History as we know it has come undone. Three warrior cultures that never crossed swords in real life – armored knights, Vikings, and samurai – will clash for supremacy in For Honor's medieval battlefields. Just announced for Xbox One, PC and PlayStation 4 at Ubisoft's E3 press conference, For Honor's action blends strategic thinking and deliberate swordplay with shooter-like pacing and melee crowd control. Hurling players into chaotic scenarios as a powerful special-ops warrior, it takes a unique approach to medieval warfare.
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"Our vision with Sanctuary is to create a game that ignites the same emotions that a warrior would feel on a real battlefield. The tension of face-to-face encounters with deadly enemies, the adrenaline of charging alongside your army against the opposition, the danger of a chaotic battle when you don't know where the next strike will come from," says Creative Director Jason Vandenberghe. "It's a game that celebrates the art of sword-fighting and the legacy of the legendary warriors from those great legacies, the knights, the Vikings and the samurai that we brought together in one single experience."
Playing as legendary heroes from one of three factions – the Viking Warborn, the Chosen Samurai or the knightly Legions – you'll spend much of For Honor's single-player campaign and multiplayer matches stomping through enemy infantry and archers, clearing a path for your own troops to pour through, while also taking part in lethal duels with other champions.
"You're the top one percent. The characters you play in For Honor are the difference makers. They're the ones who get called in to finish the fight," says Vandenberghe. "You need to make tactical decisions about which pieces of this ground you're going to fight over. And then you encounter other badasses who are equally as important as you, and you duel them to find out who's the bigger badass. If you're dead, it was them."
For Honor's duels take advantage of the Art of Battle combat system, a key features of which is to let you adjust your stance with the right analog stick, which blocks incoming attacks and lets you strike at openings in your opponent's defenses.
"Wherever you're holding your weapon, that's where you're blocking automatically," says Vandenberghe. "So if I'm holding my sword to my left and you attack me on my left side, I'm going to block it. But if you attack me from the right or from above, I'm going to get hit. It takes time to change my stance, so I need to anticipate what you're going to do."
For Honor will be playable during E3, so we'll have more details on what it's like to play as an armored juggernaut very soon. Register for a chance to play For Honor early at the official website.
For more on For Honor and other E3 2015 features and news, check out our E3 hub.
