Deus Vult, Valhalla, and Whatever the Samurai say

Welcome to the world of For Honor.

Have you ever wondered who would come out on top if vikings, knights, and samurai duked it out? Throw in a natural disaster and endless war and you’ve come to the right place! For Honor is a very simple premise done extremely well. The story is far better than you’d expect for a game focused on multiplayer, but still pales in comparison to what the multiplayer is.

For Honor is an arcade fighting game brought into the 3D world. Ubisoft outdid themselves developing the Art of Combat system, the tri-directional combat wheel used in the game. The basics of it is this: You can attack in three directions – left, right, and top. Your opponent can block in those same directions. Some attacks can’t be blocked and some knock you on your ass. All attacks can be parried, leaving your opponent open to a counter attack, and when all else fails you can try and guard break your opponent and push them away. This extremely simple system is utilized by every hero in the game, and the heroes are where the magic happens.

There are four base heroes for each faction if For Honor; a versatile vanguard that can do a bit of everything, a heavy that has a lot of health and can dish out some slow but serious damage, an assassin that is pretty much the opposite of the heavy, and a hybrid class that mixes two of the class-types together. There are other heroes that can be bought as DLC (either with real or in-game currency), but they all fall under the same classes.

The game truly shines when you play as a hero that speaks to you, that you can imagine yourself as on the battlefield. It gets even better as you level that hero, unlocking an amazing array of cosmetics that’ll transform you into the best looking vector of death in the game! Not to mention the various execution moves that can be bought for your hero!

All in all, For Honor  is a game I’ve sunk many hours into and will most likely continue to play until I’m forced to drop the game due to server shutdowns. It fills a perfect melee-oriented niche in this frantic, gun filled world.