Chivalry: Deadliest Warrior Launches into Closed Beta

Originally a Half Life 2 mod, Age of Chivalry has expanded into a popular hack and slash. Then in 2012 Torn Banner Studios released Chivalry: Medieval Warfare based on the original mod. Strictly a multiplayer experience, the game features two fractions – the Agathian Knights and the Mason Order. Players choose between four classes and a variety of weapons, defending objectives, or battling in team deathmatch.  Players can also use catapults, ballista, or boiling oil to their advantage, either attacking the enemy or their fortifications. The game has sold over 1.2 million copies since its release in October 2012.

Back in August, Torn Banner Studios announced its first paid DLC, Chivalry: Deadliest Warrior.  Partnering with Spike, Chivalry: Deadliest Warrior is a completely new experience. Featuring new characters, weapons, maps, battle techniques, game modes, and a new UI.  There are six new playable characters including vikings, samurais, and ninjas.  Each one has different weapons available to them. Familiar players of Chivalry: Medieval Warfare will notice the new UI. Torn Banner Studios hired a designer specifically to beautify the interface. Torn Banner would not confirm whether this UI change will come to Chivalry: Medieval Warfare. However the tertiary weapon option is not included in the expansion.

Chivalry: Deadliest Warrior features a new class system. Instead of choosing an Archer or Knight like with Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, players now choose a character and then can decide which particular weapons to equip giving more customization to the player. Each of the six characters features its own perks. For example, the pirate has gunpower weapons while the ninja features smoke bombs. You can watch an interview with Lucas Annunziata, a developer of Chivalry from Polaris.

[embedplusvideo height=”360″ width=”480″ editlink=”http://bit.ly/1czDAv8″ standard=”http://www.youtube.com/v/mAZmBZmyHlc?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=mAZmBZmyHlc&width=480&height=360&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=¬es=” id=”ep4748″ /]

Today, Chivalry: Deadliest Warrior is available for pre-order on Steam. Pre-ordering the game gives access to the closed beta. To celebrate the announcement, Chivalry: Medieval Warfare is having a free-to-play weekend. If you haven’t played the game before this weekend, now is a great opportunity to try the game.  Chivalry: Medieval Warfare is required to play Chivalry: Deadliest Warrior, and it is the perfect weekend to pick it up on sale for $6.24. Chivalry: Deadliest Warrior officially releases November 14th, 2013 on PC.

At PAX Prime I had the opportunity to play Chivalry: Deadliest Warrior as a Samurai or Spartan in a 3 vs 3 team deathmatch battle.  Both classes operated differently.  The Samurai with its heavy armor was much better at taking enemies individually. In contrast, the Spartan seemed to work better fighting with teammates as the javelin was very powerful. The developers I spoke with seemed very excited about the game and if Chivalry: Deadliest Warrior does well, I expect to see more DLC in the future. You can view the newest trailer from Torn Banner Studios below.

Will you be picking up Chivalry: Deadliest Warrior? Let us know in the comments or on the forums.

[embedplusvideo height=”360″ width=”480″ editlink=”http://bit.ly/1czIybm” standard=”http://www.youtube.com/v/GH2nff-dfto?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=GH2nff-dfto&width=480&height=360&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=¬es=” id=”ep9717″ /]