While MORDHAU takes itself more seriously than Chivalry 2, there is still plenty of room for humour and hijinks in this medieval slasher.
PvP Multiplayer.
MORDHAU has a small but thriving roleplay community that engages in all roleplay scenarios, from epic battles to personal duals and even festive celebrations.
While this will not appeal to everyone, I always enjoy it when players find ways to enjoy a game in ways not envisioned by the developers.
MORDHAU is one of the most comprehensive melee titles on the market and easily eclipses Chivalry 2 in this regard; however, unlike Chivalry 2, MORDHAU is engineered to appeal to a more serious category of gamer, in much the same way that War is Hell, Insurgency, and Squad appeal to a different demographic than Call of Duty and Battlefield, despite having a substantial demographic overlap.
While MORDHAU’s lack of support for skill-based matchmaking makes it less approachable for new players, those that stick around long-term will quickly find themselves learning the ropes and losing 1v1 encounters far less often.
MORDHAU is one of the few games that, for the first few years of its life, did not allow players to play as anything other than a white male despite offering a fairly comprehensive character creator that allowed for nearly unlimited customisation of everything except gender and skin tone until late 2021 which saw the first attempts at embracing when a non-white face option was made available for the first time.
Unfortunately, many were rightfully unhappy with its appearance and that non-white skin tones are only available as part of an “abnormal” face model, usually reserved for faces with hideous scarring or missing parts (such as eyes).
There is absolutely nothing abnormal about being a race other than white/European, and I am honestly lost for words on why the developers felt this was a good idea.
During a now infamous 2019 interview with PCGamer, when addressing the topic of racism/sexism, a character artist from Triternion agreed with the statement that they were considering a toggle that would allow players to see female (and non-white) characters as white males.
However, the developer would later clarify that this was a miscommunication by an artist who was inexperienced in public relations and gave incorrect answers to certain questions.
Female characters were finally added in October 2022 alongside Patch 26.
The MORDHAU has one of the most toxic communities I have ever encountered and one of the only communities where neo nazis, incels, racists and other seedy elements of society appear to make up the backbone of the community.
The high level of toxicity is something that the developers have addressed by stating they were a small team and were being stretched thin trying to keep the more toxic elements of the community in check.
I honestly believe that they are stretched thin. Still, delays in releasing the female character model and half-hearted attempts at introducing non-white skin tones have encouraged the more toxic elements of the community to a level that frankly makes Call of Duty look like a tea party in comparison.
That being said, there are still good people playing MORDHAU, as the game itself is not inherently racist; despite being rather racially monotone, I was amazed at just how many players will stop and wave at opponents and go as far as attacking their teammates, when squatting/friendly players are attacked.
In a recent game, I attempted to win over the enemy team by squatting and hopping at everyone I encountered. Out of the 20+ players I did this to, over 15 responded similarly, to the point of shielding me from the blows of their less cordial teammates.
While MORDHAU appears to be a cesspit on the surface, there are still enough nice people to be found to ensure all have a good time.
MORDHAU is a action video game developed and published by Triternion, it was released on 29 April 2019 and retails for $29.99.
MORDHAU is available on the following platforms: PC, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
MORDHAU remains in active development, with the developers splitting their time and resources between free updates to the base game and paid cosmetic DLC to help support the ongoing development of the game.
As of April 2024, around 150,000 people play MORDHAU on a fairly regular basis.
MORDHAU is fairly active, meaning that matchmaking is stable for much of the day in populated regions and viable in less populated regions, even though wait times are considerably longer.
MORDHAU supports:
MORDHAU offers the following matchmaking options:
The following peripherals are officially supported:
MORDHAU is rated PEGI 18+ and contains:
MORDHAU is a fantastic game mechanically and visually, but questionable developer choices and unchecked neo-nazi elements of the community make it difficult to enthusiastically recommend it at this time.
While MORDHAU has more than its fair share of nice players, the fact that the developers took so long to add female characters and easily accessible non-European skin tones is rather concerning, especially when the character creator allowed for the creation of all manner of creatures, including giants, dwarves, and hobbits since launch.
If the developers allowed only realistically proportioned medieval combatants for historical accuracy, I could see why the unpopular choice to limit character creation to European males would be a reasonable design choice, however in a game like MORDHAU, which allows players to dress up as Santa’s elves and fight with candy canes, historical accuracy flew out the window a long time ago, and diversity is long overdue.
