I never had a more complicated love-hate relationship with a game, than with For Honor.

For the record, I'm having much more actual playtime in this game than Steam shows. I have been playing it on and off since launch over at Ubisoft, on PC and console. Seen all the updates, all the heroes, how it was before the CCU and before the servers, yadayada. All combined, I'm probably around 1.2k hours. That being said, I finally decide to give it a thumbs down and warn anyone that still hasn't played this game – When you're a competitive person and value your psyche; stay away. This game will most likely make you mad, yell in frustration, stomp the ground and make you feel embarrassed for acting like an upset little boy.

To give this review somewhat of a game-play perspective – There's a fundamental design flaw in the combat system I'm simply not willing to tolerate anymore. The system is designed around 1v1 encounters. And at that, it actually works wonderfully. Duels feel great, to make it short. Yet, most of the popular game modes, including special events, and most of the quests you receive to grind currency want you to participate in those, are made for 4v4. Meaning you're often in a 1vX situation, that completely breaks the entire system. Buggy animations, wrong hit registrations, weird recoveries, etc. A great encounter with an enemy on the battlefield, that is a wonderful back and forth duel amid the chaos of soldiers fighting and catapults firing, can be ruined by a teammate rushing in, hitting the enemy's block like a maniac and letting them pop Revenge, basically letting them do whatever they want. So, you're forced to disengage before getting finished off, or both of you get downed. Great, thanks teammate. In SIX years of this game existing, the player-base has still not learned how to handle these situations. It has always been like this, it has always been frustrating, but everything revolving around the Revenge mechanic is just absolute nonsense, even after several iterations and reworks of it. It ruins the combat system, but they can't do anything about it because the 4v4s are the main focus of the game.

When you're into this type of hybrid fighting game, For Honor is one of the most beautiful prostitutes you have ever seen. Elegant, good looking, so much to enjoy. Her wardrobe is huge, she can put on whatever look you desire. If she lets you, she handles well and classy. And trust me, the beginning will be some really lovely hours of fun.
But sooner than later, you'll find out that she's a very, very harsh mistress. The gentle facade fades. And suddenly she will CBT you, even when you didn't ask for it. Usually, you're not into it. It hurts! Like, really bad. But for whatever reason, something that is hard to explain... You keep on coming back to her. She twists and turns you to her will, makes you addicted, you come back, over and over, and get your daily dose of painful “fun”, if you can call it that.
Because even if you're winning a match in For Honor, you're always losing anyway.
After every session you go “Why am I still doing this to myself?!” You don't know. She doesn't care.
One day, maybe you'll be able to set yourself free. “No more, For Honor!” you'll yell into her face. “I'm done! I won't take this from you anymore and leave this abusive relationship!” And she shrugs and you part ways. At first it feels liberating. But the memory lingers... She'll always be in the back of your head. After some time it'll make you think, man, maybe she has changed over the past months? Maybe I was doing something wrong? I don't know. So, out of curiosity, you go look at her again. And she has a lot of new toys. And new stuff in her wardrobe. And like a moth to the flame you get lulled into her BDSM sweatshop again and receive the same ballbusting treatment you always have.

You hate her so much. But you can't stop loving her.

I never had a more complicated love-hate relationship with a game, than with For Honor. For the record, I'm having much more actual playtime in this game than Steam shows. I have been playing it on and off since launch over at Ubisoft, on PC and console. Seen all the updates, all the heroes, how it was before the CCU and before the servers, yadayada. All combined, I'm probably around 1.2k hours. That being said, I finally decide to give it a thumbs down and warn anyone that still hasn't played this game – When you're a competitive person and value your psyche; stay away. This game will most likely make you mad, yell in frustration, stomp the ground and make you feel embarrassed for acting like an upset little boy. To give this review somewhat of a game-play perspective – There's a fundamental design flaw in the combat system I'm simply not willing to tolerate anymore. The system is designed around 1v1 encounters. And at that, it actually works wonderfully. Duels feel great, to make it short. Yet, most of the popular game modes, including special events, and most of the quests you receive to grind currency want you to participate in those, are made for 4v4. Meaning you're often in a 1vX situation, that completely breaks the entire system. Buggy animations, wrong hit registrations, weird recoveries, etc. A great encounter with an enemy on the battlefield, that is a wonderful back and forth duel amid the chaos of soldiers fighting and catapults firing, can be ruined by a teammate rushing in, hitting the enemy's block like a maniac and letting them pop Revenge, basically letting them do whatever they want. So, you're forced to disengage before getting finished off, or both of you get downed. Great, thanks teammate. In SIX years of this game existing, the player-base has still not learned how to handle these situations. It has always been like this, it has always been frustrating, but everything revolving around the Revenge mechanic is just absolute nonsense, even after several iterations and reworks of it. It ruins the combat system, but they can't do anything about it because the 4v4s are the main focus of the game. When you're into this type of hybrid fighting game, For Honor is one of the most beautiful prostitutes you have ever seen. Elegant, good looking, so much to enjoy. Her wardrobe is huge, she can put on whatever look you desire. If she lets you, she handles well and classy. And trust me, the beginning will be some really lovely hours of fun. But sooner than later, you'll find out that she's a very, very harsh mistress. The gentle facade fades. And suddenly she will CBT you, even when you didn't ask for it. Usually, you're not into it. It hurts! Like, really bad. But for whatever reason, something that is hard to explain... You keep on coming back to her. She twists and turns you to her will, makes you addicted, you come back, over and over, and get your daily dose of painful “fun”, if you can call it that. Because even if you're winning a match in For Honor, you're always losing anyway. After every session you go “Why am I still doing this to myself?!” You don't know. She doesn't care. One day, maybe you'll be able to set yourself free. “No more, For Honor!” you'll yell into her face. “I'm done! I won't take this from you anymore and leave this abusive relationship!” And she shrugs and you part ways. At first it feels liberating. But the memory lingers... She'll always be in the back of your head. After some time it'll make you think, man, maybe she has changed over the past months? Maybe I was doing something wrong? I don't know. So, out of curiosity, you go look at her again. And she has a lot of new toys. And new stuff in her wardrobe. And like a moth to the flame you get lulled into her BDSM sweatshop again and receive the same ballbusting treatment you always have. You hate her so much. But you can't stop loving her.