For Honor – Review

(Written by Jon Baldvinsson)

Name: For Honor
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release date: 14th of February, 2017
Platform: PC
Reviewed on: PC

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to fight in a medieval war, For Honor brings you back to the times of the knights, samurai and the vikings. Although historical accuracy is not something we will be discussing here, For Honor does a great job of displaying what medieval combat was like, running through the battlefield slashing your sword or axe like a madman has its thrills. For Honor is a fresh breath into the competitive combat game genre, it takes combat into a new strategy.

Gameplay

The combat itself is really good, at first you think swinging your weapon like a madman has its benefits which it really doesn’t. For Honor has a slow paced combat system compared to other combat games, where you have to decided which direction to attack or parry from. This seems to give the game a small learning curve although it does have a lot more to offer, you can easily become a good Warden although it will require a lot of practise as there are combo’s and a vary of parries. The game features currently four classes spread across the three factions which gives you a total of twelve playable characters. Vanguard are your all purpose characters which are great for starters, Heavy have the highest survivability in the game. Assassin are cold blooded killers they are fast and utilize their speed very well generally hard to get a hold of if you are playing a slow class. The Hybrid are in the higher end of the skill cap, rewarding players who master them greatly. If you are playing this game first time we would suggest you to start out with the Vanguard class if you go straight to multiplayer, playing the singleplayer will give you a lot of hands on with some of the classes. For Honor is equipped with two combat wheels one on your own character once you enter the battle stance, this wheel allows you to decide which direction you will be striking your enemy from. When you are targeting an enemy you will be able to see their striking direction once they attack you, which gives you a short time to switch into a stance and parry in that direction. You can also break block if your enemy keeps parring, which then can either be comboed into other attacks or break blocked again to move your enemy in a direction of your choice.

You can play online in the following modes, Duel one versus one, Brawl two versus two, Elimination four versus four, and Dominion which is a four versus four capture the point. Dominion has AI NPC’s who push points, which have to be dealt with if they are pushing your forces back. All modes can be played with AI or Players, during the games there will be pickup’s which benefit your character in various ways. The tenacity that can unfold when you are the last in a four versus one is sometimes fun although it is easy to get ganked, although there are some honorable players out there who wait for their turn to fight you one on one. Playing For Honor is very fun and exciting getting that one last hit before the opponent kills you, or those random kills where you accidentally throw an enemy player of the map which causes them to instantly die.

Sadly one flaw with the game currently is that the game doesn’t provide dedicated servers, which means that every player needs to connect to each player to play the game. This can cause a bit of frustration if you have for example two friends who have closed net which means you cannot play with them at the same time. Hopefully Ubisoft will hear the voice of the community and supply players with dedicated servers.

Multiplayer also has craftable items which give you a chance to customize your character a certain degree, clearly the developers are very happy for hats as the game has wide variety of hats. Steel is the currency which you earn from completing missions or winning matches. It can also be used to purchase perks with which give you some benefit over your enemies.

Story

The story of For Honor depicts various characters through the struggles of their homeland being attacked by the other factions, the first chapter is regarding the Warden and how he joined the Blackstone Legion and their Leader Apollyon. Apollyon is a bloodthirsty warlord who wants nothing but war, the story that unfolds gets the warden to question Apollyon’s motives. The second chapter follows a Raider from the mountains who joins the Warborn clan, and his struggles through the winter and dealings with the other clans. The raider manages to unite the clans and leads them into the assault of the samurai. The third chapter follows a Orochi who is freed and has to take back their city from the Vikings, they then attack Apollyon’s fortress.

The story mode seems to be more of a tutorial into multiplayer than anything, the story itself isn’t very long although this game was surely intended as a multiplayer game not a single player game, although note that you can play the story in co-op.

Graphics

The Character models are great and the animation of them with their own set of attacks seem really well polished. Every map has its own niece to it, where there are details depending on who is currently conquering the map and the weather is factored into it as well. The executes are very well made and it really gives you that exciting feeling once you decapitate your enemy or finish them off in whichever way you decided to unlock through the multiplayer system.