For Honor Reviews
An inventive premise and surprisingly deep combat system sits at the core of what could've been a great game—if so many technical issues didn't surround it and detract so much from the whole of the experience.
It doesn't always dance gracefully with the craft of battle, but For Honor is a game that harnesses some of the most impactful melee combat we've seen.
For Honor is a great new IP that takes the fun parts of competitive online shooters and sprinkles them into medieval-style combat. Add excellent visuals to the tight, polished gameplay and you have the makings of a potential esports contender. Unfortunately, microtransactions and free-to-play inspired unlocks take the sheen out an otherwise enjoyable experience. If you don't mind that, however, then For Honor is good fun.
In short, For Honor is bloated in a way it doesn't need to be, but in a way that's completely unsurprising for Ubisoft. A ton of cosmetic upgrades and progression rankings can't save it from being an ultimately narrow experience. It may not wholly satisfy anyone craving an enormous single-player campaign or competitive multiplayer, but if you want a surprisingly competent fighting game that's capable of offering some great, tense and skill-based encounters, For Honor has enough to offer. Ubisoft may have marketed the game as a big, broad battler, but in truth it's just about you and your opponent and that's where it is at its best.
The Art of Battle combat system works better than we expected, giving us a combat multiplayer game full of possibilities and close matches. Ubisoft tried something new and succeeded with a very deep multiplayer experience full of potential.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The campaign's story falls to earth with a thud, and technical problems are currently marring its online component, but For Honor's masterful presentation and combat rescue it from mediocrity. Given a few patches, it'll be a force to be reckoned with.
At its core, For Honor is a stunningly great game with exhilarating combat the likes of which are hardly seen. But it’s crippled by online issues that reduce its core multiplayer to a frustrating mess.
For Honor tries something new, and ultimately succeeds much more than it fails. With its surprisingly fun campaign, intense and challenging gameplay, and varied multiplayer, there’s plenty to keep you busy. There are balancing issues I sincerely hope get worked on, but for now, For Honor is a unique experience well worth your time, and could be the start of a daring new franchise.
'For Honor's dueling is focused and fun, but the best stuff is overshadowed by many smaller problems.
For Honor's tactical, forceful swordplay is extremely well-executed, especially for a first attempt. It's just a shame it's attached to so many distractions, including a bewildering story mode.
For Honor is a remarkable game with a deep combat system. The campaign has a cooperative mode for two players and the multiplayer mode will give you tons of hours of fun. For Honor is a safe bet to have fun alone and even more with your friends.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
For Honor is a real surprise. In terms of gameplay mechanics it's top-notch, visually it's excellent, and there's a decent if fairly formulaic campaign to play through. It's in For Honor's multifaceted multiplayer, however, where Ubisoft has has struck gold. Testing your combat knowledge against real players, either in one-on-one duels or in large conquest-style battles, is both thrilling and unique in the action genre.
For Honor is a fantastically innovative game that deserves to be played by everyone at least once, but whether or not it ends up being a multiplayer classic is still yet to be seen.
Judging by how Ubisoft has handled support for past multiplayer games (like Rainbow Six Siege), I’m confident that some of For Honor‘s issues will get rectified down the line. Gameplay can be tweaked, matchmaking enhanced, and better modes can all be added over time. However, as the game stands right now it’s more of a proof of concept than a fully realized idea. There’s a great base to build upon mechanically, but it’s too rough around the edges to shine as bright as it should.
I would like to love For Honor with all my heart because I spend with this game many good hours, but I can't. Network connection based on P2P is the worse thing that Ubisoft could choose for this game. If it gets fixed some time later, we will get a very good, addictive game.
Review in Polish | Read full review
For Honor feels like both a triumph and a failure in some senses. On one hand, it's an exceedingly genuine melee combat experience that manages to leverage the wild and varied styles of the knights, Vikings and samurai in a comprehensive package. The single player is great, if not terse. The multiplayer well designed. On the other, it's let down by consistently disappointing server and networking issues. These can be fixed in the future, no doubt, but for now, For Honor has some more territory to conquer before it becomes truly great.
I think, however, that I ended up liking it in spite of itself, and could feel the pushback more and more aggressively the longer I played it. It is an enjoyable game, and I have no qualms about calling it one of the best fighting games of this gen, but it does not solve the problems that keep the genre from being for everyone and, in some cases, accelerates those issues. Perhaps that is too heavy a burden for any game to carry, but I still find myself wishing For Honor were capable of it.
For Honor is a game that not only excels in it’s combat, but excels in it’s multiplayer execution. Nothing is more satisfying than challenging friends to a quick 1v1 battle to see who is the superior fighter, only to have your clock cleaned in a public match. While I found the story to be lackluster and more of a set of tutorial stages, there’s enough there to get players engaged with how the game operates. Multiplayer is the real crown jewel of For Honor, and is set to have players wanting more for the weeks and months ahead.
Although I never considered myself a competitive fighting game enthusiast, I found both the combat mechanics and the flow of engagement in For Honor refreshing. Individual matches don’t overstay their welcome, and it’s a hard game to put down due to the faction metagame. Seeing your faction losing a territory is a strong incentive to place additional war assets, requiring you to play one more match. Not to mention the game has additional legs with a rewarding loot system and customization options.
A fighting game unlike any other, For Honor is an experience that grows increasingly enjoyable and rewarding the more you play. A game in which Knights, Vikings and Samurai do battle, For Honor is exactly as awesome as it should be.