For Honor Review: 5 Ups & 5 Downs

4. Combat Will Feel Too Slow For Most Players

Let's get this one out the way.

The whole appeal of For Honor is in studying your opponent, watching their animations, trying to pre-emptively strike - or counter appropriately if the same happens to you. When done well, duels can be elegant couple-minute dances of dodge-rolls and clashing steel, but more often than not, you'll be forever infuriated by your particular warrior just not doing what you want, when you want.

It's down to an impetus on animation priority over responsiveness. Ubisoft want you to really commit to every attack, and whilst you can cancel out of a number of them, the overall heft and 'controllability' of the heroes feels lacklustre when paired with almost any other melee-focussed video game.

Nioh, for example, runs circles around For Honor's basic feel of movement.

Again, it might be something you embrace - and are able to appreciate Ubisoft slowing everything down for the sake of being more methodical - yet this doesn't make gameplay feel especially responsive when it matters most.