Now Playing: For Honor

I played For Honor in closed and open beta, and despite enjoying the core gameplay, I decided not to purchase it at release. The beta suffered from technical issues which clearly weren’t going to be fixed upon release, and I was also concerned by what appeared to be a weak selection of content. I did, however, say I’d consider picking up the game in a future sale, and when Ubisoft announced a budget price ‘Starter Edition’ I decided to give it a spin.

The Starter Edition comes with all single player and multiplayer content, but limits you to a small selection of the game’s available classes. You get three of the default classes unlocked, but must pay to unlock more classes by use of the in-game currency. You can earn this currency by simply playing the game, but to unlock every class – including the new expansion classes – will require a hefty grind.

But here’s the thing – it’s unlikely you’ll want to unlock every class in For Honor. The game allows you to practice with all of the classes, so you can decide which classes you prefer to play. You can then focus on unlocking those you enjoy.

I’ve been playing 1 class almost exclusively since I picked it up, and I’ve now earned enough in-game currency to purchase 3 more classes after nearly 20 hours of play. But currently, I’m happy to continue to play as (and attempt to master) my chosen class. As far as the Starter Edition goes in terms of value, I’d say it’s a pretty good deal with a fair system for unlocking more content.

I’m also pleased to report that the technical issues which plagued the beta seem to have been entirely ironed out. I had no connection issues or crashes during my time of play. I do, however, still feel the content on offer is a little weak, but we’ll address those concerns later. Instead, let’s begin by looking at the single player campaign.

I didn’t have the highest of expectations for the single player content, but I still came away feeling disappointed. I’m glad they didn’t just shove in all the multiplayer stuff and try to string it together with disjointed cut-scenes – which is kind of what I thought might happen – but instead, they did give us a lot of unique scenarios and maps.

The problem is, there’s not enough to it. You get three campaigns, one for each faction – Knights, Vikings & Samurai – each composed of 6 missions. The quality of the missions varies from short and boring, to elaborate and engaging. You’ll get to sample several of the different classes via these campaigns, but this results in the mode feeling more like a tedious tutorial than a properly fleshed out campaign.

And that’s a shame, because it feels like wasted potential. Some of the missions – at least, the larger, more notable ones – do hint at that potential. Siege battles with multiple objectives and mini-bosses that capture a spectacle sadly not present in the multiplayer component. It’s frustrating to see that wasted potential in terms of narrative, world and mission design.

And I really wish more of the single player stuff had translated into multiplayer. I was pretty shocked when I realised there were no new modes added to For Honor since the beta – if you don’t count the ‘ranked’ play (which is still in beta?). You still have the standard 1v1 or 2v2 modes, the 4v4 elimination modes and the popular 4v4 Dominion mode.

I enjoy these modes, but I’d have expected at least one new mode of significance to have been added post-release. Perhaps an asymmetrical siege mode – like in the campaign – with multiple stages and objectives, split into two rounds – attack and defence. It seems an obvious addition considering the setting (and that the assets already exist in the single player campaign).

There’s even stuff like escorting (and protecting) a battering ram in the SP, which would translate well into a MP objective focused mode. And that’s really what For Honor desperately needs – a new, flashy mode. Not more classes or cosmetics – a new mode with new maps to spice up the MP experience.

It also needs to make the ‘faction war’ aspect more engaging for players. There’s no real sense of strategy or direction to it. It’s just an endless back and forth of meaningless territories based on accumulated troops that seems to rise and fall almost at random. You can check a territory one minute and be leading by several thousand, then check the next and be nearly a million down.

I don’t really know how they can make it better, but maybe some kind of voting system to determine where attacks will be focused? Or some kind of inter-faction alliance system which could lead to competitive objectives for players in each faction? It really needs to do something to invest players in the overall ‘war’.

The core gameplay of For Honor is good fun. It’s a simple combat system, but one with surprising depth the more time you invest. And the range of classes and the variety of combat styles is great. That was never For Honor’s problem. It’s got that stuff locked down. And now it’s got the technical problems licked, it just needs to build upon its solid foundation and expand its multiplayer options.

7/10