A nimble player can knock an opponent’s weapon out of their hand and take them out even if they’re unarmed themselves. Nidhogg’s trusty divekick and unarmed execution moves make welcome returns. Sometimes you don’t even need a weapon to dominate the playing field. That, combined with new weapon types, makes for more options when deciding when to throw my current weapon to get a ranged kill and roll to grab another blade off the ground. Every time you die, you drop your current weapon and spawn in with a new one, or sometimes the same one you had before. In situations where I spawned in with a bow, I usually opted to throw it at the opponent’s head (a non-lethal move, but enough to stun them) before picking up a spare weapon from the inevitable pile-up on the ground. I’ve nailed some cool kills with them, especially because a well-positioned sword can deflect their arrows, but their rate of fire is too slow against a quick opponent. Bows, on the other hand, feel absolutely useless. Daggers are quick, but have less range when armed, making them great for throwing. Unlike the classic fencing sword, you also can’t accidentally poke yourself at the end of an opponent’s broadsword, but it seems to have a broader range when swung. “Broadswords swing slower, but more powerfully, capable of knocking weapons out of an opponent’s hands. But now, players can end up with new weapons each time they respawn, which ups the stakes and forces players to adapt in interesting ways within a matter of seconds. The simple mechanical genius of Nidhogg 2 shines brightest when it’s just two players facing off with the classic fencing swords, alternating between high, mid, and low positions in a flurry of quick stabs and parries. Still, being able to tweak matches to your liking is a welcome return feature. One thing I was sad to see missing was a stat screen at the end of a session that listed out kills and suicides per player, and how long the match lasted. You can limit which weapons you can spawn in with disable throws, divekicks, and slides and even enable weird cheats like low gravity and boomerang swords. There are other convenient and fun ways to customize matches, too. “I love how you never know how long a game will go when facing off with a new opponent, but if you’re not keen on the idea of neverending matches, Nidhogg 2 lets you set time limits that, if met, will roll into a sudden death, single-screen duel to determine the victor.
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