Chivalry 2

The pitch

Chivalry 2 is Torn Banner Studios' large-scale medieval melee combat game, pitting teams of up to 32 players against each other across siege battles complete with catapults, trebuchets and battering rams, built as a spiritual successor to the studio's original Chivalry: Medieval Warfare.

Combat reviewers describe as genuinely exceptional

The core combat draws remarkably consistent praise across this game's review history. "At its best and most immersive, Chivalry 2 is two teams of thirty-two players participating in deep and immersive combat with an incredibly high skill ceiling and filled to the brim with emergent strategy," reads one detailed review. Another, more direct: "Excellent gameplay, truly best in its class sword fighting." Reviewers commonly report hundreds of hours of playtime — one describes buying the game a second time on Steam after 600 hours on a different storefront, specifically to keep playing.

A documented cheating problem, mostly in duels

Set against that praise, several detailed reviews describe a genuine cheating issue, concentrated particularly in the game's duel servers. "There is a hacking epidemic especially in duel servers," reads one 154-vote review, while others separately report DDoS attacks disrupting official servers and causing repeated disconnections. This isn't a single isolated complaint — multiple independent reviewers describe overlapping versions of the same problem, which is why this review treats it as a documented pattern rather than an outlier account.

A specific, independently corroborated incident

One particular claim recurs across reviewers who otherwise disagree on whether to recommend the game. A negative review references it briefly ("RIP Soter Dave"), while a separate, unconnected positive review explains the full context: "This game is very fun, it did have its final update a few months ago tho torn banner perma banned a youtuber by the name of soter dave he was very dedicated to helping the devs fix problems mainly the cheater problem." This review reports the claim because it appears independently from two different reviewers rather than a single source, but it cannot independently verify it beyond what's documented in this game's own Steam review corpus — treat it as a widely-repeated community account rather than a confirmed fact.

"Maintenance mode" and unaddressed bugs

A separate, broader complaint concerns the pace of ongoing development. "They made a great game, grabbed the cash and put the game on maintenance mode since their code is a mess to push it further," reads an 816-vote review. Several reviewers specifically cite a friend-join feature that has reportedly not worked correctly for years: "Years after release, the [...] friend join system still doesn't [work]," reads a 282-vote review — a small but telling detail suggesting ongoing support has slowed even as the playerbase remains active.

Where sentiment sits now

Recent English review sentiment — the 100 most recent reviews, spanning early to mid-August 2026 — runs 82% positive, modestly above the 80.1% lifetime score. Despite the cheating and support complaints documented above, overall reception has held steady or even improved slightly, which suggests the core combat continues to carry the game for most buyers regardless of the issues around it. Achievement data shows healthy engagement: the median across 41 achievements is 16.3%, with the earliest combat milestones over 90%, consistent with a game most buyers actively play rather than abandon early.

Value

At NZ$49.99 with only cosmetic DLC and no in-app purchases affecting gameplay, this is a reasonably priced entry for a large-scale multiplayer combat game with reported hundred-hour-plus engagement from its dedicated players; one reviewer notes a price increase on cosmetic items alongside the game's final major content update, a minor but specific monetisation complaint.

Verdict

Chivalry 2 remains one of the strongest large-scale medieval combat games available, and its most dedicated players describe genuinely joyful, sustained engagement with its high-skill-ceiling fighting. The documented cheating problem in duel servers, a specific and independently corroborated community controversy around a banned cheat-reporting YouTuber, and signs of slowing developer support are real, worth-knowing complications rather than reasons to avoid the game outright. Buy it for the combat; go in with realistic expectations about ongoing support.