MORDHAU

Introduction

MORDHAU is Triternion's medieval first-person melee combat game, released on 29 April 2019 at NZ$43.59 and still receiving content patches more than five years later — Patch #30, adding a Demon Horde game mode, shipped in November 2024. It sits at 81% positive ("Very Positive") across 72,181 English-language Steam reviews. This review read the 100 most-helpful negative reviews of 13,881 total, plus a sample of the 100 most recent English reviews.

Nobody disputes the combat

Reviewers marking MORDHAU down rarely argue the core combat is bad — the opposite, in fact. "The game is amazing in and of itself. The combat is glorious and the most fulfilling from any game I've ever played. It's rock paper scissors mixed with two for flinching," reads one review with over 2,100 hours logged, going on to praise the system's depth before pivoting to an unrelated complaint. Another, with 660 hours: "I want to start off this review by saying I absolutely loved this game and have so many good memories." This isn't a small pattern — this review found reviewers across the full sample opening with genuine praise for the fighting system before explaining what actually drove them to a negative review.

A widening, worsening skill gap

That complaint, found in 29 of the 100 negative reviews read, concerns the population rather than the combat itself: a shrinking, veteran-heavy player base makes the game increasingly hard for newcomers to break into. "It was fun, but now the only people playing it are super veterans that so vastly outskill you, that you have no time to learn," reads one 2024 review, with 48 hours logged. Another, more resigned: "The sparring servers are decent. It just feels super dead, wish it wasn't the case." This review checked whether the complaint was concentrated at any particular point and found the opposite — its share of the negative sample has climbed steadily, reaching its highest point in 2025 at 25 of the 100 negative reviews read, suggesting a genuine, worsening problem rather than a settled or resolved one. One reviewer with 546 hours summed up the tension directly: "It's the best in the genre, and one of my favorite games, so it's painful not to recommend this."

A serious allegation this review can't independently confirm

This review also found a specific and serious claim in a small number of reviews: that the game has a significant cheating problem, and that critical reviews describing it have been removed from the store page. "Hundreds of reviews detailing this situation have been deleted from this store page. One of the worst cases of scamming on steam I've ever seen," reads one 2026 review. This review checked how widely that specific claim recurred and found it only thinly corroborated — 8 of the 100 negative reviews mention cheating in some form, and only this single review mentions deletion. Reported here as an attributed allegation this review could not independently verify, not as established fact.

Verdict

MORDHAU remains, by wide agreement even among reviewers marking it down, a genuinely excellent melee combat system that Triternion continues to support years after launch. What holds the score back is a real and, by this review's own sample, worsening problem: a population increasingly concentrated among skilled veterans creates a steep barrier for anyone starting fresh. Worth it for players prepared to push through a real learning curve — newcomers should try the offline modes first, and go in aware that the live population's skill level is a genuine, documented hurdle rather than an exaggeration.