You’re the last warden standing on the battlefield. Your comrades have fallen one by one, their blood speckled all over your armor. Your enemies have encircled your remaining troops. You look up to see catapults on the battlements, unmanned. They are your only hope to save you from a brutal defeat. Do you risk your life to save the battle? Will you bring honor to your cause?
No, you’re not Jon Snow at The Wall. You’re playing For Honor, Ubisoft’s newest title all about bringing the fog of battle to your console. For Honor isn’t just some button-masher you can get away with not strategizing your movements. One wrong move could not only cost you the battle, but you might lose the war for your cause. Do you feel the pressure, yet?
“[For Honor] comes from this idea I had about 15 years ago,” Jason Vandenberghe, game director of For Honor, told iDigitalTimes. “The [concept] was to create a system that would let players feel [what it’s like] to pick up a weapon on a real battlefield. It’s all about anticipation and looking at your opponent thinking, ‘What are they trying to do?’ You try to manage your defense and attack at the same time. You have to keep track of where your weapon is because it’s going to be your shield.”
Vandenberghe’s combat system is called The Art Of Battle. At its core, the combat system encourages players to be reactive and proactive. It’s also a mix between one-on-one combat and managing your troops. For example, you’ve entered the game’s multiplayer – you and your friends are up against another group matched according to your skill level. You see someone trying to take over one of your territories, so you slash your way through your enemies to get to your foe. You decide to hit your target on his left side, but they anticipate your strike and block your attack. The block isn’t automatic; the other player managed to catch on to your fighting style and anticipated your move. That person, in real-time, blocked your sword.
“That is the way real combat works,” Vandenberghe said. “Those emotions are familiar and they’re hardwired deep. What we hope we’ve done is created a system where you start to play that way and start to pay attention to what your enemy is doing, that it unlocks this instinctive warrior in your gut. It kind of wakes up a bit and goes, ‘I know how to do this,’ and it gets really immersive.”
There are three factions in For Honor: Samurai, Vikings and Knights. The campaign mode is a mix between your "hero" and named characters you’ll see in each battle. The single player mode is broken up into sections where you’ll play a new faction hero each time and customize him or her to your liking. Every time you play as a new hero, you’ll have loadouts or “skills” you can use, but you won’t necessarily have control of their gear. You’ll pick up armor, weapons and skills during your many battles in For Honor along the way. These goodies will also translate over to the multiplayer mode as well.
Speaking of campaign mode, For Honor follows the story of Apollyon, the warlord of the Blackstone Legion. Her rule is vicious and she basks in the violence of war. In fact, a young Apollyon slayed one of her enemies to rise in power. She had his armor custom tailored to fit her. Yes, she wears a dead man’s armor. Don’t think you can get more intimidating than that.
“Apollyon is a believer. She believes that humans are divided into wolves and sheep, like predator and prey. She’s made the leap that therefore we have a moral obligation to allow the wolves to prey on the sheep, that’s how the world should be. She’s a visionary that controls the Blackstone Legion and enforce this view of the world.”
Apollyon acts like a goddess. Whether she is or not, you’ll have to play For Honor to find out, but that’s not the only head-scratcher regarding the title – Samurai never fought Knights or Vikings in war. Vandenberghe and his team took creative liberties with For Honor ’s story, but hey, it makes sense in the context of their world.
“[For Honor] revolves around Apollyon and her desire to spread the seeds of war into a world that’s trying to make peace. I mean the core of the game is about knights fighting samurai. What? [laughs],” Vandenberghe said. “With the story mode, we really wanted to give you a world that let you believe in that. A world where you think, ‘Yeah, knights fight samurai. Yup, all in the same space and here it is.’ Once you immerse into that setting and get to know the characters and be that ‘hero’ that can make a difference between victory and defeat, that’s the idea for [the game].”
There are many nuances to For Honor. You can be winning a battle one moment, be ambushed the next. So which side will choose? For Honor is available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on Feb. 14.
