Break it down far enough, and every fighting game is essentially an over-complicated, fast-paced game of rock-paper-scissors. Low jab beats uppercut. Jump kick beats low jab. Uppercut beats jump kick. Air block beats uppercut. Air throw beats air block. And on and on, in dozens of different permutations based on the specific characters and positioning involved, repeated hundreds of time with split-second timing in a single match.
Based on some time with the closed alpha test this weekend, Ubisoft's For Honor is definitely a fighting game in this same tradition. While the final game looks like it will have some of the trappings of a Dynasty Warriors-style epic brawler—including countless cannon fodder enemies to mow down with your weapons—the alpha test focuses on online duels with human opponents. The fast-paced punches and kicks of most modern fighting games may have been replaced with slower weapon swings, and the game is missing genre standards like, um, a jump button. Still, the basic rock-paper-scissors battle of feints and reactions is still there beneath the incredibly detailed environments and intricately armored warriors.
Compared to the high-energy, frame-perfect world of the usual modern fighting game, For Honor's battles seem to play out in slow motion. Even the fastest attacks are telegraphed with a relatively lengthy weapon wind-up animation of a half-second or so (no, I didn't use a stopwatch). That gives the opposing player time to flick the right stick to the right, left, or upwards to block the direction the attack is coming from with a satisfying clang. There's even a handy semicircle overlay, which clearly shows the direction of the opponent's stance, and it flashes red to give even more warning when an attack is coming.
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