Impressions

How are people liking this game? I haven't played it myself, but I think it looks sick. The only thing that worries me is that Ubisoft games over the past 5 years or so have been so, painfully average (with a few exceptions of course). Share your impressions!

It all depends if you like the combat since that is all the game really is. Its basically a 3rd person fighting game with 12 characters which requires more situational awareness than most. So far im having alot of fun with it, even though im quite crap, but a warning; this aint a game you can just pick up and be decent at instantly. Theres quite a bit of depth to the combat, and its probably alot different from what youre used to.

The different game modes are imo quite fun, and the characters each feel distinct, and if you dont feel ready to face player theres a decent enough practice mode and the ability to fight against bots in the different modes (although some of those bots can still kick your ass). Ive found the story mode to be an ok romp through some scenic places, but im guessing it aint something ill be coming back to all that often.

All in all it depends if youd be satisfied with a different kind of fighting game. For me, chugging people of ledges or into spikes aint going to get old anytime soon ;)

Single-player seems to function more as a long-term tutorial than any kind of real "story" (though to their credit: the record VO for whichever gender you choose) which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but don't buy the game if your thinking is: "I'm just interested in the campaign/story mode." The fighting game comparison continues there.

I haven't hopped in yet, but I've heard multiplayer is dicey as HELL connection-wise, owing partially to the inexplicable choice of doing P2P matchmaking in a game that requires half-second precision AND is team-based...

@undeadpool: It seems the multiplayer is treating folks very differently. Those with a good connection seem to be having a breeze of a time. Heck, this has been one of the smoothest multiplayer launches I've ever personally experienced. Others are less lucky. From the sound of it, they're doing what they can to tackle the issue, and have already released a long list of "fixes" you can try if you're having difficulties.

Personally, I loooooove this game. The faction war is actually meaningful, because depending on the outcome of each and every game played, the selection of maps changes, and the maps themselves change depending on which faction is currently controlling it. It makes it really rewarding when your faction is doing well because it allows you to play maps you otherwise wouldn't. Similarly, being pushed back towards your capital nets you maps that take place on your territory, which really makes you feel as if you're on the defense.

The combat is terrific; people have already said it, I have said it, someone wrote a note and left it under your door that says it, it's actually a fighting game. Thing is, it's a REALLY good one that completely reinvents the 3rd person fighter. You have your fighting game arche-types in grapplers and zoners, as well as mix-up and rushdown characters; but now positioning in a 3D space, to ensure you're outside the enemys range or making sure you didn't just step in front of a pit of lava that your opponent can knock you into, adds an entirely new dimension (pun intended) to the fights. If you have any interest in that genre, give this one a shot. Now, there is the Ubisoft brand of bullshit to be found here, in micro-transactions and far too expensive season passes, but the good news is, you can earn all that stuff just from playing the game, and it doesn't take too long to level I've found.

I think the story mode is A-Okay. The first campaign is definitely the weakest one, the latter ones are actually pretty good with some really impressive set-pieces; though I agree with the folks who are just saying it's a long-ass tutorial. Game is so complex and "different", though, that it's probably for the best.

Really enjoying it here. The combat is so unique that it's refreshing in a landscape of endless derivatives and sequels. I think it speaks to the quality of the combat that I, as someone who doesn't enjoy fighting games, think that the 1v1 duel is the best mode here. There's very little unfair BS that I've found, and if you get creamed you always learn something moving forward.

Played through the Knight campaign on Hard and then on Realistic, and I can say fairly objectively that it made me a much better online player. It's exactly the kind of tutorial a game with this amount of depth needs.

I can't say yet how much I will enjoy the online persistent stuff. It reminds me of Chromehounds, but in that game every tile on the world map had its own unique in-game map which I'm fairly certain isn't the case here. If we end up playing on the same dozen or so maps no matter the state of the world map (which does seem to be the case) then I don't see it adding much to my experience.

Haven't had many connection issues here since the beta. Yes there are host migrations, but rarely has it affected the outcome of a fight or match. Not entirely sure why everyone's up in arms over the P2P stuff, it's obviously not ideal but with a maximum of 8 players in a match I don't see how it would be worth it on their end. I see myself playing lots of 1v1 and 2v2, is there a precedent of fighting games using dedicated servers?

I think I'm going to actually pick this one up; the Quick Look convinced me. I have never really liked fighting games, but something about this really catches my eye. I've always kind of liked the strategic element of fighters, but have been turned off by the half a million combos to take into consideration, plus the manual dexterity and twitch reflexes necessary to really compete. This just seems a little more methodical and strategic, so I'm really excited to give it a try!

Have only played the campaign so far, but it seems like my kind of multiplayer game. Will probably play this grey.

@do_the_manta_ray: Once I get in, everything's buttery-smooth, but I've definitely had multiple times where I'm staring down a timer that slowly "expands" its skill level and I'm waiting for a WHILE before finding a game. Though, to be fair, once I do, again, it's great.

AND the gameplay itself DOES rock. The character classes seem a lot more varied than what I initially thought, the campaign is fun, though STILL not a reason to buy it on its own, but...yeah. I've never played a game like this that's a combination tactics game and fighting game.

the one word I keep using is scattered, like every positive I can say about it comes with this "but....", and it's a detriment as opposed to a weird quirk.

Combat's fantastic in 1v1 but really falls apart when you're surrounded in groups.

Unlocking new gear's cool but you don't see it much anyway

Getting stats on gear is great but rarity is dependent on prestige so the good stuff doesn't kick in until you're past level 20 on one class

It's got cool looking unlocks which you can speed up through RMT's, season passes and the like.

It's got an optional premium membership service at 67$ CAD a year with perks that benefit you.

There's so many great elements to this game but it always feels like there's always something, like a nunchaku master who occasionally keeps hitting himself in the face.

im afraid of the community dying off (and having to fontend with the shitheels that undoubtedly are part of it), but watching dan play really has me itching to try it. looks good and chunky.

So far it's great. The campaign is meatier than expected. I have a number of concerns about the longterm health of the multiplayer, however. There are some serious class imbalances and issues with the way that the core gameplay plays out that could drive people away over time.

It's a ton of fun right now, and if Ubisoft is diligent with the patches, it could stay that way for a long time.

I love it when it matches me with people around my skill level, hate it when it matches me with 20th Prestige savages who absolutely destroy me. Hopefully the playerbase stays relatively big, instead of just being a small group of the best.

I'll probably end up bouncing off of this pretty quickly. The combat just isn't doing it for me.

Like a lot of people here and elsewhere I love the core gameplay. It has depth and versatility, requires patients and practice and ultimately is extremely rewarding, tense and satisfying. Of course there are times when it is infuriating (players using cheap tactics) but over all it doesn't detract from the high's the game provides. I'd say pick it up now if you have decent internet or, if you have a terrible connection like me, wait for the price to drop or get used to being dropped from matches.

Here are my thoughts after putting in 40 hours.

The game is straight up a fighting game. This means that 1v1 combat is the thing they've paid the most attention to and as a lot of other people have said the 1v1 combat feels GOOD.

But, for some reason Ubisoft decided to market Dominion(4v4 capture point) as its premiere mode. Dominion often devolves into people forming gank squads and chasing down lone players. Dominion also has gimmicky powerups that allow for 1-hit kills. Dominion is the mode where gear is taken into account, so your character can be inherently less powerful than somebody else's.

Its not like Dominion and the the other 4v4 mode doesn't have any value. Its moderately fun for a few matches. But Dominion takes what this game is best at, tense 1v1 battles, and transforms them into spam-fests.

That said even in 1v1 duels there are some balance issues. Defense is WAY too powerful. I've run into my share of people who've mastered countering the guard break and can block most of my attacks. The only way to land a hit on these people is to bait them into an attack, which is hard to do since they're sitting tight in their impenetrable fortress of superior skill. Attacking while their guard is up is super risky since a parry(which these guys can pull off with regularity) leads to a guaranteed guard break.

Because high level play is all about defense, characters like assassins(who have degrading blocks) are less powerful than other characters. So balance is an issue(Let's not talk about the Lawbringer).

Tl;dr The core 1v1 gameplay is great despite some balance issues. The game very much feels like the first entry in a franchise(Good idea, slightly shaky execution).

@qrowdyy: Gear doesn`t make you better just more specialized, but I agree with you on the feats and powerups. The passive feats are fine, but the active ones and the poweups are neither fun to use nor fun when they are used against you and I just kinda wish you could play without them. Dominion is actually my favorite mode though in spite of that. I like the flow of going from fight to fight and going from a duel to a two on one. And I actually think the two or three on one fights can be pretty fun. Winning a two on one fight is really satisfying and just surviving and distracting the other team in a three on one can be cool.

It would be one of my favorite mp games in some time if it functioned more than half of the time I attempt to play it.

I actually kinda love when a fight goes 2v1. Walking away from that shit is the most satisfying thing in this game.

@odinsmana: I'm with you on that. There's something ludicrously stupid and bombastic about that mode that I kind of love and its final moments of sudden death are tense as hell.

@odinsmana: Gear most definitely does make you flat out better, it's the thing (alongside poor matchmaking) that's starting to kill the 4 player modes for me (and a lot of other players). For example, you can gear yourself such that you can get revenge after blocking maybe 3-5 attacks from a single enemy in a 1 on 1 scenario, then pop revenge and kill them in 2-3 hits. So basically, revenge, which is ineffective at helping you against multiple enemies like it should, is now just a means to destroying opponents in 1 on 1s, which is something that should never, ever happen.

Perhaps worse, someone just discovered that gearing yourself into debuff resist removes almost all hitstun from the game, so you can counter guardbreak what used to be confirmed guardbreaks, and come out of hitstun fast enough to block or parry attacks that used to be extremely difficult to do so. Considering the only decent way to approach skilled opponents for most characters is to try and bait them so you can parry their attacks, that's a big deal.

Anyway, that's part of the reason I'm starting to like this game less and less. It's a sleek looking but fundamentally very, very sloppy game. A few days ago I would have recommended people get it, now, wait and see if a few months and a few patches fix the issues.

@brackstone: I am not saying it`s balanced (the game definitely has some major balancing problems), but more that from my experience for everything you gain in one area you lose something in another area. You can get revenge mode really quickly through defense, but your defense in revenge mode is really low. You can revive fast, but you sprint slow etc.

@odinsmana: The problem is that the stat distribution is terrible. For example, defense in revenge mode doesn't matter since revenge is pointless when you're outnumbered, so revenge gain is the thing to get since it gives you revenge in 1v1 fights. When outnumbered, the best you can do is try to block and maybe run away, tanking hits isn't super usefull. Even then, depending on your class, feat reduction can be basically useless since it won't affect passives, and since high level gear boosts 2 stats far more than they negatively affect the other one, you take the hit to feat cooldown, and you can get both revenge defense and revenge gain by defense. For almost all gear pieces, there's one stat that won't really matter if it gets hit with a negative modifier. The only gear pieces where there's actually a tradeoff worth seriously considering are the weapon pieces with Attack/Defense/Stamina cost.

Point being, the negative side of a tradeoff is negligible at best, and absolutely destroys the gameplay balance in 4v4 modes, especially since all bonuses are multiplicative, not additive. High damage characters will do REALLY high damage, and low damage characters won't get nearly as much benefit. God forbid you take a rep 0 ungeared character into matchmaking after you've leveled another character up to rep 3, you'll be eaten alive.

I'm not sure how they can fix it either, since this is the part of the game people spend real money on. I doubt they'll add a gear-free 4v4 mode anytime soon, they'd lose that sweet microtransaction money.