“Shooter with swords” a big but exciting gamble from Ubisoft

Next month sees something of an interesting gamble by Ubisoft with the launch of co-op online brawler For Honor.

Out on February 14th for PS4, Xbox One and PC, For Honor is a hack and slash game which leans heavily on its control system dubbed ‘The Art of Battle’.

The game set tongues wagging when it was first announced at the 2015 Electronic Entertainment Expo.

And excitement has been building ahead of launch, even if it represents something of a risk for Ubisoft - who brought us Rainbow Six Siege and the Assassin’s Creed series - as it is their first attempt at the genre.

The game’s hand-to-hand combat system allows players to play the roles of historical soldiers such as medieval knights, samurai, and vikings within a Medieval fantasy setting.

Players can play as a character from three different factions, namely The Legion, The Chosen, and The Warborn which represent knight, samurai, and Vikings respectively and each faction has four classes.

Excitement has been building ahead of launch, even if it represents something of a risk for Ubisoft - who brought us Rainbow Six Siege and the Assassin’s Creed series - as it is their first attempt at the genre.

Players fight against their opponents with class-specific melee-weapons such as axes, swords, and katana and when you perform certain actions, such as killing multiple enemies consecutively, they gain Feats, which are additional perks.

These perks allow players to gain additional points and strengths, call in a barrage of arrows or a catapult attack, or heal themselves.

In most missions, players will be accompanied by numerous AI minions.

If you come up against someone of superior strength and health you enter a dueling mode - zoned in gameplay - wherein players aim at their opponent with their weapon reacting to prompts and movements.

The creative director of For Honor has labelled it a “shooter with swords” which features five game modes - Dominion, Brawl, Duel, Skirmish and Elimination and three maps - one from each faction. Gameplay trailers look very promising indeed.