(354 votes, average: 3.67 / 5)
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For Honor is a medieval-themed 3D hack-and-slash action MOBA where players can choose to be one of three factions warring for survival. The game features intense melee combat where timing and skill is the key to victory.
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Publisher: Ubisoft Playerbase: High Type: Hack-and-Slash Action Release Date: February 14, 2017 Pros: +AAA visuals and animation. +Intense melee combat. +Three distinct factions. Cons: -P2P hosting. -Connection issues. -Steep learning curve. |
For Honor Overview
Enter a world torn apart by a millenia-old war between three factions in For Honor, a fast-paced 3D hack-and-slash MOBA from Ubisoft. Choose from one of the three honorable factions, each with distinct looks, weapons, abilities, and playstyles. Experience a gripping storyline in the single player campaign or join other players in any of the game's multiplayer modes, ranging from the 1vs1 Duels to the 4vs4 Dominion matches. Engage in intense melee combat with intuitive controls and fluid motion-captured animation, across a variety of stunning maps and environments. Participate in a large-scale persistent three-way war and fight to secure territory and bring honor to your chosen faction.
For Honor Key Features:
- AAA Visuals – fight it out in gorgeous backdrops with highly-detailed characters and natural-looking motion-captured animation.
- Intense Melee Action – from axes to swords to katanas, immerse yourself in intense, fast-paced, tactical combat where skill is everything.
- Three Factions – Vikings, Samurai, and Knights have distinct fighting styles, abilities, and weapons. Master one or master all.
- Hero Customization – equip your heroes with gear earned in battle. Customize their appearance from their armor to their weapons while tweaking their stats in the process.
- Large-Scale Wars – partake in a massive territory war, securing and defending territory against other factions while bringing honor to yours.
For Honor Screenshots
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For Honor Review
By, Marc Marasigan
For Honor is a 3D medieval-themed hack-and-slash game set in a mythical kingdom where three factions fight a millennia-old war for dominance. The game features stunning, AAA visuals with highly detailed characters and environments as well as motion-captured animations that allowed for natural movements. The sound effects and soundtrack are excellent. The epic background music punctuated by the clash of steel and the screams of men dying immerses you in the game’s medieval setting.
Choosing Your Faction
Players logging into the game for the first time will be asked to choose one of three factions: Knights, Vikings, or Samurai. Your chosen faction determines who you will be fighting for during the persistent faction war but does not have affect the type of hero that you can use in battles. If you choose to roll with the Samurai, for example, you can still use the Knight Warden, the Viking Berserker, in any of the playable game modes. Once you’ve chosen your class, you will then be asked to create an emblem for your account. The game offers plenty of options to allow you to create a unique emblem that you can proudly show off to the world. For me, the randomize button works just as well. Don’t worry, emblems can be edited later via the in-game menu should you change your mind.
Tutorial
Because For Honor has a steep learning curve, I highly recommend going through the tutorial and not leaving until you get at least a basic grasp of the controls and actions. Players also get a generous amount of Steel, the in-game currency, upon completion, which is well worth the time. The tutorial walks players through basic gameplay mechanics, including movement, guard mode, and attacking. Players have the option to practice moves over and over again and advance through the tutorial at their own pace. Once you have the basics down, I also recommend completing the Advanced Tutorial if only for the sizable Steel reward it grants players upon completion.
Heroes
For Honor features a diverse roster of 12 playable heroes divided into three factions with four classes each: Vanguard, Heavy, Hybrid, and Assassin. As I mentioned earlier, players can choose to play a match as any of the 12 heroes, regardless of what faction they chose when they first log in. Each of these heroes have distinctly different playstyles, even ones of the same class. When it comes to Vanguards, for example, the Samurai Kensei is slightly faster and more agile than the Knight Warden but the Warden makes up for this with better reach. Raiders, on the other hand, are the slowest of the Vanguard heroes but can deal the biggest damage of the three.
Heroes gain experience points when used in a match and progress independently of each other. Hero levels affect the quality of gear that they loot after a battle, with higher levels receiving considerably better gear. Gear earned during battles can be used to customize a hero’s appearance while also tweaking their stats. However, they can only be equipped on heroes that players have already recruited. Players start the game with the three Vanguards recruited and can recruit other heroes for 500 steel each. Note that you can still use non-recruited heroes in a match, you just won’t be able to equip them with gear.
Game Modes
For Honor offers players a choice of five game modes: Dominion, Duel, Brawl, Skirmish, and Elimination. Duel, Brawl, and Elimination are similar to classic deathmatch battles where the last-man, or team, standing wins. Different numbers of players are required for each mode: 1vs1, 2vs2, and 4vs4 respectively.
Skirmish and Dominion on the other hand, are point-based 4v4 matches where players earn points for completing certain actions. Players earn points by killing other players in Skirmish, and controlling and defending control points in Dominion. When one team reaches a specific number of points, they must then eliminate all members of the opposing team to win the match.
Combat
Combat in For Honor is heavily skill-based and will probably have you grinding your teeth in frustration your first few hours in the game. It’s intense, fast-paced, tactical, and unforgiving, and involves a lot of real-time counters, blocks, parries, and guard breaks, along with well-timed attacks. Although you can probably get by with button-mashing when you go up against other noobs, veterans will eat you alive if you don’t master the intricacies of combat fast. Once you get the hang of it, and your dreadful reaction times start to improve, you’ll find the combat fun and oddly satisfying, especially when you take the head off of a particularly difficult opponent.
While the keyboard controls are fluid and intuitive, I suggest hooking up a controller if you have one for a quicker reaction time. If you don’t have a controller, setting your mouse sensitivity all the way up for Guard Mode is a good alternative. Newbies should stick with duels until they get the hang of the game. 2vs1 and 3vs1 encounters are also common in Dominion and Skirmish matches, and unless you’re very good or very lucky, turning tail is usually the best course of action.
One complaint I have about For Honor’s gameplay is its reliance on peer-to-peer connections. Matches are plagued by lag spikes and other connection issues, especially in 4vs4 multiplayer matches like Elimination and Dominion. For $60 I’d expect the game to at least have dedicated servers to host matches on, especially since speed and reaction time are so important in real-time PvP action games like For Honor.
Faction War
After every completed match, players are awarded War Assets depending on their performance. These war assets can be deployed in the World Map to help your faction either conquer, or defend a territory. The faction with the most war assets is awarded control of the territory. Faction boundaries are updated every 6 hours and the shifting battle fronts determine which maps can be played in multiplayer matches. Boundaries are reset at the end of every season with a season lasting for 10 weeks.
Cash Shop
Aside from paying to play the game, players can also purchase Steel, the game’s main currency using real-world cash. This allows paying players to purchase Champion Status (VIP with Exp and Steel bonus), equipment boxes, skills, outfits, and every purchasable item in-game faster than others who only paid for the game.
Microtransactions should have no place in a AAA buy-to-play game, especially a $60 one. I get that Steel can be earned in-game and that buying them is purely optional, but players have already shelled out cash to play the game, why milk them even more?
The Final Verdict – Great
Being a big medieval nut, I instantly fell in love with For Honor. As early as the tutorial, I was blown away with the games high quality visuals and attention to detail, not to mention the fluid motion-captured animations. The game, however, does have its flaws not the least of which are P2P-hosted matches and connection issues. There’s also the matter of the game’s steep learning curve. Although the latter is excusable since taking the time to learn the intricacies of the game’s combat is worth it in the end, especially when you begin executing one opponent after another. For Honor is an awesome game and one that I’d highly recommend in spite of its rather hefty price tag. If you’re looking for a AAA skill-based multiplayer game this is definitely one that's worth a try.
For Honor Screenshots
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For Honor System Requirements
Minimum Requirements:
Operating System: Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)
CPU: Intel Core i3-550 or AMD Phenom II X4 955 or equivalent
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX660/GTX750ti/GTX950/GTX1050 or AMD Radeon HD6970/HD7870/R9 270/R9 370/RX460 with 2 GB VRAM or more
RAM: 4 GB
Hard Disk Space: 40 GB
Recommended Requirements:
Operating System: Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K or AMD FX-6350 or equivalent
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX680/GTX760/GTX970/GTX1060 or AMD Radeon R9 280X/R9 380/RX470 with 2 GB VRAM or more
RAM: 8 GB
Hard Disk Space: 40 GB
For Honor Music & Soundtrack
Coming Soon!
For Honor Additional Information
Developer(s): Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher(s): Ubisoft
Game Engine: AnvilNext 2.0
Platform(s): PC, Xbox One, PS4
Open Beta Date: February 9, 2017.
Full Release Date: February 14, 2017
Development History / Background:
For Honor is a 3D hack-and-slash action MOBA developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. The game is the first hack-and-slash venture by Ubisoft and was first announced at E3 2015. The game is developed on the AnvilNext 2.0 game engine, the same engine that Ubisoft used in Assassin's Creed Unity, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, and Steep. The game went through a short free-to-play open-beta phase from February 9-12, 2017 before it was released globally for PC, Xbox One, and PS4 on February 14, 2017.
