MORDHAU is out!

[trek]

Heads up Medieval Fighting fans! Mordhau is out on Steam at a 10% off price of $26.99. Primarily PvP online mod but does have an offline mode against Bots according to the forum. Haven't bought it yet as I'm first buying U-Boat as soon as I leave this site. Just now  unlocked for sale at 10:00 Am EST.

[jomni]

This is a follow up to Chivalry right?

[Staggerwing]

Rumor has it that the game's servers are buckling under the load of new gamers.

[Destraex]

I got it...
Friends have been asking me how Mordhau was so I thought I would do a little write up of my impressions so far and you guys may as well see it as well.

First of all it is not war of the roses so expectations must be lowered. But at the same time it has a few features which I like better than war of the roses. The blocking system is not necessarily more complex than war of the roses. Because as we all know, war of the roses was literally physics based. So blocking in the wrong way could break weapons and not blocking correctly and matching the actual physicality (dumb word I used on purpose, I am slowly giving in to Verbalisation) of the opponents weapon spelt death. In Mordhau, blocking is directional, but it is directional in a way closer to chivalry or kingdom come deliverance. You block by moving the mouse in the direction you want to block and press a button, but that button must be pressed at exactly the right time or you are too early or late for the block animation to work. So in short, blocking is a timing thing rather than a physical thing. It means you cannot as far as I am aware avoid or go over or under an enemies block like you could in Roses.
However in Mordhau you have chambering, feinting, riposte and morphing which are also timing things. But add a dimension that although not physical do add a dimension to the game that feels satisfying when you do it.
* Armour is simpler than war of the roses they say because of ping issues. Their are three hitboxes, head, torso and legs. Each can have light, medium or heavy attributes attached. Which amount to hitpoints basically, again unlike roses which were actual physical models with angles and armour types playing a part in whether you damaged the enemy at all. Of course roses had hitboxes for everything you could see. You could aim for cloth under armpits. You cannot do that here.
* Unlike chivalry Mordhau does have cavalry, but again compared to WOTR it's poor. Their are no walk, trot, gallop, charge etc commands for the horse, although I have not looked. So you have one fast speed making the horse hard to control. But don't quote me on this, their may indeed be keys.
You can only hold your lance down for a short period, I guess once again they want you to time the attack rather than constantly hold the lance couched.
* Graphically the game looks horrible compared to roses but looks much better than chivalry. The armour is painted on rather than separate models like they were in WOTR, which means characters have a 2D cartoonish look about them.
* Team colours can be turned off but it's blue vs red. Again this looks very gamey. Apparently their are some heraldic symbols but in general unlike WOTR no comprehensive heraldic symbol system.
* One good thing is that in the main conquest, capture the flag game type you do not need to grind. You can create your own character with gold earned and XP earned. However their are 10 or so preset characters for each side with medium, heavy and light stuff. So unlike roses, You do not start with a light with a sword and buckler (iirc). The skill and time ceiling is therefore good for new players.
* The tutorial in mordhau is good.
* The game modes are generally good as well. Offering a variety of things to do. Including defending castles and lords as well as moving and firing siege engines. Their are game modes where you fight waves of bots starting the game with your fists and earning coin to buy weapons that lay about. I am more just a fan of fighting real people in the main game mode though.
* The join with friends bit is very hard atm. You press join game from steam and generally the game is full.
* Stamina! STamina! Stamina and Health BARS. After 4 or 5 slashes you are tired and the next hit will knock your weapon out of your hand. This makes fighting multiple enemies hard, you need skill to do this but at the same time. A knight would not be tired after 5 blows or blocks. You have to pretend your knight is particularly unfit. This does encourage some interesting game play however and means you need mates protecting your flanks. I guess it can be exploited as well. But that's war.
* If your health bar is low, just stay out of combat and it will go back up again. In WOTR you had three bandages and if wounded you could out of combat, bend over and wait for the healing animation, which would often be interrupted by and enemy as you had to be still. In Mordau you can walk but not run and you will heal. In my experience Gritsoap and his archers look for people backing away who they expect will be low on health.
* Their is one strength of blow and defensive strength. In WOTR you could wind up blows. I may be corrected on this.... Although weapon types do change this I expect. Actually weapons would do more damage but as the game is not physics based for combat, the weapon is just more hitpoint damage.
* Swords slash through armour. As far as I can tell any weapon will have a chance against heavy armour. You can kill a knight with plate by spooning him to death.
* You can turn your weapon around to hit with the hilt, But unlike roses where you could spin the head around to use blunt damage, I don't know if this does anything. In the training I knocked a guys helmet off this way.

Still a lot to learn. My initial impression is that it's fun and it's the best we are going to have for a long while.

[Destraex]

I apologise for the screenshots. I am trying imgur to host screenshots. Been a while.

I forgot to add by the way that I like the game is first person. In WOTR I had to zoom right in with a closed helmet for that effect. But that highlights another failing of this game. Full faced helmets not only offer no advantage but they also do not restrict vision.

[trek]

Hey Des,
I mistakenly posted a reply to your post over in the U-Boat thread. Anyway thanks for the in-depth impression of Mordhau. In repeating my query to you per the other thread: I never was very proficient with the combat in KCD and I was better at combat in Chivalry than I was at WOTR. So, bearing these factors in mind how would you compare the combat skills and learning curve with the aforementioned games? I'm trying to decide if Mordhau is worth a purchase for me.

[Bardolph]

So far I'm liking it. More fun that Chiv, but not as deep/detailed as WoTR was. Since both of those are effectively dead... this'll do.
Good skill curve. First night got my head handed to me repeatedly. Second night managed to do a little better, especially once I figured out how to design your own fighter instead of using the presets.
Fun stuff.

[Destraex]

Hey Des,
I mistakenly posted a reply to your post over in the U-Boat thread. Anyway thanks for the in-depth impression of Mordhau. In repeating my query to you per the other thread: I never was very proficient with the combat in KCD and I was better at combat in Chivalry than I was at WOTR. So, bearing these factors in mind how would you compare the combat skills and learning curve with the aforementioned games? I'm trying to decide if Mordhau is worth a purchase for me.

I'd say mordhau is a game that requires more skill than chivalry but much less than war of the roses. In some ways it requires more skill for me than roses because it is a little less intuitive for me. I'd say go for it because at the very least you should be able to beat the bot wave modes. However the bots I did find pretty hard to begin with. I just finished up a match vs people in 3rd spot using the double handed warhammer for the first time. What a beast. I hated chivalry but I like this game. Still I cannot answer your question with definitive surety. You cannot really know without trying it unfortunately. This game is definitely faster than roses was as well because people run around like race cars. You can start s duel with nobody around only to have 3 enemies with you before you land the first blow. I have been killed more times from behind by a factor of about 80% because of this speed and the huge number of players in each session. So it's really.  Game about ganking. You have to be careful to stay with your team.

[Destraex]

Mordhau just reached 500,000 sales and 60,000 players online at any one time. No wonder the release was shakey. I guess they are doing a one thing right. It's one of the most played games but on steam at the moment.

[Dammit Carl!]

Well, if they've got the "Man At Arms Throwing A Firepot To Be A Dick," as a character option, then maybe, just maybe, they'll have my attention.  That, and screaming/taunting need to be in there too.

-as my overall chopping/swinging/etc. ability in Chivalry is quite lame, I just resort to tossing firepots, running around screaming, and fist-fighting whomever.  Zero skill but oddly fun to me.

p.s. And now after watching a few videos about the game, I see you can do these things (firepot tossing and fist fighting at least).  Nice. 

[Gusington]

 

[Dammit Carl!]

It ain't pretty, but sometimes it works.   :bd:

[Destraex]

It certainly ain't pretty. Sometimes it works. Great analogy.
You can throw fire pots and taunt. However k turns off all the grunting and that sort of thing I think? Also their is a perk called fireproof. I was horrible at chivalry but am better at this. But the pure speed with which people arrive to the fight means you get outnumbered after starting a fight really quickly.
I am trying to create some historical knights but do not have all the kit I need to do it. Some of it is in game money and the rest just plain does not exist. Heraldic symbols are a joke. Literally only 5% come close to medieval heraldry. Some ok patterns for shields etc. I miss the war of the roses patterns.

[trek]

Des,

Thanks for the additional info. I think I will hold off on Mordhau as it sounds like the combat may be a little too fast for me. Also, unlike the majority of my PC gaming I seem to do better in fighting games using a controller rather than KB and Mouse.

[Pete Dero]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/05/08/mordhau-review/

It's one of the best games in existence, full stop :dreamer:  :wow: