As often as we both yell and postulate, me and Luke aren’t warriors. We’re gym rats and gamers! Not axe and katana-wielding fighters, as much as we wish we were… So For Honor has been scratching that itch for the pair of us for quite some time. At least it was, till we got bored of it and played other games for a while.
Of course a few weeks ago we all got the news that a brand-spanking new hero is coming to the multi-faction weapon fighting game, a new Viking with a honest to Odin giant hammer! So big fella Jormungandr is nearly here and that seems to be all it takes for me and Luke to grab our weapons (Get your minds out of the gutter) and get back to fighting! This time though we aren’t fighting alone, joining us on the battlefield was the green fighter Joe! It was a Respawning warrior fest!
So getting things started we took to a game of Dominion to test new boy Joe’s mettle against an entire army of bots and 4 very mean player controlled fighters! While at first I worried that Joe might struggle to keep up, I was surprised at just how quickly he picked up the mechanics. Soon he was slaughtering with the best of us, and I decided to stop following him around, acting like a protective parent, and went on my own way as the dual katana wielding Aramusha (I know I’m a Viking, but I can’t pass up TWO katanas!!!).
I ran off on my own and soon realized that our enemies were playing an almost unbeatable strategy, saved to the annals of history as the greatest military tactic ever conceived by man. The bastards were grouping up… Turn any corner and BAM! There were 4 warriors hanging out together just waiting to shove a blade in your soft and squishy bits. I like to think that in even a 2 on 1, I’m competent enough to hold my own, at least till back up arrives; months of practice beating double teaming, no honor attackers in Brawls with Luke has given me the skills to survive!
With 4 weapons coming at me at once though, no amount of Super Saiyan-esque Revenge mode was going to save me, and soon I’d fall. After much yelling and salt pouring though my headset, I managed to calm down and actually communicate to my teammates that we should follow the enemies’ lead and group up! The tide tarted to turn, and as morale built, so did Joe’s skill! Soon I stopped nannying him and watched with pride as he started to cut his way though everyone he met. That’s the beauty of For Honor; it’s an easy game to learn, just hard to master. With a couple of hours under your belt, you’ll easily match most of the player base in skill.
Speaking of new players and developing skills, the following week our warrior count increased by 3! Along came Javier, Mikey and Alexx, so we could form up 2 teams of 3 and fight against each other without the dishonorable bastards online getting in the way. Taking the roles of team captains, me and Luke picked our squads like picking team for football in school and went to work. Early games seemed to play out the same way each time with me and Luke decimating the new guys, and then turning on each other for a final showdown, but as we played each player learned the ropes and soon we had some honest to god challenges! Apart from Jav… He seemed to struggle a little more with finding a fighter who suited him, so most games he ended up being easy pickings for the bigger boys.
The surprising dark horse of the matches tended to be Alexx, who stayed fairly quiet. There wasn’t much finesse to his fighting style but the mixed bag of light attacks and a notable skill in guarding meant the Respawning Rapper was soon kicking names and taking ass! Even he isn’t sure how that happened, but its good to see that someone on his first ever time playing can pick things up so quickly and have a whale of a time!
If you haven’t already played For Honor yourself, then all I can do is insist you pick up a copy ASAP! Using the standard method of Ubisoft games evolving post release, For Honor has gone from an okay – if not interesting – fighting game, to an excellent and unique IP with some sick gameplay, awesome characters and excellent online replayability. Get some friends together and get online to really experience what the game has to offer, and make sure to finish each match with a flourish… And slice your mate’s head off for funzies!
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