Hey, how are you all doing gamers? Hope everyone is doing great! So I've been putting a lot more hours into Chivalry 2, and I have to say, my opinion on this game has become much more solid and well-formed compared to my first impressions. When you start playing a new online game, especially one with this kind of depth, the first couple hours are really just you stumbling around trying to figure out what's even happening. But now that I've logged considerably more time, I can really speak to what this game does and does well. This time around I was mainly exploring the big 64-player Team Objective mode, so that's what we're going to talk about today. And let me just say right out the gate — the battles in this game are genuinely something else.
A Full-Scale Battle Between 64 Players
Alright, so let's talk about what it actually feels like to be dropped into one of these 64-player matches, because nothing I said in my first impressions article could have fully prepared me for it. You spawn in, you hear the roar of battle already happening around you, steel clashing, arrows whistling, players screaming their war cries — and then you realize there are 63 other people on this same map doing exactly what you're about to do. It is pure, absolute, beautiful chaos.
And the thing is, it doesn't feel like mindless chaos either. The developers over at Torn Banner Studios described it once as "structured chaos," and honestly that's the most accurate way to put it. Yes, there are bodies and fire and swords everywhere, but underneath all of that madness there's a real battle happening with two factions pushing and pulling against each other. You've got the Agathians and the Tenosian Empire going at it across these sprawling maps, and every player on the field is contributing to the outcome whether they realize it or not. It genuinely feels like being in the middle of one of those massive medieval movie battle scenes, except you're actually controlling the guy and not just watching it from a cinema seat.
The scale of these maps is also really impressive. We're talking castle sieges, villages getting torched, ships getting blown up, fortresses being stormed. Each map tells a completely different story and takes you through multiple phases of the battle. It's not just one big arena you run around in — the fight progresses, the objectives shift, and you have to keep adapting. I had no idea this was the level of production and scale these maps operated on. I went in expecting something simpler and came out genuinely impressed.
The Objectives During Battle
So this is where the Team Objective mode really separates itself from your standard team deathmatch mentality, and also where I really started to understand what Chivalry 2 is doing differently. It's not enough to just kill people — there are actual things that need to happen for your team to win or lose, and if you ignore them you're basically useless no matter how many kills you rack up.
The objectives change depending on the map and the phase of the battle you're in. Sometimes the attackers need to capture a position by outnumbering the defenders and holding it long enough to fill a capture bar. Other times you've got to grab a torch from a pyre and go burn specific objects on the map while the other team tries to stop you. There are escort objectives where a character needs to be moved to a safe zone, destroy objectives where you're blowing something up with explosives, and elimination objectives where you need to wipe out the enemy before time runs out. Each phase of the map flows into the next, and if attackers can't complete an objective before the clock expires, the defenders win right there.
What I find really cool about this is that it forces you to make constant decisions. Do I chase down that guy who just hit me and get some payback? Or do I sprint toward the objective because my team is getting overwhelmed there? Do I hold this position and try to fight off three people by myself? Do I back up and wait for reinforcements? All of this is happening in real time with 63 other people making similar decisions around you. It's genuinely a lot to process when you're still learning the game, and there were definitely moments where I realized the match was lost because nobody on my team was focused on what actually needed to happen. Staying focused on objectives while everything around you is exploding and people are screaming — that's the real challenge.
Actually Learning to Fight in Chivalry 2 Is a Whole Other Challenge
Okay so beyond the scale of the battles and the objectives, let me talk about what is probably the steepest learning curve this game has thrown at me: the combat itself. And yes, I talked about this a little in my first impressions piece, but the more I play, the more I realize how deep this rabbit hole actually goes.
At first glance it seems like you just swing your weapon at people, but that is about as far from the reality as you can get. The combat system in Chivalry 2 has layers. There's blocking, which isn't just holding a button — you have to actually aim your block to match the direction of the incoming swing, like genuinely lining it up with your opponent's weapon. Then there's the riposte, which is when you successfully block an attack and immediately fire back with your own, and that counter-attack is faster than a normal swing and can catch people off guard if they're not ready for it. Then there's the counter, which is a well-timed parry that negates the attack without costing you stamina — landing those consistently is a completely different skill on its own.
And then there's feinting, which is probably the sneakiest thing in this game. You start one kind of attack — say an overhead — and mid-motion you switch it to a stab, and your opponent who was already adjusting their block for the overhead now has to scramble to adjust for something completely different. When it works, it feels brilliant. When someone does it to you, it feels like you've been tricked by someone who's been doing this for years. And on top of all of that, there's the dragging mechanic, where you accelerate or extend the arc of your swing by turning your body into the attack, changing the timing of when the blade actually connects and making it harder for opponents to read. There's so much going on in every single duel that it honestly took me a while to even identify what was killing me and why. The combat is deep, it's demanding, and mastering it is going to take real time and patience.
Slowly Leveling Up the Classes
One thing I'm starting to appreciate more and more is the progression system tied to the classes. Each of the four classes — Knight, Footman, Vanguard, and Archer — has its own separate experience level, and leveling them up is how you unlock new subclasses and new weapons for that specific class. So the more you play a Knight, the more Knight stuff you unlock. Same for every other class. It makes sense from a design perspective because it rewards you for sticking with a class and learning it properly instead of just hopping between them every match.
Right now I'm mainly playing the Knight because as a beginner, that extra health cushion is genuinely valuable while I'm still figuring out the defensive mechanics. Taking damage while learning how to block and time ripostes correctly is just part of the process, and having 175 health as a Knight versus something much squishier like the Vanguard gives you more room to make mistakes and survive them. I've been leveling the Knight up steadily and starting to see new options open up, which keeps things feeling fresh. Eventually I want to seriously invest in the Vanguard and figure out how to use all that speed and stamina properly, because watching good Vanguard players fly around the battlefield is genuinely something special. But for now, the Knight stays on.
I Want to Keep Playing and Explore the Other Game Modes
At this point I've put in enough hours to say with confidence that Chivalry 2 is a genuinely good time, and a game I want to keep exploring. The 64-player Team Objective mode alone has given me more than enough content to keep me busy, but I know there's a whole lot more waiting. There's Team Deathmatch, Free-for-All, Brawl mode — which is this ridiculous format where everyone fights with unconventional weapons like fish and chicken legs and rolling pins, and I absolutely cannot wait to experience that chaos. There's also Mounted combat through the mounted warfare queue which I haven't touched yet either.
The game has a genuine skill ceiling that is going to take a long time to approach, and that's a good thing. Every match I come out of knowing something I didn't know going in — whether it's a combat mechanic I finally understood, a map objective I finally figured out how to push, or just a class ability I learned to use at the right moment. It keeps pulling you back. So hey gamers, hope you liked this update on my Chivalry 2 journey — if you've been playing this game or want to jump in, drop a comment and let me know. See you in the next one!