For Honor: Years Later

“For Honor” originally came out on February 14, 2017, for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam. The game was a collaborative effort between Ubisoft Montreal, Blue Byte, Ubisoft Quebec, Ubisoft Toronto, Ubisoft Singapore, and Ubisoft Montpellier. The game takes place in a medieval setting, during a war between 3 nations, or “factions” —  the Knights, Vikings, and Samurai.

Every faction has six heroes to choose from, with the exception of the new “Marching Fire” DLC characters. Every hero has their own style. The main distinction between each character is the title, or archetype. Players can choose to be a vanguard, heavy, hybrid, or assassin. Each title (archetype) has a standard amount of health, damage output, and movement speed.

“For Honor” came out with a lot of hype as it presented players with a new, extremely unique and exciting take on the fighting genre. Many other medieval games had come out before “For Honor,” but very few (if any, I’ve never seen one) had the play-style or interactive multiplayer presented here. “For Honor” is a 1v1 (or 4v4) fighting game which includes an interactive combat environment as well as a multitude of characters, or heroes, to choose from. There’s a unique character suited for just about everyone, no matter how you play.

The game is fairly simple. There are only three ways you can attack or defend (left, right, up). But even with incredible simplicity such as this, the game still leaves a ton of room for mastery as you can get used to advanced techniques like feinting, parrying, deflecting, or counter-guard breaking.

A breath of fresh air for games set in the time period (most medieval games are RPGs or feature turned-based combat), “For Honor” opens up a lot of doors. Players experience fast and smooth combat which can turn on a dime, making each match feel high-stakes. The pace of the game helps you go from match to match, fighting new opponents and helping you by consistently matching you with people of your skill level.

When “For Honor” launched, it was a mess of bugs. Almost three years later, the game stands up as one of the best fighters on the market. In typical Ubisoft fashion, the continued support and endless free content updates have taken a messy game and made it into something worth playing. “For Honor” is still worth your time in 2019.