What Is This Shit?

Pirates, Vikings and Knights II is a first-person melee-combat Source mod that you can download for free, if you already have an Source-Engine game on steam installed. It's still in beta, and does therefore miss a lot of content, but the 20ish people who's developing it, is releasing major patches frequently that adds new classes, maps and so on. I've been playing Pirates, Vikings and Knights II, or PVK II, since 2007, I've had some breaks everynow and then, basically because I've been playing it too much, but then I come back to it after a few months.

So, why should I play it?

Well, first of all, the gameplay is at its finest when it comes to first-person melee games, which is a hard genre to make successfully, but the developers really nailed it. It is very simple, rewarding as hell, well balanced and the learning curve is fast. When I convinced some of my friends to check it out, it took them one or two maps before they were able to get a positive k:d and get pretty high on the scoreboard. But even when the killing isn’t going that well, it is still totally fun to play, or just even look at. All the crazy shit that happens during combat is just hilarious. The only problem with the combat is when it’s lagging. Lag in a melee game isn’t that great.

A thing that many people fear when playing multiplayer games is the game's community. But I haven’t really noticed anything negative on that front. Of course you'll encounter an angry kid, who yells "NOOB" every time you kill him once in a while, but the general community in Pirates, Vikings and Knights II is very polite and fun to play with - this might be because the game isn't that popular yet.

Actually, the only argument that I should give you guys to make this game awesome and worth attention, is that it's free. Even though it's free, it totally feels like a full-priced game - and I would gladly pay the full price. I can't imagine what the game would feel like, once every promised class is released and more people are playing it.

Help make this game popular. Currently only 116 Giantbombers have played it, compared to Darkest of Days' 148 players, this is just sad, considering that PVK II is actually fun and free to play.

I hope I've made you aware of the existence of Pirates, Vikings and Knights II, and that you check it out.
 
 
 - Flaime
 

 
For more information about Pirates, Vikings and Knights, check its main page or the review I wrote.