For Honor

For Honor offers up one of the most visceral multiplayer experiences in video games. The single player campaign is a nice diversion, but won't satisfy those seeking a full experience. Once you hit multiplayer though, you'll be hooked and finding time for other video games will be the real problem.

At around the 5 hour mark something finally clicked and I stopped treating For Honor like a glorified Dynasty Warriors game. Throwing out flurries of heavy attacks and easily telegraphed rolls wasn’t working and, until then, I couldn’t easily grasp why. Nothing in my gaming vocabulary could make sense of what exactly For Honor wanted from me. It wasn’t until I slowed down, took a deep breath, and ...

Honor and discipline.

For Honor has some dents in its shiny armor, such as the mediocre campaign, the frugal economy, and the snowballing victories in team modes. But it’s hard to be mad too long when I consider that the melee combat system is second to none and a joy to learn, take your licks, and then learn some more. I could feel myself becoming a better warrior with this deep, flexible, and complete fighting system...

Republished on Wednesday 30th January 2019: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of February's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows.

For Honor is a game of two halves. One is underwhelming; the other is brutal, bloody, and brilliant.

Where a lot of other competitive games use melee combat as a secondary means, For Honor shows a respect and admiration for the art of combat that's as compelling and thrilling as any gunfight in a first-person shooter or battle in a strategy game. For the most part, For Honor is a competitive game with a unique, sharply-honed combat system that's easy enough to pick up, but filled with depth and c...

Violence solves everything on these brutal battlefields.

The ingredients for a great game are all there in For Honor, and many of those ingredients are put to good use. However, it is by no means a perfect game, and many of its flaws are fatal. There is an audience for For Honor, but it might be more niche than Ubisoft was expecting.

War is ultimately part of the nature of humanity. There are many causes as to why it occurs, be it greed or differing ideals, and it often brings out both the best and worst of mankind all at once. Combat being at the core of everyone is one of For Honor‘s main ideas, and it’s why samurai, knights, and vikings are all duking it out in Ubisoft’s latest major release.

For Honor's multiplayer is special, but as a whole it's let down by the less good single player, sometimes dodgy matchmaking, and a surfeit of microtransactions. The combat, though, is fantastic — it's gutsy and weighty, and you feel like a badass.

For Honor starts with some great ideas, but will likely cater to only a niche of gamers.