Great Odin’s Beard, I launched that knight’s head over a wall!
I’m not an easily excitable person, many who know me find it hard to get a rise out of me. It’s possibly my gruff veteran interior and growing up in a stoic household. So being a bit of a stick-in-the-mud when it comes to new releases is just in my nature. It’s a matter of hope for the best but expect the worst pretty much every time.
In a strategic exercise to not let my nature rule my choices, I picked up a game that, quite frankly, I didn’t care about in the slightest. I wasn’t excited for a day-one release and I’ve been so disappointed in UbiSoft games as of late that my purchase felt as if I took sixty hard earned dollars and burned it in my front yard.
I stepped outside the comfort zone with this one, folks, but it was the box art, and every time it’s my Achilles heel because, let’s be honest, placing a Viking on the cover of anything and I pretty much want to own it.
But with my predisposition for disappointment with Ubisoft, I begrudgingly gave For Honor a shot and amazingly, for once, I am very surprised.
Because, oh baby, For Honor is a history geek’s wet dream wrapped in a plate mail taco shell!
The premise of For Honor wants you to believe that sometime around the medieval period a great cataclysm rearranged the continents and somehow brought Japan, Norway, and Europe together in fun and hilariously violent ways. They’ve warred for a millennia and so history doesn’t progress as it should. It’s a bit ridiculous but it sets an amazingly bloody stage for a world of all my favorite aspects of the feudal era, full frontal combat and catapults.
For Honor is both fun and frustratingly difficult to get your head around. I say this because it plays with a controller scheme that takes some practice to get right. It’s a combination of fast twitch and button smash sort of mixed with quick time context events and, to be honest, it works rather well.
For instance, you can plow right in and start bashing the idiot henchmen with a bulked-up Viking by knocking them around like ragdolls. The raw power of a Nordic Bull in a China shop comes to mind and all this to advance your friendly army to control territory or to push back the enemies’ front lines.
Then there is warrior dual mechanic that stand out as a mix of “whoa!” with a little bit of “oh crap!” You won’t find a lazy method to parry or block every attack and then spam the blue button until you win, like pretty much every Assassin’s Creed game ever!
No, For Honor requires one to read their opponent and make judgments on whether to attack from the side or block or dodge. Some enemies are slow and can be anticipated or maneuvered around with ease and others are dual wielding berserks that will make your head spin swinging at air.
There are unlockables and game customizations for multiplayer because what new triple-A would be complete without them these days? Ubisoft has an infatuation with filling the game screen with menus and sub-menus and customizations which can be fun if you like your games to interrupt you with PowerPoint slides after every level. I like my games to pull me in not remind me of an Economics class.
There is also an intriguing story in the single player campaign that I’ve barely scratched but find myself curious enough to roll with to get myself ready for the multiplayer. (Which I never care about in any aspect of gaming but for once I do want to try bashing people over the head as an Ironclad beast-of-war.)
For Honor is a brutally fun experience and I am hopeful it will have staying power since I have started tinkering. Graphics are fine but I really appreciate the sound design for making the battles engaging and hearing the muffled voices of men and women in slick plate armor shamefully gets me giddy. I just have a penchant for some realism even if the premise is ludicrous.
So, if you are a person who wants to step away from saving the universe by slaying slimy tentacle monsters, For Honorr is great way to get that pulse going with tense medieval duals that could satisfy the inner blood thirsty berserker in us all.
Plus Vikings vs. Samurais? Shut up and take my money!
Brandon Watson has been on the gaming scene since first dropping coins in an arcade cabinet many moons ago. When not vaporizing zombies or leading space marines as a mousepad Mattis, he is making gourmet pancakes and promoting local artists.