Strange Girl Gaming

This was quite the weekend for many gamers worldwide, for the past 3 days gamers from all over the globe have had access to the beta for a new game known as For Honor. With For Honour set to hit stores on the 14^th February this was the last beta test for the game, a final chance for gamers to get their hands on it before release. Now I was fortunate enough to get my hands on one of the beta keys so I figured I would give you guys my thoughts on what this game is like and what I believe we can expect upon its release.

Let me start by saying to anyone who isn’t a gamer that you can forget about having a nice romantic Valentine’s day, instead you can expect your boyfriend or girlfriend to be killing people in a rather brutal fashion. They are going to be so engrossed in deciding whether or not they belong to the Viking, knight or samurai faction, while it is possible to like all 3 most people have going to have set loyalty and what better time to test out where your loyalties lie than on release day.

As I have just stated there are going to be 3 factions upon release and they are Vikings, Knights and Samurais. With each faction comes 4 classes though during the beta we had access to only 3 classes per faction but it’s safe to say that not a single class is disappointing, they all had their own unique weapons and movesets. Let me start with the Samurai,

1.      Kensei – they may be slower than some of the other classes for Samurai but make no mistake that the Kensei pack a punch, they are capable of some serious damage with quite a long range to their attacks.

2.      Nobushi – their choice of weapon is a form of spear, giving them a long range to their melee attacks, they also move with speed giving them an advantage over their adversaries.

3.      Orochi – are very similar to an assassin with great agility, they are capable of dealing some incredible damage. Due to their speed they are very capable of performing punishing counter attacks.

4.      Shugoki – now this class wasn’t available to play as during the beta, however it would appear as though they are going to be the powerhouse class for the samurai faction

Knights

1.      Conqueror – the only class from the knights to wield a shield meaning they naturally have a higher defence stat, I would also say that their offensive arsenal can easily overwhelm their opponent.

2.      Peacekeeper – they are elite assassins that value stealth proficient at sneaking up on enemies, with dual wielding daggers they are capable of eliminating their target,

3.      Warden – the best way to describe the warden would be as the best choice for beginner for the game, they are clearly well rounded with a higher defence stat than other classes but also a higher damage output than other classes too making it the perfect choice for someone who is new to the game or for someone who is struggling on the battlefield.

4.      Lawbringer – the class for the knight that wasn’t available during the beta, they appear to be capable of dealing high amounts of damage with a longer range to them, potentially they could be proficient at performing counter attacks.

Viking

1.      Berserkers – highly proficient in combat with their dual wielded axes, they have a short range to their melee attacks making them the perfect choice for those who like to be close to their opponents. A chain attack from the berserker can spell death for their opponent.

2.      Raider – a huge Viking with a two handed axe, naturally as with most giants they are considerably slow but on the flip side they can deal exceptional amounts of damage wiping out multiple enemies at a time.

3.      Warlord – utilising a sword an shield they have a nice amount of defence and can deal considerable damage when close to their enemy, they appear to be capable of counter attacks.

4.      Valkyrie – the class that wasn’t available for the beta, they have a sword and spear giving them decent defence with the ability to attack from distance rather than up close.

Upon the release of the game I will write a post about each class stating their abilities, their stats and how they are best utilised. If this is something that interests you then stay updated as I will release these as fast as I can if it will prove useful and be helpful.

While playing the beta I was highly impressed with the combat, it runs really smooth, it feels like you are truly in a battle with one wrong move potentially causing you to meet your maker. In my opinion For Honor already has one of the best combat systems that I have ever seen, every move feels real, when duelling with an opponent the way that you need to choose to defend, dodge or lunge in for an attack feels true to life that is how fight probably would have been.

Dominion, Dual and brawl were the available game modes this weekend, plenty for all us gamers to get our teeth into, essentially the modes were 1v1 (Dual), 2v2 (Brawl) and 4v4 (Dominion). Dual and Brawl are self-explanatory it is simply a case of 1 on 1 in a dual or 2 on 2 in a dual, however dominion is where it gets interesting, by far dominion was my favourite mode to play this weekend.

Dominion is essentially a battle, it’s 4v4 be that against other players or the AI. But there are hordes of minions for both teams that battle not just one another but the players too, just like in a real battle. The way to win is to capture the ABC zones, just like a normal game of capture or control from other games, killing a minion grants you 1 point while killing a player grants you 5 points. Capturing a zone earned your team 100 points, though be warned those points can be taken away should the opposing team claim that zone as their own. My favourite part of a match of dominion however has to be the ending, when one team reaches 1000 points they would rally together to finish off their opponents while the dispersed after being broken, once all 4 heroes of a team are dead after being broken the match is over. Though it is possible for the dispersed team to regroup should they also reach 1000 points thus continuing the match.

I have had an amazing time playing this game over the weekend and honestly I am very excited for this to be fully released, while I may enjoy online gaming the idea of having 3 different campaigns to play through is getting me excited. Each faction has its own campaign, the first one I will be playing through is the knight due to that being my faction of choice, what is your faction of choice?

Remember 14/02/2017 is when we can all own this incredible game, my copy is on pre-order, is yours?