Pirates, Vikings and Knights II Review
Pirates, Vikings and Knights II (PVKII) is a multiplayer mod for the Source Engine. Unlike most multiplayer games, PVKII has three teams instead of the usual two (namely, Pirates, Vikings and Knights obviously).
This is the base for a very unique style of gameplay, what's more the game concentrates mostly on melee. So, there are three teams. Within a team you can choose a class, each class has their own weapons and special abilities.
PVKII has a rather good melee fighting system, you can attack and block in four directions (up, left, right and down), so it's not just hack and slash, you need to out smart your opponent and think ahead. Depending on what class you play with, you can also choose from an array of weapons, some classes are very strong at defending, some have weapons that deal loads of damage, but at the same time are very slow and some classes need to use hit and run tactics to survive.
The scurvy Pirates have more ranged weapons to their disposal than the other two teams, with guns other explosives they are very good at harassing people, the Captain class for example has a very unique weapon, the parrot, he can unleash this feathery companion on the enemy to distract them so he has a chance to tkae them by surprise and shoot them in the face with his blunderbus. While the Skirmisher class can use his powderkeg to blow his enemies to bits.
The manly Vikings are all about offence, the are strong with two handed weapons, but generally lack ranged weapons.
The berserker class completely lacks ranged weapons, but he makes up for it in strenght and strong melee weapons, he even go in to a fit of rage and his speed, strenght and damage increases even more for a short while.
the Huscarl class is more of an allrounder, equiped with strong melee, but also supporting ranged throwing axes.
There's nothing more satisfying than embeding an axe in someone's skull...
The noble Knights are good at defence, heavily armoured and good at keeping the enemy at bay.
The Heavy Knight class is a walking tank, he has no ranged weapons, but one of the strongest melee weapons. On the other hand, you have the Archer class, what he lacks in melee he makes up for in ranged, killing off everyone with his longbow before the come any closer.
Note that I did not name all weapons available for all classes, I just named a few examples.
Now what makes this game really fun, apart from good gameplay, is the hillarity factor. The absurd setting where Pirates, Vikings and Knights duke it out in various locations, flying ragdolls, the sometimes hillarious taunts you can shout at people ("You are no man!!") and vikings that sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger. There are also a lot of Monty Python related inside jokes
Anyone who loves either Pirates, Vikings or Knights and first person multiplayer games, should definatly try this awesome Source mod.
