For Honor: First Impressions

For Honor has been on my radar since its reveal almost two years ago. The trailer is still impressive today. Admittedly, as time went on my interest dwindled. This allowed me to enter the beta with little to no hype. When I finished, I was extremely pleased.

ON THE SURFACE:

The beta offered nine characters, three game modes across three maps. The learning curve was easy to grasp, but difficult to master. This added to my satisfying victories and heartbreaking defeats. Of the three game modes, Brawl was my favorite. Brawl consisted of five 2v2 rounds. This game mode is really compelling if you’re communicating with your partner. It can be played normally; you fight against one opponent while your partner goes after the other. You can also shake things up and go after your partners opponent too. This created a violent, chaotic environment. I often played a Viking, wielding a giant battle-axe that on occasion caused friendly fire. My friends called me a hazard, but I had a blast.

Duel, a game mode featuring five 1v1 rounds, was also really fun. I ended up more frustrated with Duel because I’m personally not very good at For Honor. I lost a lot. I’d like to note, though, that I worked really hard to win. I don’t know all of my character combos yet, but For Honor incites a desire to do so. Players will realize that button mashing doesn’t mean victory this time around, rather patience and endurance are the keys to success.

Dominion is the 4v4 capture the base/king of the hill game mode that features NPCs designed to be nothing more than cannon fodder. Dominion can be fun but I found it most rewarding when working with a full squad of friends in communication.

What separates For Honor from other online multiplayer games is that there’s something for everyone. Having 1v1, 2v2, and 4v4 game modes allow you to choose what fits your current mood.

THE NITTY GRITTY:

For Honor has a starving, but unique loot system. I appreciate that I can “scavenge the battlefield” to find a new hilt or piece of armor, and that these findings have pros and cons to equipping, but there’s not enough. What’s appealing about the loot system is that you can equip items that enhance your personal play style. I started equipping items that would increase my character’s endurance/stamina because I found myself going a little crazy in the battlefield (some people need slaying). Other players might be the opposite. They might equip lighter armor so they can move faster. Building their stamina wasn’t so much the priority as was using it appropriately. These tiny RPG-like elements make For Honor more complex than what it seems on the surface.

This complexity adds an interesting component: your enemy might be better equipped than you. As I enter the battlefield and go face-to-face with my enemy, that player might have better equipment, or perhaps they know their combos and are playing to their characters strengths, or hopefully they’re a rookie like me! The difficulty of the game is set according to how masterful your opponent is and I don’t know of any game to do that. Most head-to-head fighters feature characters with an insane list of combos, and yes if this were Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat knowing those combos and successfully executing them would guarantee victory. In For Honor, your combos are not enough. Timing, equipment choice, and player fighting style all come into play.

On the surface the game seems like a shallow action game, but if you dig down and look at intricate it is, it becomes a complex fighting game. Jason VandenBerghe, the Creative Director of For Honor said this, “Are you a Knight? Are you a Viking? Are you a Samurai? When I say Knight, Viking or Samurai I’m not asking you what your favorite is, I’m asking you what you value.” I found this to be incredibly true. I knew from the beginning I wanted to play as a Viking. When I saw the reveal trailer, the Viking combat is what sold me.

VandeBerghe followed up his statement with this, “People who value Viking tend to value freedom, expression and enthusiasm and celebration!” As I said earlier my friends called me a hazard, that I found myself going crazy in the battlefield and started equipping and preparing my character for that – this is incredible to me. Therefore, I think that the development team behind For Honor accomplished their goal: to have me find my inner warrior and to play that in their world. I had a lot of fun wielding that battle-axe and I look forward to doing it again February 14th.