P2P: many disconnects, connection problems. 50% of my 4on4 matches are dominated by disconnects of several other players. If everyone gets kicked out except the host and me … it sucks. Playing with friends is very frustrating: My friends joined my party. I join a game and …. Someone of my friends is not able to join the game or his screen remains black (PS4). Most of the time someone is kicked out of the party. I have to re-invite at least one player after each(!) match. It is just horrible.
Items: Items are deactivated in 1on1 and 2on2 as default. Why? Because items make a huge difference. Players with better items are able to fight longer due to less stamina consumption. Or they do much more damage, get revenge really fast and much more. It’s great that items are deactivated in 1on1 and 2on2. But items are activated in each 4on4 mode. Why? Items make a huge difference in every game mode. If I’m fighting a player which got item level 108 while I got item level 20, it’s a huge disadvantage. A can’t capture a zone if such a player tries to defend. If he is as good as me, items will result in a huge advantage for him. This sucks.
Additionally: Why should i play another character in 4on4 other than my main? It is a huge disadvantage to play with low item level in 4on4.
Skills: Skills are deactivated for 1on1 and 2on2 and this is great. And again: in 4on4 skills will boost the winning team. If you are already winning, you get a higher level and better passive and/or active skills. Additionally most skills are just stupid. Especially the higher tier skills are insane: Oneshotting the whole team? Really? Skills make a huge difference, they are easy to use and they have a huge impact. The game would be much better without skills in 4on4 too.
Environment! 1on1 and 2on2 is dominated by environment. It’s all about the ‘lucky punch’: one player is much better than the other player. The better one is dominating and doing great combos. But then the weaker player hits a single guard break accidentally and he is pushing the enemy into/over/off something and he is dead instantly. Well, some people would say: “don’t fight close to such areas!”. Wow. Most stupid answer ever. Most 1on1 maps are full of traps, spikes, fires, … it is nearly impossible to find a location where such a lucky grab would not result in an instant death. And additionally: 1on1 or 2on2 is starting and the enemy is running to such a location, where a single grab is a guaranteed kill. And he is waiting there. If I would not fight there, we would both wait and …. It’s a draw. A boring draw. I lost some 1on1 just because I failed to counter two(!) guard breaks. And then: rematch on a map with bigger areas to fight and I’m winning 3:1 easily – well, one fight is always on a bridge or something like that…! It’s poor game design to have these ‘lucky punches’. I want to win by doing great combos, by blocking, parrying, … and not by pressing a single key two times and being lucky. Fighting on a small bridge is just a coin flip. Nothing about skill. It is almost impossible to counter each guard break (think about this: enemy might be the host and I might have ping 200 because he has a bad internet connection… wow.).
4on4 is much better at this point because there are much bigger areas and it is possible to fight without being killed instantly by a single guard break.
Whole fighting system sucks. Great combo chains? Never seen such combos. Assassins are spamming a bit. Okay. Most other characters are playing like this:
Guard Break+Heavy Attack
Block everything
Guard Break+Heavy Attack
Block everything
Amazing! Defending is too easy. Even the biggest idiot is able to block most attacks and due to the stupid guard break, which is winning the game due to the awful map design, its just impossible to use combos. The first blocked attack will result in a guard break and a guaranteed hit.
Due to the stupid guard break mechanic, most duels are just based on luck: Which player pressed guard break first.... he will win. Amazing. NOT. Add the connection problems and its 100% luck.
Some minor, but still stupid "features" of for honor:
Joining games: I can’t decide to join a 4on4 which has not been started yet. Solo players will often join games which have been started a few minutes ago. Joining a match, which is already won/lost for the last 1-2 minutes is just embarrassing.
Bots: I’m in 4on4 queue. Game found. Game is starting. Fresh game. Wow. Lucky. But… why are there 6 bots in this new(!) game? 4on4 finished. No disconnects yet (wow…. lucky day…) but 2 players left. Do you think that each team will get a single bot? Haha! You are playing For Honor! One team is getting two bots and has to fight versus 4 human players. Well, now you think that there is a 4 player party. No. Next game all players are mixed up (=no 4 player party) and again: one team got 2 bots. Who designed this? It is just awful. If 6 players decided to have a rematch, each team should get a single bot – if possible. But not in For Honor.
Players replacing Bots / Bots replacing Players: I fought someone which has been replaced. My enemy was almost dead. Now he is replaced by a full health player which will be teleported somewhere around me. Really?
Summary:
I really can’t believe that this game claims to be competitive. It is awful. Due to the P2P connection, it is 100% luck who is the host and who got the high ping. It’s not about the player’s skill, it is about items and lucky guard breaks which result into instant kills. Most stupid game design since “No Man’s Sky”. The multiplayer of No Man’s Sky is better than For Honor. Main reason: NO multiplayer is much better than this epic fail.
How to Fix For Honor:
Well, this is not that easy.
Deactivate items in all game modes.
Deactivate skills in all game modes.
Change netcode and add dedicated servers.
Change ALL 1on1 and 2on2 maps and remove most(!) locations where a single guard break is able to kill someone by pushing them into or off anything. Throw kills should be rare and funny. Not the standard gameplay.
Dark Souls 3 PvP is much better than For Honor. And DS3 got a great single player.
The main problem: the core(!) of For Honor, the whole fighting system is okay. There is some potential. But everything else is just crap. I've never seen a game with such a stupid and poor game design. Maps, Menus, Skills, Items.... its just everything bad. Each developer who played his own game once should have noticed this issues.
Sorry but... ... this game is just a 2/10. Nothing more. 2 points for the "okay" graphics. 0 Points for gameplay.