The war has been raging on forever. Samurai, Vikings and Knights are fighting each other for centuries. It all happened when the world came to an end but it has been decades since that event occurred. To be honest, I don’t know why we’re still fighting, I want it to end. How hard I want it to end, there seems to be a force preventing me from stopping. It’s not the war I chose but it’s the war I must survive. For honor, for glory, for victory!
Closed alpha
Right from the start, For Honor had my interest, it looked like an amazing game and I’m more than satisfied that I could get my hands on it during the closed alpha. The alpha focused on the online multiplayer of the game but showed a small introduction of the campaign as well. To be honest, I’m more of a solo player so I can’t wait to see more of the campaign. That being said, I did had a lot of fun in this closed alpha, which already featured tons of great modes and features. Let’s start with the characters.
Choose your warrior
If you’re been following For Honor, you know it revolves around three main character groups: the Samurai, Knights and Vikings. In this closed alpha, we could pick three pre-created characters or recruit three other ones, meaning we could experiment with six different characters. In the final game, you’ll be able to create your own character but to save time, Ubisoft was kind enough to create them for us.
The three characters really feel different from each other. The Viking was the slowest character and can be compared to Tank/Berserker characters from other games. The Samurai was the light-footed/fast character that was ideal to kill enemies as fast as possible. The Knight was an all-around character that was a little faster than the Viking but delivered a little less damage. Keep in mind however that these are only pre-created characters, the final game will let you create your own type of character so it won’t be that easy to qualify an entire class as ‘tanks or speedster’, it all depends on the skills.
The Closed Alpha already showed some of those skills and character progression. After each fight, you were granted with points to unlock new perks and skills, sometimes you will also be rewarded with new gear. This progression is important to keep you motivated but more importantly, the combat always stayed balanced, even if the others were equipped with more skills. Skills can give you a slight advantage but you’ll never become unstoppable for new players, which is great.
Time to duel
After we got to know the characters in the tutorial, we went online to participate in the three playable modes. The first one we tried was Duel. In Duel, you go head to head with another player and defeat him/her in a best of five. Fighting others isn’t easy in For Honor since the combat is far more than just button mashing. Instead, you’ need to read the attack of your opponent and block in the same direction. An enemy can attack left, right or above; so you’ll need to keep a close eye on his arm movement.
In order to inflict damage, you must attack from the other side or break the guard by pushing ‘X’ and deliver a light or heavy attack straight after. It’s easy to anticipate a CPU character but soon I learned that beating another human player isn’t easy. I lost a lot of rounds to conclude I needed to play differently. For Honor has a very deep combat that isn’t for everybody. You’ll need to give it some time to get used to, but once you master it, you’ll never want to return to button-mashing.
Two means a brawl
The second mode was called Brawl and looked very similar to Duel. You also start facing only one enemy but a slight distance from you, you’ll see another character and his enemy. The goal of Brawl is to bring down your enemy as fast as possible in order to help your teammate. It’s a bit more strategic than duel but it also feels more unbalanced. If your teammate isn’t good at the game, you’ll have to fight off two enemies at once, which isn’t an easy task. I see the potential of the mode but without balanced players, this will become a very frustrating mode.
Dominion
The last playable mode is called Dominion and is the most epic without a doubt. Dominion is all about controlling certain points on the map. Together with a team of other players, you’ll need to take control over several points. Besides your characters and the enemies, you’ll have a lot of NPC’s running around as well. These can be defeated without locking onto them and those reminded us of the Dynasty Warriors games, which is a welcome change.
The best part about Dominion is that you’ll really need to stick together and discuss a strategy, without it, you’ll be lost forever. The goal is to reach 1000 points, once you do, you’re able to break the enemy. Breaking means they can’t respawn and you’ll win the round when every enemy is killed.
Dominion feels epic, mostly thanks to the incredible maps and amount of enemies that are running across your screen. It feels like you’re on a huge battlefield and that’s just epic. The gameplay itself isn’t that easy since you’ll need to lock, block and attack the same way as in Duel or Brawl, meaning you’ll only make a true chance if you’re fighting enemies one on one. Fighting an enemy that’s constantly teaming up is hard but thanks to the distance of the points, you can still come out as the winner. An interesting mode which I can’t wait to see more of!
Early Conclusion:
The closed alpha of For Honor got me excited for sure! It’s something different and it seems like Ubisoft might have another winner. The combat is deep and isn’t easy to master but if you’re willing to give it some time, you’ll start to enjoy it for sure. It’s interesting to see the character progression in the multiplayer and the modes we’ve played all have something to offer. Again, it’s not an easy game but I’m certainly interested to see more of it. For Honor!
