For Honor (PS4) - we tested it out at E3 conference 2015

For Honor (PS4) - we tested it out at E3 conference 2015

Ubisoft always surprises us with new projects, and yesterday in its press conference at E3 (2015) unveiled three new titles: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands, South Park: The Fractured but Whole and For Honor, the latter certainly the most original and astounding. Developed by Ubisoft Montreal, For Honor puts us squarely in massive battles with swords in which we battle on three different factions: the Knights of the Legions, Vikings and Samurai Warborn, the Chosen.
A few hours after the Ubisoft’s conference we tried it for the first time and surprised its offer, quite original, thanks to its unique control system, 'The art of battle', and the fact naturally mix with massive bouts fighting one on one, as challenging as exciting. Jason Vandenberghe, creative director of the game, told us he had more than 10 years trying to build this project, and that his aim was to "recreate the same emotions felt by a warrior on the battlefield, the tension of the face-to-face and the danger of chaotic battles ", all with violent and visceral action.
For Honor will have a single player campaign, multiplayer, both against other players against bots, and even can play split screen on the same console with a friend. For now only it has released the multiplayer, and we play several battles in which we check firsthand how well it works its original offer, which will soon try to compare with other games. Being simplistic, it is a peculiar mix of Dynasty Warriors, Dark Souls and MOBA, but if something Honor For is a very original action game, which can not be compared to anything.
Mainly for its battle system, apparently simple and quite different from other action games with swords. We played it on the PlayStation version 4 and with the attack buttons, R1 and R2, we have normal and strong attack, the Souls style. The difference is that pressing L2 look the enemy, we stand on guard position, with the right stick and move the position of the sword, preparing attacks and defense. We can put the sword the left, up, right or backwards, having to see where you have placed the sword the enemy, and put it in the same direction, to stop beating, or to attack. Besides all this we have a charge attack to try to break the defense, we cannot abuse as it leaves us very vulnerable.

Each faction warriors have different types of heroes with their own skills and types of sword and multiplayer we tried, Domain, it was four against four. The aim was to conquer the three areas of the stage, adding more than a thousand points, and now annihilates the opposing team during a combat phase in which there is no return. The battles are massive, full of AI controlled, which may remind Titanfall, and these bots, apart from clogging serve to score points and activate any of the perks enemies, heal, improve attack power, or even invoke catapult attack.
These enemies we can not fix them, and they ended up with simple strokes, moments where the game is more like a kind of Dynasty Warriors. But when we face the Warriors players controlled things change completely, you have to fix them, and the fighting became much more strategic and tense, even exciting. The two rivals are groping, constantly changing the position of the sword, and I think before attacking. To be the first time we played we were surprised at how quickly we learned the mechanics and how well the game played, playing a team with complete strangers. It is a very intuitive and easy to learn to play, but also profound.
The map of the battle, a castle, was divided into three zones. A central, the more chaotic, dozens of soldiers on both sides, and two areas in the more remote side, one on a high point, a tower, which was where the most tense confrontations between players took place. If for example to win one of these points and you need two players, you have everything to lose, although you could play in a defensive manner, stopping attacks while the libations microphone the help of your team members. This provided very exciting and tense situations, and it is very satisfying when you stop several consecutive enemy, despairing to your opponent.
The sword fights are very satisfactory thanks to good animations, sound and a strong overall very good, to be a pre-alpha version of graphics. No popping, with a rate of very stable images, we were surprised by the precision, it seems a very solid product, no ruffles by moving tens of warriors on screen, very detailed. It also has very good details such as fabric suits with their own physical, or the spectacular executions, allowing you to cut the head of your opponent.

Although at first we thought it was going to try a multiplayer only game in the style of Titanfall or Evolve, we were told to have a single player campaign that explained later. This first demo was to check its unique gameplay, and how the multiplayer and team play works, and in all its facets convinced us. It will not be a game for everyone, but if you had ever imagine what it would be a multiplayer action with leisurely and challenging battles of Souls, here is the answer.
For Honor no approximate release date yet, but will be available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.