The war has been raging on for years between the three different factions. All of them are fighting over land they can’t agree upon. It’s been this way for years and when peace lurks around the corner, a new event forces us to continue the never-ending war. We fight for land, we fight for honor and we won’t stop for anything that’s in our way.
Ubisoft, master of new franchises
For Honor is an entirely new franchise created by Ubisoft. It must be said, nowadays Ubisoft seems to be the only developer willing to try new things. They already gave us the great winter sports game ‘Steep’ but now the company is ready to take us to an alternative version of the Middle Ages.
It’s no secret that the Middle Ages were cruel times. If you didn’t die in combat, chances were pretty high you would die from some kind of disease. Ubisoft focusses on the combat of that time and introduces us to three different factions being the Knight, Viking and Samurai. Right from the start of the game, you’ll have to decide for which faction you’ll fight. Everything you’ll do next will have an effect on the so-called Faction War. At the end of this war, you’ll be rewarded, depending on how well your faction performed. For Honor leans heavily on the online multiplayer aspect of the game and an internet connection is needed to play. If you were hoping for a deep singleplayer campaign, this isn’t the game you need to get. Sure, there is a campaign but that mode is closer to a tutorial than it is to a real story-driven game.
Join the Blackstone Legion
In singleplayer, you’ll follow the Blackstone Legion, a dark army led by Apollyon, a brutal knight that seeks for wolves among sheep. In order to create these wolves, she and her army attack settlement after settlement, destroying and killing everything that’s in their way. The soldiers who fight back and survive until the very end are recruited in the Blackstone Legion to join the next attack on another settlement.
The campaign has its moments and thanks to the different cut-scenes it’s rather enjoyable to play. That being said, this mode serves as a lengthy tutorial to get to know the different characters. During the campaign, you’ll follow the three factions in war. During the missions, you’ll get your hands on the four playable characters of each faction. This is a great way to start the game since you’ll be able to determine which character suits your play style most. Once you’ve decided that, you can jump into the online battlefields. But be warned, you’ll really need to master the combat first since, without it, you won’t last long on the online fields.
Deep combat
The combat is what makes For Honor so different. Unlike games like Assassin’s Creed, the combat is incredibly deep. It all revolves around the angle of attack and defense. You and your opponent can defend and attack from three different angles: left, right and above. This means you can only attack if your opponent isn’t defending that angle. Same goes for your defense; if your too slow or if you’re defending the wrong angle, you’ll take the hit. To make things even more interesting, Ubisoft made sure the four playable character of each faction played differently.
Fight with honor!
You’ll have the faster but weaker characters, the more all-round characters and the heavy but slow characters. Each type of character is different from the other and each character has its own way of attacking or chaining combos together. Picking the right character for your style is something very crucial since you’ll most likely spent a lot of time with that character on the online battlefields.
One thing’s for sure, the combat is something you’ll need to get used to. It feels like a more open Mortal Kombat experience where blocking, attacking and creating combos is crucial to win. The only big difference is that the battlefields are created as 3D environments so you can attack from every angle. An interesting and challenging mechanism that will keep you hooked to the game for sure!
Prove your skills
Since For Honor is an online game, it has plenty of great modes to go all out in. If you’re looking for a fair and challenging fight, Duel got you covered. In here, you’ll fight on a small map against just one other player. Duel is the place to be if you truly want to test your skills. Want a little more action? Go for the Brawl mode where two teams of two fight each other. Both these modes are rather intense and showcase your skills the best. Besides those, you can also play Skirmish and Elimination, offering battles on a larger scale with four teams fighting it out. The star of multiplayer however is without a doubt Dominion.
In Dominion, two teams of four have to fight over control points on the map. Dominion plays as a giant battle filled with minions running around everywhere. It’s your job to claim the points before the enemy does. If you’re able to get 1000 points first, you’ll be able to break your enemies, meaning you can kill them without them respawning at their base. Dominion is a great mode where you’ll have to combine tactics with your combat skills. It’s not a mode everybody will enjoy since it focusses more on the action and less on the precise combat but aside of that, it’s a mode definitely worth checking out. It’s the most chaotic mode of the game but I enjoyed playing it the most.
Not perfect yet
For Honor is made a great impression but isn’t perfect just yet. The characters are still a little too clunky and too slow at some points, making the combat feel rather slow from time to time. Of course, this is something that can be fixed with new characters in the future but as for now, it sometimes feels a little too slow. Not only the combat but moving over the battlefields doesn’t always go as planned.
Besides this issue, the game does suffer from bad connection now and then, because it’s using a peer-to-peer connection. This means that connection happens thanks to the players and not a giant host somewhere in the Ubisoft headquarters. Most of the times, this system doesn’t have big issues but it happens that you’re forced into a host migration during your session. It’s something that needs to be fixed in one of the upcoming updates for sure!
Conclusion:
For Honor marks a great start of a new franchise, offering fresh ideas and deep combat. If you like to go one on one, you can test your skills in the Duel or Brawl modes. If you like larger battles, there are plenty of modes for your enjoyment. The factions and characters all feel different from each other and getting to know the strengths and weaknesses of them all is fun to do. Too bad the characters often feel rather slow and the internet connection isn’t perfect due to the peer-to-peer system. Don’t let this hold you back, since For Honor is definitely worth playing!
