For Honor: 10 Crucial Ups & Downs
Now we're post-launch, how is For Honor holding up?
Ubisoft's latest action offering is one of the first new IPs of 2017 and, crucially for the studio, is also a refreshing new idea.
First revealed at E3 in 2015, For Honor was on gamers' radars from the start due to the immediately intriguing idea of having knights, samurai, and vikings rip each other to pieces in gloriously gory melee combat.
Since that initial reveal, the game has been built up to include a variety of classes for each faction, bots to mow through, and plenty of player-on-player action. The game enjoyed success in alpha and beta testing, evolving the game as mechanics were fine-tuned and the game modes were tweaked until we were finally able to take to the battlefields in the final product.
But how do all of those details stack up in the final game since release? Have all of For Honor's ambitions been achieved? Well, read on, and discover what Ubisoft got right, what they got wrong, and what parts of the game could use just a little more polish.
8. Up: The Unique Setting And A New IP
For Honor is the perfect chance to settle the age-old argument of whether a stoic knight, disciplined samurai or a ferocious viking is the hardest warrior in history.
Granted, this isn't exactly done with 100% hardcore true-to-history accuracy and is grounded more in the romanticised versions of these warriors, but it's still awesome to see them all in the same game kicking seven shades of steel out of each other.
In terms of narrative, there isn't much explained as to why they're all fighting each other or how they all happen to occupy the same world at the same time. In fact, the game itself even narrates that the factions have been at war for so long that they've all forgotten exactly why they're at war in the first place.
To be fair, it's lazy writing. But that's not why people pick For Honor up. We're not expecting a massive thought-provoking meditation on war and the brutality of mankind, and that's fine.
What we wanted was a glorious skirmish between these three legendary factions, and we got just that!
Another point, that is crucial for Ubisoft, is that For Honor is a new franchise for the studio who have been gaining a reputation for "copy/paste" game design in recent years. They're showing that they are still a force to be reckoned with, and can execute the introduction of a new IP expertly.