Hey there Giant Bombers!
This weekend was my first exposure to the "For Honor" game that's coming out in two weeks and I wanted to share my impressions and also just see how other people felt about the game. Prior to this beta weekend, I knew that this game existed, but I didn't really understand how it would play, the game types, the heroes. The only thing I did know is that it was essentially sounded like a mini-series comic book where the Vikings fight the Samurai who fight the Knights. What I didn't expect was essentially a fighting game that reminded me of Bushido Blade (sans one hit kills) and well, I struggle to think of other games similar to it, but let me try and tell you about why I like this game so much.
How uniqueness cuts both ways
The game is really special, not only because I think it's a lot of fun, but also because this game plays like nothing else out there. While that's incredibly rewarding it can also be unbelievably frustrating in those first few hours. While I'm sure this will be ameliorated by the inclusion of the Single Player campaign in the full release, the Basic and Advanced Training that were available were an acceptable substitute to at least know what the game was telling you on the UI. At the most base level, the combat is about hitting your opponent in one of three areas (left, right, top) and blocking their attacks. It's a two button fighting game with light and heavy attacks that go in one of those three directions. After understanding this basic framework, there are then guard breaks, dodging, parrying, perfect-parries, counter-guard breaks, and more. Then after you get all those things down, there are unique passives to each of the game's twelve heroes. Like for example, the hero I played the most was the Warlord (The Viking with the giant shield and sword) who had a passive that made it so if I timed my light attack correctly I would parry and then trade. The character also had a couple other unique abilities, such as having uninterruptible heavy attacks if timed correctly and an "all block" mode. Oh did I forget to mention that there's a stamina bar? There's a stamina bar as well that will drain and be drained by attacks.
If I haven't gotten across this point yet, this game is deep and I only barely scrapped together this understanding of ONE hero. The other eleven heroes have just as many passives and other combos to understand. If you're going up against a Peacekeeper (The Knight's super agile duel-wielding assassin hero) and you don't have a clue what to look out for then you're going to enjoy some incredibly painful stabs. Granted, if you understand the basics, you can still do well enough, but if you don't know what to look out for it's like not knowing an opponent's V-trigger in Street Fighter V. This leads to one of the complaints that most of my friends felt: "I'm getting my ass handed to me and I don't know why." Granted it's only the beta and we didn't have too much time to get familiar with the game, but the game will take a considerable amount of time to learn and perform well at if it's primary game type will be PvP.
The game types, heroes, and why I don't care if you gang up in a 2v1
So the three main game types seem to be Dominion, Brawl and Duels. Dominion is a 4v4 game type where you aim to control three control points. The control points will accumulate points for your heroes and eventually when you crest 1000 points you will take away respawning for the enemy team and you will need to eliminate them. This game type is a really fun tug-of-war as you have a control point near your respawn point and then one near your enemy's and then the middle control point is not captured in the traditional "Just stand in it" method. In order to control the middle point, you must push your AI peon soldiers past a line and then you have control of the middle point. It leads to some chaotic and fun moments and this game type really takes advantage of the Hero diversity. At the same time though, this game type also adds some new layers to the way your Hero can perform. You will "level up" as you gain points in the game giving you access to four different tiers of recharging active abilities or passive abilities (For instance, the Warlord's tier one passive was "Deadly" making his attacks do more damage).
The other two game types are much simpler in concept, Brawl is a 2v2 mode and Duel is a 1v1 mode. Both of these modes are best of 5 rounds where the goal is to eliminate your opponent in anyway possible. These are the game types where I had the most fun in the game. I had an impromptu best of 3 game with another player in the beta, and even though I lost (I'm not super good), it was exhilarating to struggle back and forth and have it go the distance all the way into round 5 of the final game. These game types also really show of the intricacies of the game's heroes because there are no distractions. It's you and the opponent and you have to win with the knowledge of your characters strengths vs their weakness and executing. It's really fantastic and tight game play and it really feels like the highlight of the weekend for me.
There's also a Planetside-like 3-sided metawar to this game, but I am not about to try and explain that whole system. I couldn't even begin to understand exactly what my wins/loses were doing to affect this mode, but hey it's there and it's cool to represent a side and see you gain territory.
Enjoy me having a duel! (I'm sorry for the clicking, I didn't realize my mic was on)
The Heroes are also a highlight for me because they all feel incredibly different. I normally gravitate to grappler type characters in fighting games and both the Raider, Warlord and other heavy type characters nicely fill that niche. If you're more into fast, agile and high damage/low health then you've got the Orochi, Peacekeeper, or Berserker to scratch that itch. They have poke characters, they have rushdown characters, they have pretty much everything and there's 3 characters that weren't involved in the beta that I'm excited to play.
Prior to typing this all up, I read some articles complaining about "No Honor" in For Honor or some other quick title that someone needed to come up with prior to some arbitrary deadline. It complained about balance and griefing and other things that really didn't make sense but I wanted to say that while I enjoy this game primarily for the 2v2 and 1v1 modes, the Dominion game type is essentially the "All bets are off, go nuts" mode of this game. Even in the 2v2 mode, you might get ganged up on in a 2v1 situation, but it's not a death sentence and you can still overcome the odds. It reminds me of the Dramatic Battles from Street Fighter, sometimes you just get obliterated, but other times you feel like the biggest boss ever.
The part where I put a conclusion
At the end of the weekend, I was clamoring for more of this game. I've been wanting to get into a deep fighting game for quite some time and I enjoy this game's style and aesthetic. When the full package comes out in a couple weeks, I feel like I'm going to pick it up. I don't know anything about their post-release schedule, but I enjoyed the gameplay enough to know I want to come back. There's a lot to learn, there will be a lot of losing, and there will be a lot of good times. What did you all think?
Log in to comment