For Honor brings honor to Ubisoft!

The past week I have been able to play more For Honor then you can shake a stick at. I was able to see its cracks and flaws, but I also saw it’s inner beauty and originality. If you’re debating if you want to pick it up or not, here’s everything you need to know.

For Honor takes place in a fictional land filled with the samurai, the knights, and vikings. As the intro scene detects, there is a major earthquake that opens voids in the earth, decimates everything standing and leaves the land in ruins. The three factions begin to fight over precious resources. They fight for over a thousand years, the reason they fight is “lost through time.”

To me that sounds like a very interesting plot to a game, and seems like it would translate into an amazing campaign. Which is why I headed straight for the story mode. In the story mode there are three different mini campaigns to play based on the game’s three factions. Without getting into too much detail, the campaigns were mediocre. They had good bits and pieces like boss battles and good AI that immersed you and made you feel like you were truly apart of battle! I played on the default difficulty which struck a great balance between genuine challenge and overpowered abilities. The stories, while decently original, mostly consisted of repetitive missions that saw you routing the enemy. It was fairly linear and I didn’t feel really any emotional connections. The voice acting left something to be desired, but the environments were solid, putting you in unique and different locations most missions. If you’re just wanting the game for the story mode, I’d stay away.

Multiplayer is obviously where everyone’s expectations were placed, and I’m happy to report that the multiplayer is wonderful! The multiplayer is based on the war of the three factions. When you choose your allegiance you become apart of that faction with other players who chose this faction. The three factions fight for land; the more land a team controls, the better chance for quality loot. The land is shown on the war map in the multiplayer section.

To contribute to the war you must complete matches, and your performance in those matches earns you war assets. You may place your war assets anywhere you like on the map to help gain land or defend the land your faction has.

As far as the actual games go, I have been having a great time! There is a few main game modes like Dominion which is basically a capture and hold the a specified area, Deathmatch, which is of course a team deathmatch aka kill everything that moves, and Duel and Brawl, which is a multitude of games like 2v2, and 4v4

The incredible gameplay is what breathes life into the various modes. Each team has heros (players) and soldiers (one hit kill AI) depending on the game mode. Each game is a new experience due to the multitude of skill levels for each player. For example, if there is a high level player on the other team taking an objective, you may want to bring a friend to battle. This kind of strategy is what makes this game shine. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a high level guy or a group of guys on an objective and yelled for my friends to help or come save me.

There are only a few maps, depending on what game mode you’re on, which is a little light, but the level design is solid. No one side has an advantage, and the map is easy to maneuver regardless of whether you’re looking for a fight or trying to sneak to the enemies’ side. Overall, the multiplayer is a great time especially with friends. It is a solid multiplayer system, but the credit for the game’s success goes to the mechanics

The mechanics of sword fighting are truly what this game was bet on. If the controls felt bad, the the game would crash and burn. However, I’m thrilled to say that almost everything felt great. It’s simple but clever. To engage in a fight you enter guard mode by pressing left trigger. This focuses you on the hero you are about to fight. In guard mode you have three stances; left, right, and middle. When fighting someone you want to mirror their stance. So if they attack from a left stance, you want to be in right stance to automatically block their attack. When you’re attacking you want to attack in the stance they are not in. You have two attacks, a heavy attack that deals more damage but is slow, and a light attack that deals less damage but is fast. It sounds difficult, but with helpful on screen indicators it is easy to grasp.

The Verdict: 8.1 out of 10

For Honor is a good game. The lack of an engaging campaign hurt it’s score in my book. However It’s definitely a multiplayer based game. I am having a blast with the online. It’s not quite a complete game but the parts that are complete are amazing!

For more information about what the score means, check out our official review scale.

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Jeremy LeLaCheur is an Associate Writer at MONG who is sometimes a little to sarcastic and charismatic for his own good.