For Honor pits knights vs vikings vs samurai

Ubisoft have announced For Honor, a brutal third-person multiplayer melee-’em-up, due in 2016.

As either a knight, a viking, or a samurai, you’re dropped into a hectic battleground full of AI soldiers. At this point, it looks a bit Dynasty Warriors, as you easily cleave through the masses. When an opposing player turns up, though, it goes a bit Bushido Blade, with a focus on very careful, very weighty one-on-one combat.

Going by the gameplay footage, these strikes – with huge broadswords, as an example weapon – have serious heft, and it doesn’t take many direct hits to brutally carve up your opponent. The meat of the game will presumably be in these engagements against other players, but it looks like certain game modes will have objectives, and – as with MOBAs – assisting your AI soldiers might actually be more important than getting into a sword-based slapfight with another player.

You can see a trailer for For Honor below, with some multiplayer gameplay footage below that. If nothing else, check out the gameplay footage: it looks rather unique and rather tasty.