For Honor Review
Editor note: This post has been updated to reflect the full game launch.
For Honor was released on February 14 — just in case you needed to spice up your Valentine’s Day with decapitations and large-scale battles.
I didn’t expect to purchase this game, but I enjoyed the open beta so much that my wife and I decided to make it a mutual romantic gift. The full game is a mixed bag of quality game mechanics and sloppy execution of good ideas. This is not a game everyone will enjoy. I doubt it will ever be a blockbuster fighting game due to its sheer difficulty and complex controls. But it does occupy an interesting niche in the fighting game market, and it’ll definitely appeal to gamers who have long craved meatier and more realistic melee combat.
Quick overview:
- Complex but impressive combat system.
- Faction-based multiplayer (with option to fight AIs).
- Duels, brawls, and large battles.
- Highly customizable hero classes.
- Scary good AI.
- A forgettable single player story.
- No dedicated match servers; only awful peer-to-peer connections.
The combat system is among the most impressive I’ve seen in modern gaming. I’ll be frank. The learning curve is steep and brutal — its complexity will be borderline infuriating for people who are used to standard hack ‘n slash games that utilize a lot of button mashing.
You don’t just hold a “block” button to defend. You have to block in the direction an attack is coming from. That can mean performing a ton of lightning-fast parries. Likewise, when attacking, you have to aim for someone’s vulnerable spot. Sometimes that involves feinting. Sometimes it involves a quick dodge and counter. Sometimes you have to kick someone in the chest.
The is a borderline duel simulator. The game requires practice, skill, and precision. There are thousand ways to mess things up, and only a few pathways to victory. Just like a real fight. There are players who spam cheap moves, but genuinely good players can pull off an impressive blade ballet of death.
The combat system excels in the duel and brawl modes — the 1v1 or 2v2 matches — but it tends to suffer in game modes that features lots of opponents. The system requires a lot of concentration and precision, and that gets thrown to the wayside when you’re surrounded by a whole team of enemies. Combat is so demanding that it’s almost impossible to pull off an upset against more than two skilled opponents.
Story mode is forgettable. It’s a standard fighting game story — the plot exists as a vessel for you to test drive all the character classes before you dive into multiplayer. Key scenes are purely to facilitate fights. Nothing is really explained in detail. Character motivations are shaky at bets and nonsensical at worst. There’s nothing to get emotionally invested in. It’s all “rule of cool” action.
I’ll give credit to them, though. They don’t take it too seriously. There’s a lot of silly and self-deprecating humor tossed in there.
There is a character who gets shot in the knee with an arrow toward the end of the game, and you have to rescue them. They loudly exclaim, “Oh, no, my knee! I hope I can still be an adventurer!”
Jennifer Hale — Mass Effect’s female Commander Shepard — is on hand to voice the first lead hero and a couple other characters. Her delivery is ripe with comedic timing and makes a lot of otherwise mediocre scenes enjoyable.
Customizable characters. You can unlock 12 “heroes.” Each have their own skills and play styles. You can customize almost everything about them. Gender, skin tone, armor design, weapon appearance, tattoos, markings, colors, and so on. As usual, you unlock new customization items every time you level up. While the system is pretty standard, I thoroughly enjoyed designing all my heroes.
Game modes include 1v1 duels, 2v2 brawls, 4v4 deathmatches, and large battles where your team leads an AI army into battle.
The duels are my personal favorite. They can be really intense. One slip can cost you the whole match, but it’s immensely satisfying when you pull off a win against a skilled opponent. For Honor’s combat system shines in these small fights.
Dominion Mode is a close second. You lead an army into battle with three other teammates and a horde of AI foot soldiers. You don’t feel overwhelming pressure to be a duel master. You can mow down AI soldiers to hold a point while your teammates deal with the enemy leaders. The chaos of battle allows you to sprint in and attack someone without warning. It could definitely use polish. The AI soldiers mostly fight over the central point, for example, and there can be a lot of running back and forth to endlessly capture the flank points. But it’s still very enjoyable.
The only mode I did not enjoy was elimination deathmatches, but I think a quick fix could make it worthwhile. Currently, you and your teammates all spawn in different spots — with an enemy player directly in front of you. This makes it almost impossible to team up and work together. It’s like having four separate duels at once rather than a team fight. In which case, why wouldn’t I just play a duel or brawl? Same combat with less potentially disastrous variables. I think it’d be better if teammates spawned right next to each other, but that’s just me.
If you don’t like playing against real people, you can always play against AIs. That’s not much easier, though. The AI in this game is frighteningly good. Even players with experience will find themselves taken out by a vicious bot on a killing spree. The danger of the AI is another example of how surprisingly well-crafted the game is.
And when you level up enough? Turns out there are more advanced AIs that are utterly ruthless. Perhaps more so than dickish human players.
The AI bots also have really fun names, again showing the development team’s sense of humor.
The Shit Part: Matchmaking is Horrendously Awful
Ubisoft decided against having dedicated servers. All matches are peer-to-peer. And it’s not even good peer-to-peer matchmaking.
There’s roughly a 40% chance that you’ll be kicked out of a game halfway through. If the designated host has a slow connection or lags out, the match is essentially over. Sometimes the game seizes up when another player leaves. The match can abruptly shut down for no obvious reason.
Sometimes when you try to find a match you get nonsensical connection “errors.” Or you’ll see a message that says, “Can’t join game, it is already full.” Well, why did you try putting me in there if all the slots are full?
Matchmaking is so awful that people could rightly say the game isn’t even worth it. Lagging out of a duel is no big deal. Duels are quick. Lagging out of a 20 minute Dominion match that was really intense? Utter rage. You can circumvent this by playing exclusively against AI bots, but then why bother at all?
Besides, those little fuckers are evil.
Final verdict? I really enjoy the combat, but this game is absolutely not for everyone. It’s going to appeal to people who really like melee combat and fighting games. It is demanding and difficult, but the combat system was expertly crafted and relies heavily on skill rather than button mashing.
Matchmaking is infuriating. Ubisoft really dropped the ball with their multiplayer setup. One hopes it will be corrected in a future patch. It’s enough to drive potential players away. You have to really enjoy the combat to put up with the high likelihood of connection errors.
It’s probably not a $60 game unless you’re really into it. Wait for a good sale. I have a feeling the price will drop quickly. I’d snatch it at $30 or less.
7/10. Amazing combat and concepts, but an awful execution that left a lot of bad taste in players’ mouths.