For Honor is Ubisoft’s latest hack-and-slash title and one of Unpause’s Most Anticipated Games of 2017. Featuring three warrior races For Honor is the ultimate battle for supremacy. Touting beautiful graphics, skill-based combat, customizable characters and multiplayer faction wars. For Honor promised many interesting and innovative mechanics which if their Beta is anything to go by, have delivered. In fact, the only real complaint with this game seems to be the fact that they use peer-to-peer connectivity rather than dedicated servers. For a online multiplayer focused game such as this, it seems to be a huge oversight on their part.

Upon entering the game, players are asked to choose which faction they wish to fight for. This option does not limit which heroes you can play. But it is part of the faction wars metagame. After the customization and brief tutorial, you will be given a choice of which mode to play, Dominion, Elimination or Duel. As part of the faction wars the number of battles you fight and the amount of territory you acquire will earn you points for your faction. At the end of a season, the winning faction is awarded items for customizing your character. 

Game Modes

Dominion

Pits players in a ‘king-of-the-hill’ battle of 4 vs 4. Where players and some NPC soldiers vie for control over three areas. Gaining control over an area will generate points towards your team, and the team to reach the target number of points first is the victor. Two of the controllable areas are placed near each team camp, whilst the third controllable area is a battlefield in which soldiers from both teams engage in a brawl.

Elimination 

Sees 2 teams of 4 engaging in a deathmatch, where the last team standing wins. Based on a ‘best-out-of-5’, games are divided into rounds with players from opposing teams facing off each other on maps filled with interlinking pathways and power-ups.  

Duels

Solo matches against another player with each round taking place in small arenas around the map and winners are determined on a ‘best-out-of-5’ system.

Factions & Heroes

For Honor introduces 9 playable heroes, 3 for each faction with only 1 from each faction being unlocked at the start. The rest requiring spending steel (For Honor ’s in-game currency) to unlock. 

Each hero has a different move list and set of specialties. This doesn’t necessarily mean one character is better than another. In face this diversification allows players to choose a hero that best suits their playstyle and allows them to employ a myriad of strategies in team matches. For Honor has only released 9 heroes thus far. But they have already teased another 3 ahead of gameplay (1 for each faction) allowing for a total of 12 heroes.

Check out our hero and faction guide on For Honor to learn more.

Battle Mechanics

Probably the most confusing yet intriguing element of the game is For Honor‘s battle mechanics. Utilizing a new guard/stance mode, players choose 1 out of 3 stances, up, left or right; this allows for players to choose which direction to attack and block.

Blocks are executed successfully by choosing the same stance that the enemy attacks you with, for example, if the enemy attacks you from your left, assuming the left stance will effectively block the attack.

Attacks are performed by choosing a stance and then selecting a light or heavy attack. Whilst they deal more damage, heavy attacks are slower and can generally give your opponent better chances to block, whilst light attacks are faster but do not deal as much damage. Players may also choose not to enter the guard/stance mode in which their maneuverability is increased and they may perform attacks (generally used to execute ordinary soldiers).

For Honor is an inspired game that has innovated the melee combat system. Offering rewarding battles in a beautifully rendered world. All the systems in place for this game however, skill-based combat, faction wars, play-time rewards, all point to this game being geared towards an extremely competitive community. I wouldn’t recommend this for the casual gamer. For Honor is out now on the Playstation Store in Malaysia for RM 350 and Singapore for SGD 113.