I backed Mordhau on kickstarter for a lot of money. I did this because I was inspired with hope by the Triternion's video in which they explained that they were huge fans of Chivalry, like myself, but that they wanted to create a game like Chivalry however more skill-based and with less cheese, such as manoeuvres like Rainbows. This is exactly what I had been wanting since I reached level 15 in Chivalry, anyone who played the game should know what I mean. After having backed I waited and was given access to the first Alpha, and all proceeding builds. I didn't play much because I had other things to do, but also because I wanted to play with my friends who didn't have the money to spare to back them, like I did. However I still racked up 40-50 hours in the Alphas, and enjoyed every minute of it.

The combat is vast and heavily rooted in skill. Make no mistake, your first few hours you will die, a lot, especially in duel yards, but the knowledge you gain from these deaths will eventually result in you being able to cleave your way through the battlefield. You can slash from any direction thanks to the fantastic 360-degree-directional system, you can through overheads, and of course thrusts. To ensure you can get past opponent's defences you can also feint your attacks to cancel it, allowing you to through off your opponent's timing, and of course you can kick. To defend yourself you can parry a blow through timing, and aim. This is all par-for-the-course with any chivalry fan, however it shines in it's more in-depth systems. In addition to parrying, you can also chamber attacks. This occurs when you match an opponents attacks at the same time that you would parry, allowing you to cancel their attack continue your blow through to strike them. This can however be chambered in return, which can lead to some pretty crazy and cinematic battles. Another cool thing is the ability to strike an opponents weapon mid swing, this will cancel both of your attacks, resetting the battle into a neutral state. You can also perform a Morph. This is when you begin the wind-up of an attack and then change input (slash to stab, stab to slash) this will then morph the attack into the new input allowing you to throw of your opponent's aim or timing. Finally, each weapon has a different mode you can activate, from switching your longsword into a Mordhau grip, half-swording your greatsword, flipping around the head of your poleaxe, or even to throw your weapon. Mastering all of these techniques as well as learning the differences between different weapons and their different modes will all affect your performance in the game a great deal.

The game, now released, features a solid progression system where you gain experience to level up which unlocks new armour and weapons that you can purchase with the gold you also generate as you play. There are no microtransactions, and even if there were, it would not be pay to win due to the 1000s of hours worth of alpha testing to ensure balance. The progression is a little slow in my opinion, but it is certainly not a grind, especially considering that there is a solid amount of pre-made builds that you could play for at least 100 hours before you got bored.

The game, at launch, has several modes. First of all, Frontline. This is a massive 64 man battle featuring a tug-of-war like objective system. To help ensure that this mode does not stagnate there is a ticket-system that each time is affected by allowing them to respawn only a certain amount of times. This mode can become chaotic and often has a bit of team damaging and killing, accept it, ♥♥♥♥ happens. Battle Royale has you doing what you expect, every man for himself, scavenging for armour and weapons, and battling to the last man standing. Horde has you battling waves of AI combatants that are actually quite a threat, don't underestimate them. It's also got your standard Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch, and Skirmish (Last Team Standing). Beware, most Deathmatch servers are actually duel yards. Being that we don't have a duel mode yet, we've been making do like this. Check the name of the Deathmatch server before you go in. Here you're likely to find the most skilled of opponents so be sure you're prepared. To engage in a duel you will need to approach someone and then emote, usually a flourish, this will indicate that you are ready, if they return an emote then the duel is on.

There is also a significant amount of maps, all unique and interesting, they've done a great job here. Not really much else to say.

Before I tell you to buy this game, which you definitely should, I just want to address the people that have been complaining about balance. This game was alpha tested for literally 1000s of hours worth of play. Almost every feature in the game was play-tested by the community. Every weapon and type of armour, all the perks, everything. It's all balanced at the behest of the community. You will suck at the start, but fight through the rage, learn from your mistakes and you can become a real threat to any player. Don't listen to the salt-fuelled rage of some people, try it out for yourselves. This game is the definitive game of this genre, anything that comes after it will be following in Mordhau's footsteps.

10/10 any day.