For Honor Gameplay Lays Siege To The Action Genre At E3 2016
Every successful empire in history was built with the blood, sweat, and tears of warriors. The Knights of Europe, the Samurai of Japan, the Vikings of Scandinavia, each were formidable in their own way. What if the history got out of the way, and we had the chance to discover who was really the most powerful force in history? We’ve got that chance. It’s called For Honor, and it blew my mind here at E3 2016. For the first time, we went hands on with some For Honor gameplay.
Right off the bat, For Honor is freakin’ stunning. The variety and intricacy of the armor, the environments, the animations, everything looks and feels like a new pair of socks (you know, the best feeling ever). The visual presentation is honestly jaw dropping, but my sightseeing was frequently interrupted by some of the most visceral and brutal combat around.
Each action has consequences. Just like you shouldn’t have had that 8th donut, charging headlong into battle is likely to get you stomped. Each step, each block, and each thrust has to be carefully timed and planned to have a positive outcome. You mash buttons, you die. Simple as that.  The thing is, that feels oppressive and intimidating in a really positive way.
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“You mash buttons, you die. Simple as that.”
So what does For Honor gameplay feel like? At the surface, it’s a simple experience. Each character comes equipped with feats – single use abilities that might refill health or temporarily boost damage – that can be refuelled by pickups scattered around the maps. One on one combat involves 3 stances – forehand, backhand, and overhand. To block a blow, you need to match your opponent’s stance, while landing a blow requires using a different stance. This is represented clearly on screen, but in practice is much tougher to pull off than one might think thanks to the weight each movement carries. Attacks come in the obvious light and heavy varieties, with lots of combos to pull off when mixing up stances mid combo. Aside from that guard breaks, dodging, and rolling are on hand. Like I said, seemingly simple, but also brilliantly so.
Fighting just feels good. Pulling off a perfectly timed dodge or last second block is satisfying as hell, and I spent the whole demo grinning like the Cheshire Cat. Similarly, stunning an opponent and burying your greatsword in his or her collarbone feels utterly barbaric in the best possible way. Of course, there are still a few kinks to iron out – sometimes the target switching isn’t terribly smooth – but there are a LOT of really great things about For Honor.
Longer battles against tough AIs are grueling, with one mental slip often resulting in being on the receiving end of a crushing strike. I commented to one of the devs that I felt physically tired after an extended battle – it turns out that was their intent. They wanted tough fights to be battles of attrition, with plenty of push and pull before reaching an outcome. The obvious pop culture comparison here is Game of Thrones, and for good reason – HBO pulls no punches, serving up vicious slaughter by the cartload on a weekly basis. For Honor does that same thing really well. In one part of the demo I carved through more than a dozen peons with ease as a Viking hero before having a showdown with a Samurai master. How awesome is that? Really damn awesome.
Ubisoft Montreal are using history as more of a guideline than a rule (like pants!) when it comes to For Honor’s campaign. Obviously, Vikings and Samurai never met in battle. By bending reality, Ubisoft is creating epic and ridiculous battlegrounds that we’ve never seen the likes of before. Fortunately though each individual civilization is based closely on the real thing, complete with authentic clothing, weapons, and mannerisms.
Only the single player campaign was on display at E3 2016, but multiplayer might be the most exciting part of For Honor. All the stuff I’ve mentioned is likely to be incredible with friends. Imagine smack talking a buddy while swinging a huge axe around. That sounds pretty rad to me. For Honor is a ways off yet – releasing Valentine’s Day 2017 – but it’s already shaping up to be fantastic. Keep it locked to COG – we’ll have all the latest For Honor gameplay and news (and all things video games) in the coming months.Â
What do you think readers? Is For Honor the real deal? What factions would you like to see in the final game? Let us know below or on Twitter!
