War is hell. And medieval war was especially hell. You have people pounding each other into a pulp or slicing off body parts and spilling guts and so on. That happens with shrapnel and bullets but it’s not close and personal as it is with hand-to-hand combat. Check out the gruesome story of the Battle of Visby. Professional soldiers and knights clashed with peasants resulting in one of the most brutal battles in history.
A new hack and slash video game from Ubisoft attempts to capture the hell of medieval warfare. For Honor is like an FPS, but instead of shooting, there’s swordplay. I guess you can call it an FPH – First Person Hacker.
The new trailer shows lots of hacking and slashing. No body parts, though. No guts on ground. But it looks very intense. It’s a cinematic, not gameplay, and so probably some baking powder mixed in there, but still brings back some of that Braveheart brutality. Especially check out the sequence at :24. You have mud. You have guys in close proximity poking and slashing.
The game isn’t exactly historically accurate. For those who really don’t know, Vikings and Knights and Samurai did not battle each other. But it’s not fantasy. Meaning, historical weapons and armor. No magic and dragons.
The game allows up to 8 players at a time belonging to one of three factions based on the warrior type mentioned above. Each side is supported by AI fighters who players have to beat to reach a score that allows them to kill other players.
Most importantly, would the fighting become repetitive? After all, the map and terrain probably won’t matter as much as it does in an FPS. Eventually, you have to close in on your foe, which means you guys are both standing in the same place facing each other. So, the fighting gameplay has to feature some interesting things than the typical, lock-in and push whole bunch of buttons. It has to be a fighting game.
The game’s combat system is called, “Art of Battle”. It’s a dueling mode where players square off each other and use some technique to hit or block their opponent. Doesn’t sound all that innovative, but we’ll see.
For Honor will be out on Windows, PS4 and Xbox One sometime in the future….