E3 2015: For Honor Debut Trailer
By John Jacques 11 December 2015
Intense melee combat, a real sense of danger, and one-on-one combat: Ubisoft are no stranger to these concepts. Today, during the Ubisoft Press Conference, the publisher announced a brand new intellectual property called For Honor, which is being developed by none other than Ubisoft Montreal. Creative Director Jason VandenBerghe took to the stage to introduce the game with a debut trailer, live four-on-four multiplayer combat, and the revelation that For Honor will be released in 2016.
The game is designed to make players ‘experience the adrenaline and danger of melee combat’, and the trailer does a great job in exemplifying the brutality behind the strikes, the strength of the blocks, and the overall feel of intense danger as players find foes across a massive battlefield for singular combat. This is what Ubisoft Montreal calls the ‘Art of Battle’ control system, and by its design players are expected to feel the very weight of each weapon as they attempt to parry blows and strike open targets.
When the Art of Battle system is active, players will use the right-stick to control which side to attack or block from, making each fight a test of strategy, wits and reaction. Players will also have to be aware of the situation around them, as it’s completely possible to knock players off ledges, which likely leads to a horrible death more often than not.
The four-on-four multiplayer did well to demonstrate how brutal the combat really is, with victorious players brutally executing their foes and quickly moving on to their next targets. Players receive little break after being victorious in individual combat, as the large-scale combat brings in massive waves of more AI foes to fight against. During the demo, one knight got attacked by two samurais at the same time, but was able to hold off their blows until an ally rushed in to even the fight. In a sense, it felt like watching Game of Thrones – the feeling that death could be around the corner at any moment was very present.
The multiplayer showed off a gamemode where the teams both sought to control various points around the map, an objective that will be familar to anyone who is familiar with game modes like Call of Duty’s Domination. Each team also has the ability to ‘break the enemy team’ by building up enough overall team score, which prevents enemies from respawning.
The game is centered around 3 classes of blade-based warriors: bold knights, brutal vikings, and mysterious samurais. Each of these warriors will have unique skills and weapons at their disposal. Players will trudge against AI enemies, human opponents, and archer combatants throughout each map, which look admittingly gorgeous as they get covered in blood.
As the demonstration closed, Jason VandenBerghe also confirmed that the game would feature fully playable multiplayer on the floor at E3 2015. Stay tuned for our very own hands-on preview.
For Honor will come to PC, Xbox One and PlayStation for in 2016.
