Game for your Buck: Chivalry: Medieval Warfare

Many people have been asking for one and now it finally exists. An FPS that centers around medieval combat. Swords and shields instead of guns and grenades in this self-proclaimed "First Person Slasher". Of course, melee-heavy first person games already exist, such as Skyrim or Call of Duty. However, this one takes a much more multiplayer and brutally realistic approach to this potentially new genre.

Summary:
The tutorial of this indie game begins by explaining three basic attacks your swordsman will have at his disposal. You are taught how to stab, slash, and "overhead". Each of these attacks are situationally useful and spamming is not rewarded with these mechanics. These mechanics will be elaborated upon further down.

Game Types and Community:
The Team Elimination, Team Objective, Dueling and, of course, Free for All, game types are available within Chivalry.

General:
Rushing into battle alongside brothers-in-arms spamming war-cries and taunts as the battle begins with swords in the wind (♪), is one of the most hilarious and, dare it be said, "epic" experiences to be had with Red vs Blue based First Person ~~Shooters~~ Slashers.

Team Elimination:
Your basic one-life Team v Team. First team to have no men left loses. I love this game mode, personally, as it demotes bum-rushing and encourages violent, skill, and team-based strategy. It's always fun to watch those last two duel it out, or even watch the last man on your team miraculously slaughter the three overconfident remaining enemy players. What's even better is when you are that player.

Free For All:
Chaotic, fast paced, cheap, kill still-fest, gank-heavy, bad mouthing-- everything there is to love, and more, in this spam-fest of a game mode. This mode is very fun and very easy to learn in. However, try not to take it too seriously. You won't like it if you do. It should be noted, like in most free for all situations, you will always die by that one guy.

A popular free-for-all map.

Dueling:
The mode of gentlemen. This puts a small twist on Free for All, as it is not a game type, necessarily, but the way the community of that server will choose to play Free for All. The player-enforced rules are simple, and they are "1v1 me, bro". To further elaborate, you do not strike an enemy player if he is "dueling" another. This is bannable behavior. You politely "duel" each other player-by-player in this fantastic opportunity to either practice or to exercise your e-peen.

Team Objectives:
Team Objective servers will have maps which can have a combination of the following elements in single round. You have the self explanatory modes such as King of the Hill, Payload and Capture point. Then, there's more unique modes such as "Kill the King" and "Pillage the Village" modes.

Kill the King:
Once the defending team fails to stop the ~~cart~~ battering ram from knocking down their castle walls, you are faced with the objective to Kill the King. Roughly similar to the Tank in Left 4 Dead, or Juggernaut in other games, the player with the highest score on the defending team will become "The King". The King has an insane amount of health and will become a bloodied pincushion of arrows before he finally falls. The objective for the defending team is to, simply enough, defend the King. The attacking team must simply kill the king. However, it is not so simple. He literally has a personal army that he earned by having the best score of his team.

Pillage the Village:
The attacking team's objective is to slaughter NPCs of interest. They're very weak and are usually wearing rags (Filthy peasants!). The challenge is squeezing through the defending team to kill these lowly targets. There are also parts of the game where you need to burn down farms or houses with torches you receive from a pyre. The defending team must, of course, defend this pyre. This mode is unique, straightforward, and fun, complete with a wonderfully chaotic medieval atmosphere.

Class System:
The classes are straightforward, and here is shamelessly screencaped explanation from the game's official website.

As you can see, each class has flaws and advantages that come into play situationally. The class balance is also very sound, as all flavors of weapon and character combination will be seen controling the scoreboard.

Overview:
For such an inexpensive game, hours of fun are to be had. Especially with friends. The maps are large and aesthetically fulfilling, the weapons each have unique ways of combat to experiment with. This indie game is difficult to master, as the controls are very fine.