Since its first announcement at E3 2015, For Honor by Ubisoft Montreal has been one of the most anticipated games for the current generation. With a fusion of multiplayer combat and sword play, For Honor goes to a place never before seen in most video games, and its possibly one of the most difficult games to learn if players don’t spend time practicing their capabilities with each of the games characters.

However, because this is a Closed Beta that Ubisoft let us be apart of, we’re going to be taking a look at the deeper game, and going through its best features to its worst.

The Good

When speaking of For Honor one of the biggest parts of the game will be its combat. If you’ve ever played the game Mount & Blade, you’ll find something rather similar, which is why the combat is unique. Players will find themselves using the right thumbstick (while in Guard mode) in order to choose the direction to block, and even attack. While enemies can block by matching your guard and or attack directions, the combat is viable. It’s a breath of fresh air on a genre that has been highly neglected within the industry.

However, if you plan on spamming attacks, you’ll find yourself being parried and or deflected before a player activates their vengeance. The game itself requires a nifty amount of practice in order to perfect a character, which is fantastic, and proves that fans of such a title will be sucked in for hours across each character. Provided there are multiple characters in each category of hero type. Whether you are assassin or an attacker, each player will find their characters play in a unique fashion, and each one offers a new learning curve to how they play. For fans of MOBA style games, this will be right up their alley, and keep them busy for hours on end. If you are one trying to play with a mouse and a keyboard, this is not a game that is advised to use one, it is HIGHLY advised to use a controller from those friends of mine over on PC.

As a fan of games with multiple class combat games, every class within For Honor plays uniquely across the three factions. Every character is also unique, which helps their historical authenticity feel real, unique, and enjoyable. Whether it’s using the Warden to clear our hordes of enemies on Dominion (4v4), helping keep a Viking Warlord at bay while he postures his shield for the block or reposte reaction. Of course, like any game, the classes each are rated for their difficulty. The downside is, if you are wanting a ranged character, that’s not happening in For Honor as they are seemingly locked away from this game. It’s a good reason they are too.

When looking at each character in this existing world, the maps are ensured to match their time frame, and they immerse us due to how highly believable they are. Each map is carefully crafted around the faction they represent and the ownership of that land by the faction holding it down. The maps that feel the best, however, are the games Dominion maps, which truly show the amount of content, and the creative depth to to them. A lot of this is also in part due to the games troops, which show them doing rather impressive things, and well – dying in the process. These areas look fantastic, sometimes grim, dark, and on fire due to the combat that’s going on. Whether it’s dueling against other players under cherry trees or under the heads of dragons as they swing away at each other.

But this leads to a big question. How is the performance with all this going on and graphics that are truly pushing the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One? On a PlayStation 4 Pro, the game runs absolutely smooth, and does not see a single framerate hiccup at any given time. Whether it’s a battlefield covered in soldiers, cutscenes, or large-scale combat scenarios. As one would expect, this is a much required feature in the current day of games, but this doesn’t help overshadow some underlying issues we’ve encountered within the games beta.

The Bad

The largest part of the game we’ve run into has been the wonky instancing, where the game requires a bit of patience, as it has been difficult to find a full game of Dominion. The bugs that seem to prop up vary from one another. Sometimes they include a party member being kicked, one being incapable of joining, or sometimes the host losing connection tot he match, which results in them causing the match cancel out and end. As this does seem to be a net-code issue, there is a heft chance the games ongoing maintenance’s we’ve been experiencing are to relieve this issue, and even sort out the games connection issues.

But what happens when the game decides to go completely blitzkrieg? The game decides to crash on you or it absolutely decides to make you want to throw your controller against the walls. This also is induced by the games common need for 4 versus 1 in Dominion, which is where players will find themselves constantly being knocked around by entire enemy teams. Or if you are somehow killed by an enemy that has lunged down at you from a higher up place only to one shot you. This being said, ladders are just as equally dangerous, which is due to players being able to use them to their advantage to insta-kill due to fall damage.

Closing Thoughts

While the underlying games appeal comes from every aspect, even the troubled ones, For Honor being in Closed Beta has proven that this game will have a good following. Its a game that is releasing at the right time, with the right appeal, and a uniqueness that hasn’t been approached by other game developers often. Its a game that will bring promise to a barely touched genre and a barely touched type of game that players can come to enjoy. If For Honor keeps up its loot system, gear upgrades, and character progressing – For Honor could very well drive a new combat system into the light of day.

Stay tuned for our upcoming review of For Honor shortly after its launch on February 14th, 2017. For more information about the game you can check out the official Ubisoft Blog.

About the Writer:

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.