Mordhau is essentially the successor to Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, an over the top multiplayer Medieval period hack and slash 'em up that centered around objective based combat but with a variety of gamemodes. I would personally say that Mordhau isn't a Chivalry 2.0, more a Chivalry 3.0.

All the base elements of Chivalry have been improved and expanded upon! It truly covers all the areas that I can remember that were lacking before with Chivalry.

Mordhau centers around a timing system with striking from various angles, with a wide assortment of weapons from the medieval (and Renaissance) period. Players can swing from multiple horizontal angles, two arcing vertical strikes, and can thrust with their weapons. Parrying a strike requires blocking at an opportune moment, before the opponent's weapon strikes you.

Add in kicks, which break your opponents guard. Feints, which are intentionally canceling of strikes to fool your opponent. Ripostes, which are sped up attacks immediately following a parry. "Chambers", which are attacks that you start right before your opponent hits you to block them AND strike back, and you have a very in depth and addictive combat system.

The skill ceiling with this system is enormous. Watching skilled players duel is a beautifully satisfying sight, and being the one to perform this level of play is even more satisfying. Weapons are extremely well tracked, allowing footwork, camera angling, and character model positioning to cause combat to play out very accurately. In my own personal case, combat very rarely feels unfair, even when being ganged up on by other players.

Gameplay is not limited to these core mechanics, however. There are additional roles you can play, depending on your gamemode. Perhaps you'd like to try your hand at manning a ballista as your opposing team attempts to capture your ground, skewering enemy troops at a distance. Engineers can construct defenses to delay the opposition, repair key resources, and support allies. I'll get into this in more depth in my next section.

One thing to note, however. Some equipment is poorly / questionably balanced. Sometimes, you can see what the developers were going for, but the execution is left lacking. I expect this to be addressed, however.


Mordhau has a selection of game modes, with a decent number of maps which i expect to increase over time. Each of them are enjoyable, and individuals are able to host their own servers too.

-Frontline: the main bread and butter of Mordhau. 24v24 and 32v32 struggles which revolve around capturing control points, with additional objectives sprinkled in like destroying your enemy's supplies, or halting your opposition from placing bombs at key points. Frontline is truly chaotic, and offers what you'd expect to see in a battlefield. Catapults, ballistas, lines of archers, firebombs sprinkling the area, and horsemen breaking ranks and causing havoc are common sights.

-Battle Royale: yes, Mordhau has a battle royale mode, but it's quick and quite enjoyable. You start off with no equipment, in a random location, and loot chests and enemy corpses to hopefully survive to be the last one standing. Leads to some tense moments.

-Horde: this game mode is all about massive numbers of AI controlled forces attempting to kill you and your comrades. More akin to COD zombies than Halo Firefight, for what it's worth. You start with limited money, gaining more as you kill opponents, and buying better equipment with that money to survive longer. Enemy troops range from barely clothed peasants flinging literal feces at you, to oversized giants swinging mauls.

- Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch: self explanatory, but this gamemode is actually found on community servers and not the official rotation as of this moment. Users primarily run deathmatch servers for the purposes of setting up dueling. Dueling matches are surprisingly wholesome, and it's enjoyable to watch users treat each other respectfully before bludgeoning one another to death.

NOTE: Chivalry eventually created their own dueling mode with a match making rating, I would be surprised if an update did not come to Mordhau for this too.


In this game, players earn experience and in-game currency, WITH NO MICROTRANSACTIONS. This currency can spent on a wide array of different equipment, but mostly these items are cosmetic in nature. There's a very large amount of items to choose from. Items and customization options will be gated by experience levels, giving you incentive to play. Starting out, you'll have a number of default mercenaries to play as. These mercenaries are quite distinct in their playstyle, allowing you to get a taste of the styles of play available. New players are not really hampered by their lack of currency because these default mercenaries are available to them.

Mordhau balances the chaos with a 16 point system for loadouts. You can have a large number of mercenaries (I don't currently know the limit), and outfit them in many fun ways. The following items are what actually cost points, a majority of other parts are strictly cosmetic.

-Helmets, Chest armor, and leg armor: While the equipment can look quite different in appearance, armor in these three areas are rated in a 0-3 point system for damage reduction. Every player starts with armor for every number unlocked, and your crude cuirass will reduce the same amount of damage as the most beautiful high level breastplate. The better your protection, the more it costs.

-Weapons: there is a beautiful selection of weapons available, with stats presented in shorthand as power, reach, and speed, but with more advanced breakdowns such as windup time, etc, also available. Generally, the better the weapon, the more points it costs.

-Perks: every player starts the game with ALL the perks unlocked. Example perks are Fireproof, which provides an 80% reduction to fire damage for 1 point, and Bloodlust, which fills your HP back up to 100% after scoring a melee kill, for 5 points. This helps create more distinct builds.

Customization options abound for all your clothing, your weapons and their styles, your character's build, hair color, face, voices, and more.


I personally find Mordhau to be a very pleasant thing to look at. The game uses a highly saturated color pallet, with colors standing out easily and "popping" against backgrounds of nature. I have had very few performance issues and my frame rate generally remains very stable throughout. Equipment is meticulously detailed, and much of it is extremely historically accurate. Combat itself remains accurate in much of the fighting techniques, but obviously strays with the tongue in cheek attitude Mordhau has about it all. (Warriors with frying pans are dangerous, my friends.)

Honestly, I'm surprised it remains as stable as it does, given the upward limit of chaos in Frontline.

NOTE: While the servers had difficulty at launch, that situation has been rectified, and I personally have had very stable connections.


Mordhau is an excellent game for people who enjoy the genre, and some of the moments I've had have been quite amazing, and well worth the very reasonable price of admission (This game is not at a 50 dollar price point!). I've yet to be able to convince my friends to jump aboard the Mordhau train with me, but I suspect this game would be an incredible experience in a group as well. I highly recommend this game, and I intend to keep playing a while. I'll possibly revisit this review later, if I decide to add more.