I really, really like this guy. The air of knowledgeable confidence, the driest humor, the composed way he delivers his statements and observations. You just get the feeling he’s good at what he does and he’s confident in what he’s talking about. And he approaches the criticism very deliberately, knowing what to focus on and what not in a game.
I love when experts are open minded and undestand what games can and won't do as medium. Lots of games do portray wildy unrealistic arms and armour, but there (usually) good reasons for that, be it artistic, estetic, gameplay, balance or technical limitation.
If you want more of Doctor Capwell, he’s done reviews on film armour many times on several channels. Or if you’re a total nerd like me, you can listen to and watch his many lectures to universities and presentations from his time in the Wallace collection where he just talks about armour. I absolutely love this man’s passion.
I loved Toby before he started doing these, but honestly I’m delighted with how flexible he’s been with keeping it in frame that it’s a game, while also bringing relevant perspective. I might have predicted that he would treat it all as silly and he doesn’t . He and Jonathan Ferguson have proved to be excellent selections.
Warhaven's aesthetic really captured me with the modern-style pouches and MOLLE webbing combined over historically-themed plate and padded tunics. It's something fairly unique that I haven't really seen anywhere else.
My only real complaint, much like Toby, is that they're using specifically ammo pouches where are no guns on the characters, as opposed to more general-purpose MOLLE pouches.
@@toadwine7654 its free to play so they used as much all ready made assets as they could to keep the budget as low as possible. no doubt they did do some work modifying the assests to make it coherent with the art style of the game and so things didn't glitch into one another.
One thing i noticed about the chainmail collar on the Blade: the shape of it is very reminicent of the schmeghs or keffiyeh often worn around the neck by western soldiers in the Middle East, especially as portrayed in modern military movies set there. So its doubly impractical, being made of chainmail, but it does serve as a very subtle artistic transition from the great helm above it to the modern plate carrier below it.
To Mr. Toby Capwell, there was another class in this game when it was in its alpha and beta testing phase, but that class has been removed from the final game that has been released on Steam now. That class is Archer class, and I think they’ve made a huge mistake by removing it and sincerely hope they place it back in the game in a later season (I certainly would have loved to hear your take on that class’s armor, gear, and/or weapons). On a related note, there is a medieval MMO game that came out two years ago called Conqueror’s Blade. Each season in that game is inspired by various eras and warrior groups/cultures in history, and their current season right now (Season 17) is centered around the Teutonic Knights. That game has a lot of cool and varied armor sets and weapons that I would absolutely love to hear your take on how real they are, if you ever get the chance.
That would be awesome. Bannerlord tries to replicate the earlier centuries of the Middle Ages which not a lot of fantasy or historical games tend to do.
You guys should react to dragons dogma armors. Not only because the sequel is coming out soon (hopefully) but also it’s one of the only games that has armor layering. Which I feel adds more realism to some of their armor sets.
One thing I love about this game is the 'tactical medieval' thing. Like, armor in a lot od ways is built like modern plate carriers, there's mag pouches, tac webbing and such.
@@mixmastermind Lickies and chewies. Snacks, maps, rope, compass... water bottle, radio like we saw guardian use in the truck... more than just mags go in mag pouches.
@@mixmastermind Kinda but doesn't mean you can't still stick things in them. My tripmag pouches I still had jerky sticks/granola in. There's a bunch of gp pouches all over the place elsewhere too.
@khornatekrieger3023 sure but if you don't have magazines you can make pouches shaped in any dimensions you want. Like a magazine pouch is a magazine-shaped pouch that you CAN also put stuff in as long as they're also long and rectangular. A very deep pouch with a narrow opening is not actually that useful of a pouch unless you happen to need to carry a shitload of long rectangular objects.
I'd love to see this guy comment on some of the Pathfinder character illustrations from the rulebooks, or possibly Wrath of the Righteous ^^ I love how positive and engaged he is when it comes to fantasy, plus he's got some really insightful and interesting observations :)
I know he's supposed to be reacting to the armor, but I feel like he wanted to touch on the Guardian Mace for a minute. He did mention maces in previous videos done for other channels and that kind of came back to me as I watched this one.
great video, really enjoyable and i definitely learned something new again (like skull-caps under helmets. makes so much sense, but not something i ever thought about). iirc on the first video his analysis was a bit harsh at times, but again, this video and the warhammer one were great. love to see more in the future. also the games visual style is interesting. there isnt really a reason for them to use modern pouches, many people might remember armor sets from the souls series that feature classic leather pouches, since that was something fighters wore. also personally i think some of the aesthetics between the modern and medieval pieces clash, but if its done intentionally and consistently throughout the game then thats a style and i can appreciate it. also the attention to detail, like the huge shield being very obviously not made of metal, like many games would have it still. -only the gameplay looked a bit rough, compared to other, similar games like FH-
Having someone come at a game from an artistic perspective rather than an historical one was very cool. And Toby's comments about the possible Star Wars inspiration came just as I was going "y'know, a lot of this is making me think Ahsoka." So I think I agree with him on that front. Of course, while we were watching the bit on the Martyr class I couldn't help but hear Jill Bearup sigh and say "Just Stab Me Now." No armour on the vitals and a big inflexible steel waist cincher is, for me, a bridge too far on the style over substance highway.
The waist band seemed to be articulated at least, like the fauld of a breastplat minus the breastplate Edit: Hm, looking closer, it doesn't look articulated but the shape was suggestive of articualtion.
Yeah...probably shouldnt mention "Ahsoka" and getting stabbed with a blade in the same thought...tanking the Lightsaber through the Torso was one of the worst things Disney has done to Star Wars.
Hey could you guys have Johnathan react to the guns from Zombie Army 4? I’ve been playing it recently and I’m curious what he would say about the guns. Especially once they get attachments and the more outlandish guns like the preacher.
Can someone explain to me the setting of warhaven? I have tried to make sense of their website but none of it explains the mix of ancient, medieval and modern 😅
I fell down a bit of a rabbit hole trying to come up with what Earth would look like if gunpowder never existed, but it's such a divergence. I had various ideas about environmentally sealed armor to ward off gas attacks. Pneumatic ballistae and arbalists. Would they have internal combustion engines. The line became way to hard to draw technologically so I put it in the cabinet of half-baked ideas. Basically what if industrialization but no firearms or explosives were ever invented. But I could never decide if they'd still invent the atomic bomb or internal combustion engine. *Shrugs*
Without Gunpowder, 100% no Internal Combustion as the First One from 1680 was Powered Via Gunpowder. You also don't get Industrialization. Gunpowder wasnt just for Guns, but also Manufacturing. You wouldnt be able to Mine the resources as quickly. Wouldnt have been able to make Roads anywhere near as well also. The reason we were able to make Roads through the Rocky Mountains was Gunpowder.
when I first saw the design of warhaven's armor, I got excited and thought it would be a knight themed shooter because of what looked to be magazine pouches on all of the characters. needless to say I left the beta dissapointed
also theres a few storiers where the apocalypse happened and in 1000 yearsthey kindof rolled back to medevil times. and if our gear was more long lasting and better made would they not use it.
@@Zach-xf5my Johnathan Ferguson, the firearms expect did it splendidly. Now I was to see this guy, the armor expert, react to Borderlands firearms and Borderland’s humor that is so bad, sometimes you just want to shut it off.
Dr. Capwell's commentary is always insightful and very interesting. That said, these characters look hideous to me for the most part. They look as if someone tried to mash all the characters from a Fortnite match into one: so many different bits taken from so many different worlds and settings that now nothing feels distinctive. And what's with the modern pouches, really? They apparently serve no purpose and clash massively with the medieval aesthetic, and not in a good way.
It's to get all those "tactical gear" teens who grew up with call of duty. Just look at all the "tacticool" BS, Domenic has to buy it or they wouldn't sell them.
I'm all for mixing and matching and taking and using historical armor as inspiration rather than a guideline, but I agree. The random modern bits thrown in look completely out of place -- why are wearing *obvious* magazine pouches when they don't use anything that requires a magazine? A more general use pouch would make much more sense in universe and visually. Plus the weird use of what appears to be kevlar. Why would they have that? They already have other means of fulfilling the same role like chain mail which looks much more cohesive with all of the gambesons and plate, and the kevlar just looks kind of. . . slapped in there. Why would you mix these things?
He's trying so hard to not absolutely destroy the armor in this game, and how absolutely absurd it is. He's offended by how anachronistic everything is
"We will judge a game on the merits of what it is trying to do."
Can we get more experts like him, please?
we need more of this guy.
I really, really like this guy. The air of knowledgeable confidence, the driest humor, the composed way he delivers his statements and observations. You just get the feeling he’s good at what he does and he’s confident in what he’s talking about. And he approaches the criticism very deliberately, knowing what to focus on and what not in a game.
Toby’s the guy. Check out some of his lectures on youtube, his work on English armour is without equal
Seriously. We really do. He's great.
Toby in a good mood is just about the best thing on the internet!
Him and Jonathan are both really bad guys
Fantastic to have Toby Capwell back! Such a great teacher.
I love when experts are open minded and undestand what games can and won't do as medium. Lots of games do portray wildy unrealistic arms and armour, but there (usually) good reasons for that, be it artistic, estetic, gameplay, balance or technical limitation.
If you want more of Doctor Capwell, he’s done reviews on film armour many times on several channels. Or if you’re a total nerd like me, you can listen to and watch his many lectures to universities and presentations from his time in the Wallace collection where he just talks about armour. I absolutely love this man’s passion.
I loved Toby before he started doing these, but honestly I’m delighted with how flexible he’s been with keeping it in frame that it’s a game, while also bringing relevant perspective. I might have predicted that he would treat it all as silly and he doesn’t . He and Jonathan Ferguson have proved to be excellent selections.
Warhaven's aesthetic really captured me with the modern-style pouches and MOLLE webbing combined over historically-themed plate and padded tunics. It's something fairly unique that I haven't really seen anywhere else.
Even some of the plate is more like... modern plate. The back of Blade in his base outfit is literally just the back piece of a condor plate carrier.
Some postapoc media has stuff like that, though often cheesy, like Mad Max or 2008's Doomsday.
My only real complaint, much like Toby, is that they're using specifically ammo pouches where are no guns on the characters, as opposed to more general-purpose MOLLE pouches.
it looks like they just used assets from cod battlefield instead of making up proper stuff for this game
@@toadwine7654 its free to play so they used as much all ready made assets as they could to keep the budget as low as possible. no doubt they did do some work modifying the assests to make it coherent with the art style of the game and so things didn't glitch into one another.
One thing i noticed about the chainmail collar on the Blade: the shape of it is very reminicent of the schmeghs or keffiyeh often worn around the neck by western soldiers in the Middle East, especially as portrayed in modern military movies set there. So its doubly impractical, being made of chainmail, but it does serve as a very subtle artistic transition from the great helm above it to the modern plate carrier below it.
This video might finally make me get warhaven. The style is so well done.
To Mr. Toby Capwell, there was another class in this game when it was in its alpha and beta testing phase, but that class has been removed from the final game that has been released on Steam now. That class is Archer class, and I think they’ve made a huge mistake by removing it and sincerely hope they place it back in the game in a later season (I certainly would have loved to hear your take on that class’s armor, gear, and/or weapons).
On a related note, there is a medieval MMO game that came out two years ago called Conqueror’s Blade. Each season in that game is inspired by various eras and warrior groups/cultures in history, and their current season right now (Season 17) is centered around the Teutonic Knights. That game has a lot of cool and varied armor sets and weapons that I would absolutely love to hear your take on how real they are, if you ever get the chance.
Would like to see what Toby would have to say about Bannerlord.
That would be awesome. Bannerlord tries to replicate the earlier centuries of the Middle Ages which not a lot of fantasy or historical games tend to do.
Indeed. Add some mod armors too.
I'm pretty sure they've done Bannerlord already on one.
You guys should react to dragons dogma armors. Not only because the sequel is coming out soon (hopefully) but also it’s one of the only games that has armor layering. Which I feel adds more realism to some of their armor sets.
I'm getting nostalgic about Rage of Mages xD
Siege of Avalon ( not very well known CRPG form 2001 ) also had IIRC 3 layerd armour.
Like Kingdom Come: Deliverance?
high quality dissection, very nice!
the padding inside the shields a first
never seen that in a game before
The “picked up on that” dad joke at 9:00 made me actually laugh out loud 😂 nice one
I want to see Dr. Capwell talk about Dragon's Dogma.
I think personaly warhammer 40k is the gold standard of combining medieval and sci fi aesthetics together whilst still feeling like a coherent image.
This guy, the sas dude and jonathan or the best experts in these videos, we need more of the first 2!
One thing I love about this game is the 'tactical medieval' thing. Like, armor in a lot od ways is built like modern plate carriers, there's mag pouches, tac webbing and such.
... but what's in the pouches.
@@mixmastermind Lickies and chewies. Snacks, maps, rope, compass... water bottle, radio like we saw guardian use in the truck... more than just mags go in mag pouches.
@@khornatekrieger3023 they're SO slender though. A general-purpose pouch would be a lot wider.
@@mixmastermind Kinda but doesn't mean you can't still stick things in them. My tripmag pouches I still had jerky sticks/granola in. There's a bunch of gp pouches all over the place elsewhere too.
@khornatekrieger3023 sure but if you don't have magazines you can make pouches shaped in any dimensions you want. Like a magazine pouch is a magazine-shaped pouch that you CAN also put stuff in as long as they're also long and rectangular.
A very deep pouch with a narrow opening is not actually that useful of a pouch unless you happen to need to carry a shitload of long rectangular objects.
I see Toby I press like, simple.
I wish Dr. Capwell would do these sorts of commentaries while wearing his own armor.
I'd love to see this guy comment on some of the Pathfinder character illustrations from the rulebooks, or possibly Wrath of the Righteous ^^ I love how positive and engaged he is when it comes to fantasy, plus he's got some really insightful and interesting observations :)
beyond any doubt this guy and Jhon (gun guy lol) are my 2 favorite experts and hope to see more of both.
Amazing video. I didnt expect much, but this guy blew me away. Thanks!
11:53 Welcome, Moon-and-Star. I have prepared a place for you.
Love Toby Capwell, more please!
The martyr looks stunning
I know he's supposed to be reacting to the armor, but I feel like he wanted to touch on the Guardian Mace for a minute. He did mention maces in previous videos done for other channels and that kind of came back to me as I watched this one.
I can't resist commenting since mag pouches are relevant to my interests - I absolutely *hate* them. Great video though Toby :D
Right... do not let Mr. Capwell travel back in time with guns :)
great video, really enjoyable and i definitely learned something new again (like skull-caps under helmets. makes so much sense, but not something i ever thought about).
iirc on the first video his analysis was a bit harsh at times, but again, this video and the warhammer one were great. love to see more in the future.
also the games visual style is interesting. there isnt really a reason for them to use modern pouches, many people might remember armor sets from the souls series that feature classic leather pouches, since that was something fighters wore. also personally i think some of the aesthetics between the modern and medieval pieces clash, but if its done intentionally and consistently throughout the game then thats a style and i can appreciate it. also the attention to detail, like the huge shield being very obviously not made of metal, like many games would have it still.
-only the gameplay looked a bit rough, compared to other, similar games like FH-
Having someone come at a game from an artistic perspective rather than an historical one was very cool. And Toby's comments about the possible Star Wars inspiration came just as I was going "y'know, a lot of this is making me think Ahsoka." So I think I agree with him on that front.
Of course, while we were watching the bit on the Martyr class I couldn't help but hear Jill Bearup sigh and say "Just Stab Me Now." No armour on the vitals and a big inflexible steel waist cincher is, for me, a bridge too far on the style over substance highway.
The waist band seemed to be articulated at least, like the fauld of a breastplat minus the breastplate
Edit: Hm, looking closer, it doesn't look articulated but the shape was suggestive of articualtion.
Yeah...probably shouldnt mention "Ahsoka" and getting stabbed with a blade in the same thought...tanking the Lightsaber through the Torso was one of the worst things Disney has done to Star Wars.
Glad they went with the dragon transports than those modern trucks.
Love Toby , great expert!
Hey could you guys have Johnathan react to the guns from Zombie Army 4? I’ve been playing it recently and I’m curious what he would say about the guns. Especially once they get attachments and the more outlandish guns like the preacher.
I would like to see him react to the armor of Halo
He has. Its in one of his other videos on this channel. Master Chief is in the Thumbnail.
This was very informative and interesting
Can someone explain to me the setting of warhaven? I have tried to make sense of their website but none of it explains the mix of ancient, medieval and modern 😅
Would love to see him react to the various trench armour sets from Battlefield 1.
What game is the one that merges medieval armor with modern day tech and vehicles? that looks cool
Warhaven. Its in the Title...
cool expert .. thanks for your commentary.
The Italian heavy gunners that wore play armor that could stop bullets
We need a monster hunter video with this man
This was great!
It's like they told him it's a sponsored video so he has to preface every observation with "of course it's just the style of the videogame BUT..."
HAVE to do Chivalry with this guy.
The more I think about it, they seem to be combining old medieval armors with modern military protective gear.
look up the first world war. you had mail being worn at one point
TOBY!!!!! Can you guys show him chivalry 2 or mordhau next?
This guy is great 👍
I fell down a bit of a rabbit hole trying to come up with what Earth would look like if gunpowder never existed, but it's such a divergence. I had various ideas about environmentally sealed armor to ward off gas attacks. Pneumatic ballistae and arbalists. Would they have internal combustion engines. The line became way to hard to draw technologically so I put it in the cabinet of half-baked ideas. Basically what if industrialization but no firearms or explosives were ever invented. But I could never decide if they'd still invent the atomic bomb or internal combustion engine. *Shrugs*
Without Gunpowder, 100% no Internal Combustion as the First One from 1680 was Powered Via Gunpowder.
You also don't get Industrialization. Gunpowder wasnt just for Guns, but also Manufacturing. You wouldnt be able to Mine the resources as quickly. Wouldnt have been able to make Roads anywhere near as well also. The reason we were able to make Roads through the Rocky Mountains was Gunpowder.
I wish he talked more about the religious influences.
She's wearing a plate armor with cloth baulted onto separate plates
Love this guy 10/10
Since they don't have any firearms in this game I'm forced to assume that all of those magazine pouches are just full of snacks.
Snacks, unguents, potions, oiling kit for the weapons and armor, holy relics, you name it, they have it.
when I first saw the design of warhaven's armor, I got excited and thought it would be a knight themed shooter because of what looked to be magazine pouches on all of the characters. needless to say I left the beta dissapointed
Ammo pouches: no
Other utility pouches: more!
Like goblin slayer or the 113th R.A.G.-T.A.G.
He should look at the armour in
Metroid prime
Overlord
Dragon Age
Mass effect
Gears of war
Grounded
Monster hunter (probably needs its own video)
he has to react to Mount and Blade Series Armor and weapons..
Would love to see a video on For Honor
also theres a few storiers where the apocalypse happened and in 1000 yearsthey kindof rolled back to medevil times. and if our gear was more long lasting and better made would they not use it.
Is this game available on consoles?
not rn. but it has good optimization, try it on pc.
@@zorz767 I don’t think my laptop is powered enough
Should do a reaction to the 40k Universe and Darktide.
Oh, he did warhammer & 40k in previous video, if not mistaken in this same channel.
@chengkuoklee5734 Yeah I saw it after I commented 🤦
Next, Historian and Armor expert reacts to the guns of Borderlands 3.
They’ve already done that I think
@@Zach-xf5my Johnathan Ferguson, the firearms expect did it splendidly. Now I was to see this guy, the armor expert, react to Borderlands firearms and Borderland’s humor that is so bad, sometimes you just want to shut it off.
Am I the only one who thinks the skinny one kinda looks like Ultraman Seven?
Arms and armour expert reacts to baldurs gate 3
just did first aid from that order
This looks almost identical to For Honor.
Meh, it’s just a long advert. Toby Capwell is great but this I cant help but feel he’s sacrificed something just to get this game over.
personal storage: "MusT bE fRom sTar WaRs", jokes aside love the content though its almost strange seeing him happy while addressing armor
I don't mean to be pendantic, but shouldn't it be 'Dr. Toby Capwell, PhD'?
Why do the knights have tactical vests and ammo mags? Did I miss something?
Please show Assassin's Creed
Dr. Capwell's commentary is always insightful and very interesting. That said, these characters look hideous to me for the most part. They look as if someone tried to mash all the characters from a Fortnite match into one: so many different bits taken from so many different worlds and settings that now nothing feels distinctive. And what's with the modern pouches, really? They apparently serve no purpose and clash massively with the medieval aesthetic, and not in a good way.
It's to get all those "tactical gear" teens who grew up with call of duty. Just look at all the "tacticool" BS, Domenic has to buy it or they wouldn't sell them.
I'm all for mixing and matching and taking and using historical armor as inspiration rather than a guideline, but I agree. The random modern bits thrown in look completely out of place -- why are wearing *obvious* magazine pouches when they don't use anything that requires a magazine? A more general use pouch would make much more sense in universe and visually.
Plus the weird use of what appears to be kevlar. Why would they have that? They already have other means of fulfilling the same role like chain mail which looks much more cohesive with all of the gambesons and plate, and the kevlar just looks kind of. . . slapped in there. Why would you mix these things?
Poor Toby. His soul must be bleeding from this.
Female characters with full armor is refreshing. Not chainmail bikinis.
10/10
Found the Alphabet Community Member.
He's trying so hard to not absolutely destroy the armor in this game, and how absolutely absurd it is. He's offended by how anachronistic everything is