Torn Banner Studios announced that Chivalry II is slowly creeping up on its release on PC via the Epic Games Store, which instantly means they’re cutting out large portions of the gaming audience for some of that sweet Tencent cash. They recently announced that the game’s alpha tests will begin in March, which was revealed alongside the lore trailer for the game. The best part about it is that the trailer is free from being pozzed, which is a rare treat for hardcore gamers in this day and age.

Usually most sim-style games are bombarded with people who don’t even play the game, begging the developers to overhaul the balance of the game to accommodate ridiculous additions like female knights or trans lancers.

Almost every developer out there bends the knee to these crazy people and instead of focusing on improving the sequel where the original may have fallen short, they get roped into this oscillating cycle of content micromanagement trying to appease people who don’t even play video games, much less buy them.

In the case of Chivalry II, the new lore trailer seems to retain the game’s sense of identity, and sets up the inevitable in-game clash with compelling fueling the backstories for both sides.

It’s just a shame that they decided to take Epic’s cash for a year of exclusivity away from the Steam store.

The comment section for the trailer make it known that they’re none too pleased with this decision.

I do, however, get the feeling that Torn Banner Studios and Tripwire Interactive are using Epic’s timed exclusivity cash as a financial duvet to safeguard the relesae of Chivalry 2 after they blew cash on the readily forgettable first-person PvP game, Mirage: Arcane Warfare.

The game shows that it has more than 1 million owners on Steam Spy but that’s after constant price drops, discounts, and sales. But the real tell is in the concurrent player-count, which was only four players on February 20th, 2020 and typically shows zero players on the Steam Charts. Likely, to compensate for the losses they probably chose to fall into the monetary bosom of Tim Sweeney.

But speculation about fiduciary responsibilities aside, the upcoming Chivalry 2 could show promise for giving gamers something sizable to sink their teeth into as far as classic, European-based medieval history is concerned.

I imagine that they can’t really afford to further piss people off after Mirage and taking the Epic Games Store exclusivity deal, so they’re probably going to try to maintain some semblance of respect for European history and solid gameplay mechanics to win gamers over.

It’s a sad thing, though, that some developers have to be forced to do right by their audience at the risk of financial ruin. And even then, in this case there’s a big timed-exclusivity caveat to accompany that gesture.

Anyway, you can look for the closed alpha tests for Chivalry 2 to go live in March. The game will also be present at PAX East in Boston, Massachusetts where you can learn more about the gameplay and upgrades over the original.

For more information feel free to visit the official Chivalry 2 website.