only for a second.

First-Person melee combat has always been something of a gamble. games rarely decide to go that route, and the number of games that do it well, or even acceptable, can be counted on one hand. What a gamble it must've been then to pitch the idea of Chivalry, a multiplayer focused arena-style old-school first-person slash-em up completely and utterly focused on melee clashes. Did the gamble pay off, or is this just another lost fable?

Clash of Titans

The maps are huge with many varied paths to the objectives.

Chivalry started life as a Half-Life 2 mod similarly named "Age of Chivalry". The idea is similar to that of most arena games like Counter-Strike or Unreal Tournament in that 32-50 players are locked in a room and told to just wreck shit. Of course, in normal games it comes down to good shooting and use of cover. In Chivalry it comes down to proper foot-work and well timed swings.

It's an interesting idea in theory, but like I mentioned, first person melee is incredibly easy to fail at. Even the Elder Scrolls series has a number of problems with it and no game has ever really nailed the formula. At least, not until now. Chivalry is probably the best implementation of a first person melee system I've ever seen, and it all comes down to two things.

The first is the hitboxes. Hitboxes refer to the rendered area of a character in-game that needs to be hit by a weapon for the game to register it. Below is an example from Team Fortress 2:

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Note the highlighted boxes around the character models indicating where they can be hit. Hitboxes are notoriously hard to program, since character models are almost constantly moving and shifting, and this is often why first person melee combat doesn't work quite right. Except in Chivalry, where the hitboxes seem almost perfect. I can't even fathom how much time this must have taken to perfect, but in the several hours I've spent in Chivalry I've not once missed an action that I thought for sure would hit. 

The second reason Chivalry works so well is because it's designed from the ground up to be completely about the melee. There's nothing else at work, save for the small handful of ranged weapons (more on that in a bit). Each weapon handles a bit differently based on it's weight, lenght, and type, but more importantly then that are the controls. Rather then just the standard LMB attack, RMB defend, Chivalry makes complete use of the mouse. LMB is your standard swing, RMB is a short parry, up on the mouse wheel is a stabbing attack, and down on the mouse wheel is a heavy over-hand attack. If your mouse has side buttons then these two are taken into effect for alternative swings and stabs. All of this works to really immerse you into the melee combat, and successfully landing a blow in satisfying every time. 

Once More Into the Breach

Shields provide better cover from arrows, but make you slower.

There are four classes in Chivalry, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. First is the Archer, specializing in long range attacks with bows or crossbows. They're fast, but incredibly weak and the ranged combat is iffy at best. The Man-at-arms is fast and has access to shields, but his weapons are relatively weak and you'll need to rely on hit-an-run tactics against armored opponents. The Vanguard combines speed and armor, but is limited to two-handed weapons and needs to rely on a charge attack to be effective. The Knight is heavy and slow, but has access to a huge amount of weapons and tools to effectively deal death. 

Each of the classes plays just different enough to be interesting, and a proper balance of all of them is paramount to success on the battlefield. Of course, you won't be going it alone, since Chivalry is largely multiplayer based. The official servers are usually full, but there are more then enough private severs, some with higher player caps, that finding a game is easy to do. Obviously playing with real people is decidedly different then AI, so your experiences will likely vary from match to match. 

Chivalry probably could work as just a free-for-all hack and slash, but to keep it from growing stale each map has it's own objective or set of objective to complete, often with one team rushing to complete the objective while the other team attempts to hold them back. There are traditional objective maps too, like team deathmatch, last man standing, and a no-team free for all to score the most kills. All of this is well controlled and maps are fairly well balanced. 

No Honor in Battle

Chivalry is not a bug free game...

Chivalry is an incredibly niche game that could really only exist on PC. It's controls are clunky, yet innovative. It's design is old, yet well suited. It's graphics are your standard Unreal engine 3 fare, but it conveys what it needs to quite nicely. It's a simple game to learn, and yet can take hours to master. 

There's nothing really wrong with Chivalry, but then there's very little that makes it truly stand out. The melee combat is new and interesting, sure, but strip that away and it's just a reskin of every other multiplayer shooter. It's in Chivalry's best interest then that the melee combat is so well done and so precise. If you are looking for a multiplayer experience that's far and away from the same old shooting madness then Chivalry is definitely worth checking out. 

Image Sources:
http://www.yialife.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/chivalry-medieval-warfare-15987-1920x1080.jpg

Looking at: Insurgency

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A Counter Strike

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One of the more popular levels, that hearkens back to Counter Strike in the best way.

Right of the back I should say that I'm going to be making a lot of references to Counter Strike here. That should come as a huge surprise, seeing as how Insurgency started off much the same way Counter Strike did. Thay're both based off Half Life mods, they both focus on tactical shooting gameplay, and they're both really damn fun to play. 

Insurgency, as I mentioned, started life as a mod for Half Life that was sort of Counter Strike, by way of ARMA 2. The basic feel of CS is certainly there, it's short matches, quick deaths, and single life mean that players need to plan and work together as a team. Each team starts in their own base, and must make their way through the level, either killing the entire enemy team or accomplishing the map's objective. It's simple and familiar gameplay that a lot of gamers are pretty used to in their online shooters. 

A Different Kind of War

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Moments of explosive action punctuate periods of quiet planning.

Where Insurgency sets itself apart is it's approach. Rather then Terrorist VS Counter-Terrorist, we're thrown into the much murkier waters of the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts of the early 21st century. No team is necessarily the good guys here, with the Insurgents trying desperately to protect their homes, and the US security forces coming across as complete uncaring assholes, there to do a job and leave. This is a much darker game then Counter Strike, and while it wisely doesn't go to into detail about the various factions, you get a good sense that everyone is just trying to make it through the day. There are as many swears being put out by the game as there usually are by the players, and it's a decidedly grimmer approach than most shooters of this nature. 

The shooting itself is a very tactical affair. Like Counter Strike or ARMA, your character is incredibly vulnerable, and it's rather unlikely you'll survive more than one or two shots, regardless of where you get hit. Death comes swiftly here, and staying put for to long is a death sentence. You'll need a combination of twitch reaction time, and careful planing to win the match. Thankfully Insurgency has a few things that set it above other like-minded shooters. 

Smart Bombs

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Insurgency's weapon mod system allows you to make a mockery of classic German engineering.

First is it's controls. They're great. It's a simple layout, with everything being crowded around the WSAD keys for quick access, and everything is recognizable. What I really like is the inclusion of leaning and sliding. Leaning is a mechanic that way more shooters should use, and it's a great thing here. You'll learn to check corners, only exposing the slightest bit of yourself as you move, and the learn is wide enough to allow you to look out of corners easily, without much repositioning. As for sliding, it's something we've seen a lot in recent shooters, with appearances in Far Cry 2,3, and 4, as well as Bulletstorm, Crysis, or Dishonored. It allows you to quickly move into cover and dodge enemy fire, as well as just looking like a badass. 

The second thing Insurgency does well is it's weapons. All of the weapons are realistically modeled, and they have real weight to them. Gunfights are bombastic, crazy, and loud, and really feel authentic, especially with tracer rounds going off every once and a while. Creative Director Andrew Spearin has said the game is based off his time serving with the Canadian Military in Iraq, and I get the feeling these firefights are modeled with experience. There's a great variety to the weapons too, which changes based on faction, squad, and class. The weapons range from WWII leftovers, like the MP40 SMG, the M1A1 carbine, or the Mosin Nagat sniper rifle, all the way to modern weapons like the AK74, Beretta M9, or the M16 rifle. All of these feel and play different, and it's a good challenge trying to figure out what weapons work best. 

The third thing Insurgency does right is that it's smart. Everything about it is designed with an obvious eye for how a good shooter is played. Taking cover is intuitive, and easy. Weapon attachments have tangible uses, all of which is well explained. There's a variety of different gameplay types, each playing different from each other. The levels encourage both long range engagements, and moment-to-moment close quarters combat. The HUD is minimal, yet still provides the necessary information. Everything about Insurgency is just smart. 

The Long War

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Scopes are great, but smoke and dust will often obfuscate the levels. 

Insurgency is a classic arena shooter, the kind we rarely see these days. There's no meta-game grind going on, matches are self contained and all the content is available from the start. It's the kind of game you play at a LAN match, with a bunch of buddies in a basement somewhere just for kicks. 

In a world constantly dominated by crappy, mass produced shooters that focus on everyone being a super soldier, it's nice to comeback down to earth with a game like Insurgency. It's not quite Counter Strike, nor is it ARMA 3, and it's miles away from COD. Insurgency is a refreshingly different game, that's just familiar enough to work.