Two characters in For Honor, dressed in armour, ready to fight.

Hands On: For Honor: Initial Beta Impressions

Nvidia sent us a “For Honor” closed beta code.  Vikings vs. Samurai vs. Knights…what’s not to like?  Here are my thoughts having spent a few hours with it.

The beta runs from January 26th till the 29th. I was surprised to see this pop up in my email, I almost never get into Closed Betas for games. The code Nvidia sent me is for the PC version only.




At first, I wasn’t looking forward to For Honor, but then I figured since I have a Closed Beta key might as well check it out. I’m glad I did.

First off, this is a multiplayer only Closed Beta, so no single-player action here. As I fired up the For Honor Beta I was greeted with what side I would like to pick. You have a choice of Vikings, Knights, or Samurai, I went with the Knights.

I was then presented with creating my crest. You can choose what colors you want, the border of the crest, and a symbol if you so desire. Since I chose the Knights, the crest was made to look like a Knights crest, it would have been neat to see the Vikings and Samurai crests but after I saved mine it wouldn’t let me go back. We’ll save that for another day!

After creating my crest I was thrust into training for the game, which was a quick 10 or 15-minute tutorial. After the training, I was then presented with the main screen. From here I could launch my own game or play with other people online. I decided to launch my own game and play by my self. I want to get a feel for this game and see what it is all about without getting my butt handed to me online.

Launching your own game allows you to choose the rules and how you want to play. I pretty much went with defaults here and jumped right in. The match started and I noticed where human players are supposed to be For Honor has Bots. Just what I was hoping for, I didn’t want to play with anyone right now till I got some experience under my belt. I’ll get into more detail about my thoughts on the Bots with my full review of the beta.

When the game starts it tells you have to capture three different points. In a way, it feels a little bit like Battlefield but with melee weapons. In this mode I played there are AI Bots that are pretty much cannon fodder, these guys don’t hurt you much and you can kill them very easily. The ones you have to watch out for are the Heroes, which are played by humans or in my case more Bots. The Heroes are tougher to break down and hit very hard. Heroes are the ones who capture the points and turn the tide of the battle for your side. So working together is key.

I am having a lot of fun in the beta, and enjoying this game more than I thought. After the beta ends I will write a full review of the Closed Beta and go into detail my thoughts of the game so far.