Ever since For Honor was announced at E3 2015, I’ve been intrigued by Ubisoft’s upcoming action game. As someone who loves history and warfare, I was excited to see three very different types of warriors (knights, vikings and samurai) go at it. Despite my interest, I never really grasped exactly what the gameplay was all about. Thankfully, I got a chance to go hands-on with the closed beta, and I now have a much better understanding on what the game has to offer.
The closed beta offered three different modes: Duel, Brawl, and Dominion. The latter is the game’s main mode, as it’s a four-on-four skirmish where players try to capture points on a battlefield from the other team. It’s a very familiar concept, but the focus on melee combat makes it feel more unique than if it was in a first-person shooter. While Dominion only features eight player controlled warriors, there are plenty of more in the action. Similar to a MOBA, there are AI-controlled grunts that take up space and will fight whoever is closest to them. These fighters are ridiculously easy to kill, as a single attack will down them immediately, but they do offer enough of an annoyance that they can’t really be ignored. Thus, it’s to the player’s advantage to keep their grunts moving forward and to use them in order to take over the three capture points on the map.

The real fun comes when fighting human characters, as For Honor has a fun combat system that has pl...