Samurai, Viking & Knight

The sound of shouting and clashing metal fills the air. Fallen enemies and allies alike litter the battlefield. Every encounter is a brutal, tactical fight to the death. Kill or be killed. For Honor puts a blade in your hand like no game ever has before and sets you loose in a medieval battle. This is a game for everyone who grew up dreaming of knights and epic melee battles. Step into the boots of some of history’s fiercest combatants – the loyal Knights (the Legions), the fierce Vikings (the Warborn) and the brutally efficient Samurai (the Chosen).

THE ART OF BATTLE

Using the new Art of Battle system, you will have full control over the placement of their weapons. You can attack and move around just like you normally would, and then you can also lock onto a single opponent and enter into a dueling mode. The second you lock onto a target, your right stick goes from controlling your camera to controlling your stance. If you flick to the right with your stick, you move to hold your sword or shield on the right side.

“Wherever you’re holding your weapon, that’s where you’re safe,” explains Creative Director Jason Vandenberghe. “You’re automatically blocking in that direction. So if I’m holding my sword to my left and you attack me on my left side, I’m going to block it. But if you attack me from the right or from above, I’m going to get hit. It takes time to change my stance, so I need to anticipate what you’re going to do.”

You’ll need to pay close attention to how your opponent is telegraphing their moves because if you leave yourself open to a heavy attack, you could find yourself out of the fight very quickly. You can perform a guard break to throw your enemy off-balance and give yourself time to quickly switch your stance to attack them where they’re vulnerable. Vandenberghe tells us to loosely think about this loop in terms of a fighting game. If you attack someone while they are defending, the attack won’t hit. Defense beats attack. Guard break beats defense. Attack beats guard break. You’ll need to be on the lookout for any move your opponent makes.

“We built the fighting system this way so that you’re really watching your opponent’s stance,” says Vandenberghe. “This is what you would be doing in a real fight. When you’re going up against someone with a weapon, you’re paying a lot of attention to where their weapon is. You care a lot because if you don’t… Well, the fight is over for you.”

DEFYING LABELS

But what is For Honor? It’s not just melee combat. It’s not just strategy. It’s not just any one thing. Rather, For Honor pulls inspiration from across the gaming board – fighting game combat systems mixed with some shooter reward loops and chaotic yet tactical battlefield scenarios.

“I haven’t actually been able to really put a name to For Honor’s genre,” Vandenberghe explains. “It’s close-quarters melee combat. ‘Shooter with swords’ is something we’ve been throwing around, and it’s pretty accurate. People have tried to call it a MOBA, but it’s not really a MOBA. It seems a little like one when you look at it, but it doesn’t play that way at all. I think what’s going to happen is we’re going to release the game and then our audience is going to name it. I think they will be the ones to really name that genre.”

This is why the game absolutely needed to be playable at E3 this year, says VandenBerghe. This is something totally new. The team can’t point to another game and say, “It’s a little like that.” People needed to be able to get their hands on For Honor to really understand what it’s all about.

“Medieval spec-ops” is another term VandenBerghe brings up, and this one sticks with us. It feels right. You are a unique warrior on a mission – wading through the battlefield with a clear objective in mind. You can slip into the fray and slaughter a few of the easy minions, but your true strength lies in your ability to go toe-to-toe with the other elite forces on the field.

“You’re the top one percent. The characters you play in For Honor are the difference makers. They’re the ones who get called in to finish the fight. The battle is about to be lost, but because these individuals showed up, the tide was turned. That’s how much these warriors matter. You are a true medieval badass, and you’re hunting other badasses on the battlefield to see just who the best fighter is.”

IT’S A SHOOTER… WITH SWORDS

But Vandenberghe keeps circling back to For Honor’s shooter inspirations, referring specifically to shooter loops. It all starts with match-making. You start a match, cycle through maps, meet your new team and destroy the battlefield together.

“For me this is just a great way to blow anywhere from 20 minutes to four hours or even twelve if I really feel like going for it,” he explains. “There are a bunch of reasons why this loop works for shooters and why it’s so enjoyable. Well, all those reasons can apply to melee combat too. But now it’s not going to be about line of sight. You’re not sprinting around trying to find cover. So it won’t be like a shooter in the micro experience, but the overall macro experience will be very familiar to fans of shooters. We even have things called Feats, which are sort of kill streak rewards. Once you gain enough points for yourself, you’ll be able to call in support attacks like catapults or arrow storms.”

On top of these support attacks, you might be able to get a burst of stamina or improve the attack ability of the minions around you. The Feats are designed to give you an extra edge on the battlefield, just like you might see in a shooter.

WHAT’S THE STORY HERE?

The team isn’t offering any details on the campaign experience just yet (save that there is one), but VandenBerghe did have this to say: “This campaign is really an invitation into our world. This is our special place. Knights and Vikings and samurai all fighting on the same battlefield? I’m no history major, but I can tell you that never happened. But it does happen in the canon of For Honor and the campaign is your introduction to this world.”