There have been a lot of games that featured swordplay and melee combat in the recent years and despite some of them (most notable the Souls series) getting the spirit of the melee fighting correctly, very few have actually attempted to give the player full control over their swings and parries.

And it is that exact combat system that Mordhau, an indie first-person fighting game set in the medieval times, is trying to accomplish. Here's a quick developer walkthrough on what exactly Mordhau is:

While not showcased in the video above there will be ranged weaponry as well. As of right now only a recurve bow is present in the game but given its early development status I'd say its safe to assume more will be making their appearance soon.

As a bit of a side-note, this is still early alpha footage but the game seems to have already undergone a heavy amount of work which means this project is actually likely to come out unlike some of the other medieval games that were teased recently and then simply vanished never to be seen again.

There isn't much to comment about Mordhau's gameplay right now, given that its still heavily in development but if everything ends up working out as swimmingly as in the video I can see Mordhau having a very, very passionate fanbase because there really aren't that many medieval fighting games that give a reason for a player to get invested and to hone their skills.

If the video tickled your fancy and you would like to find out more, head over to Morhau.net. You will find a couple of developer blog posts further detailing their plans for the combat and the game's future in general.