For Honor Review

Review For Honor | Ubisoft is one of my favorite publishers for one important reason , they have the guts to try new things. Watch Dogs, The Division and Steep are good examples for that. And now For Honor might be the best example. Let’s find out in this review if For Honor is a good new IP for Ubisoft or a failed attempt to try something new. 

THE GOOD

• I am truly amazed by the single player, while my original idea is right about it, it’s actually one big tutorial, the experience was much more fleshed out than I thought. I had some strong Ryse: Son of Rome vibes with the setting. The campaign has some very strong and memorable moments, despite some mediocre story telling.  The drive to continue For Honor’s single player campaign comes from all the different playable characters and impressive set pieces. Oh, and did I mention that you can play the campaign with an online friend too?
• Visually things look very good, to make a final comparison with Ryse, it doesn’t look much worse than Crytek’s hack and slash game. That’s a huge compliment since I still believe that Ryse is the most beautiful game on Xbox One.
• They nailed the one-on-one fighting, what a freaking blast to play! For Honor has by far the greatest combat system for PVP-matches. It’s one huge adrenaline rush to fight another player, reflexes and tactic are so important. And let’s be honest, who thought that tactics and a hack and slash game could be in one positive sentence?
• One of my favorite board games is Risk, For Honor uses a few of the same principles for the online play. Each multiplayer match has a bigger meaning in the global war between the three factions. You really feel that you contribute something for your faction. As a reward you will get more customization options for your fighters.
• Controlling your fighter is pretty easy, with right, left and up light and heavy attacks. The block and attack approach is very realistic and the slogan easy to learn, hard to master totally  describes For Honor perfect.
• At first I thought For Honor was going to be a game for lone wolves but that’s definitely not the case, you will need some team effort to win the online game modes. Especially for the main game mode Dominion, capturing control points will need some communication. Should you defend? Attack? Or lure enemies in a trap? It can be the difference between a win or a loss.

Mixed Feelings

• For Honor is designed around players fighting one-on-one, it gives you some insane adrenaline rushes. That great feeling will be destroyed, quite often, with a frustrating feeling. Whenever you battle two different online players it’s game over 90% of the time. Ubisoft tried to counter it with giving the player special abilities but it’s not enough. It’s something that you’ll have to accept while playing For Honor and yeah, to be honest when you come out victorious from a two versus one fight you really feel like the Greek hero Achilles.
• More gore would have been welcome, after all I’m pretty sure that a sword, with the size of a human, can split a samurai in half. You see a few heads popping and multiple bottles of blood but the realistic feel suffered a little from the lack of flying body parts. I’m not requesting Gears of War gore but a little bit more wouldn’t have hurt.

THE BAD

• For Honor falls into a specific category that not many games have. Let me explain, a normal game has players that love it, players that play it and rate it between good and bad (I call this the grey-zone) and players that hate it. For Honor doesn’t have that luxury, there is no grey-zone, you absolutely adore it or you hate it. That’s why you will read many mixed opinions about this game on social media or hear many different opinions from friends.
• Matchmaking, even after the different closed and open beta moments still have issues. Finding matches take too long and random disconnects happen. (As you could see in my live-streams) I’m fairly sure that Ubisoft will work on that, Rainbow Six and The Division run perfectly, but for now I will have to warn readers about this.

Score: 90 | Yes, Ubisoft did it again. Another brand new IP that is good enough to hopefully find a big enough audience. You have to respect the publisher for bringing so many brand new experiences, something that other big publishers fail to do.  For Honor redefines the hack and slash genre with a tactical combat system and addictive online play.