For Honor BETA: PS4 Review

For Honor BETA: PS4 Review

Released by Ubisoft
Platform: PS4

Ubisoft's BETA month is well underway.

What with Tom Clancy Ghost Recon Wildlands hitting and the For Honor BETA also being delivered, it's a fairly busy time ahead of these releases in the coming months.

For Honor's Closed Beta (an open one is being held very soon) offered a tantalising glimpse at a new way of playing online competitive brawling. And for the large part, it was a very intriguing one.

If anything, it showed that a great deal of practice is necessary to ensure that when the game kicks in, you're in line with what's expected and can survive, as well as help your team to victory.

Real-time countering is a skill to master and is vital, no matter which faction you choose to play. Whether you're Viking, Knight or Samurai, if you can't defend then you're gone. It's a skill that takes a little time to get your head around but it's terribly important during the ongoing combat.

Talking of which, the plot loosely revolves around the world having been shattered by an earthquake and different factions fighting for resources afterwards. As ever, world-changing means that groups spring up - and allying yourself to one of these is the way forward.

The opening video is nothing short of spectacular. Fighting through the ages is demonstrated by the world changing around the characters and it's very wonderfully executed, a sort of age-old conflict given a graphical new spin.

With the closed Beta offering 1 v 1 duelling, 2 vs 2 or 4 v 4, the combat element is as mentioned the most important part of the game. And it's fluid, brutal and if you've not mastered what you need to, likely to signal an end to your time in the world before you've even realised what's going on.

The full on brawling where zones are captured are ones that will require tactics - gaining a zone collects you points, but losing that zone and then dying in said zone deducts them. It's a smart touch to ensure one side never romps home with the prizes but it does make the counting down clock a major enemy to your march to victory.

While the Beta had a few glitches and many were choosing the samurai because of their long length weapons meaning you could kill before your opponent's anywhere near you, most of it felt balanced and a good learning curve to what lies ahead.

With loot, XP and the customisations on hand, For Honor could well be a tantalising prospect to the age old online brawler. It's certainly got the premise and promise down pat - here's hoping the Valentine's Day release will hit the highs that the BETA's pointed to.