It's a long review! Forewarning so buckle up.
By no means is this game perfect. The singleplayer campaign is a glorified tutorial for multiplayer, there are often connections issues due to not having dedicated servers (soon to be patched however), and the learning curve for the game is similar to meeting a mountain suddenly out of nowhere( with a relatively decent set of reflexes, it's laughably easy to dominate opponents when you're both at low levels, but the moment your playing at the low to mid levels, players' skills skyrocket and the weak are weeded out by superior players. Prestige players feast on beginners & casuals who slack off on truly mastering their characters). However, if you haven't run away from this game yet, and are willing to dig a little deeper into the game's core mechanics, you'll be able to see that despite the flaws this game has, For Honor is an addictive, engaging, skill based game that will leave you wanting more and more!
Using the "Art of War" combat engine, this game's core combat mechanics play like nothing most players have ever seen before. Gone are the button mashing, frantic gameplay that are often seen in most fighting games or COD/FPS style games. This game requires patience, skills, and very methodical approach to combat strategy. Pull the wrong move off at a certain time and you'll find your mistakes are incredibly costly, but study your opponent's habits, and utilize your character's strength to attack their weakness, and the rewards are satisfying and thrilling. Be warned as Casual Gamers who favor titles that requires very little thought in pulling off feats of combos or attacks will have a hard time here. You can't just hold down a trigger and spam an attack or combo over and over and expect to win anything here. This game punishes players who haven't mastered their character and/or try to win through repetitive combos or lucky hits, like most conventional games (think any fighting game today or multiplayer shooters like Overwatch or COD) I think this is the reason why so many people are having trouble with the game's combat system. Players will not be able to just pick up and play and expect to beat experience players without practice. Skill reigns top here. With an array of 12 characters, that all play very differently from one another, and plenty more to come through DLC, there are also plenty of game styles for players to pick from to master, or more importantly, learn to fight against.
Graphically and sound wise, the game does a fine job. Combat is smooth, and there is hefty feeling to your attacks. While not exactly diverse, swords, maces, and shields clank off each other with all the weight and sound effects you would expect. Characters control and feel like they should based on their class and size; smaller characters feel quick and agile but are compromised by their weapons' range to make up for their superior speed, lumbering tanks act like slow but powerful behemoths, with huge weapons that deal out heavy damage and contains sizable range, but sacrifice their speed in doing so, and balanced characters feel and play like the comfortable in-between compromises they should be.
As for the maps, there are not that many out right now. A bit of a downside, and although new maps will be given out in the future months, I would have liked more at launch. But since they essentially serve as nothing more than a platform for where the game truly shines, the combat system, i haven't really found myself complaining about it while playing.The core of the game is centered around (usually) 1v1 battles of intense combat anyways, so the maps don't necessary hold as much importance as other games since you'll be spending more time operating in small areas while fighting. I'm more focused on who I'm going to fight and how I'm going to defeat them than I am about if we're playing on Map A, B, C,D, etc.
While not a perfect game, I truly believe that the gameplay of For Honor makes up for the flaws that are present in the game as of today. However, things like connection issues can always be patched. Core game mechanics however, cannot, so when a game is so fundamentally addictive and engaging as For Honor is, you can overlook the flaws in the game and still enjoy it greatly.
8.5/10