E3 2018: For Honor’s Breach mode is an excuse to jump back in

For Honor’s progression has been slow (save for the diehard), but the Breach mode coming to Marching Fire has me interested once again.

Ubisoft makes great competitive multiplayer action games. That’s a sentence I would never imagine going into this generation of consoles, yet Rainbow Six Siege is a tight tactical shooter, and Ghost Recon Wildlands just prints money. For Honor has sold well enough, but it certainly took a while to get going after its launch.

The company invited App Trigger to try out the upcoming expansion, “Marching Fire,” which was announced and demonstrated at E3 2018. For those like myself looking for a more objective-oriented gameplay mode with a larger emphasis on team tactics, this may be to your liking.

Breach Mode was the main event for our time with the game, as it sported a brand new game mode. As the offending force in Breach mode, four players had to escort a battering ram as it broke through enemy lines. The offense only has a limited pool of respawn tokens to use, replenishing after each objective reached. Revivals from teammates do not count, either.

To give the defense an edge, the castle is fairly large, giving them plenty of opportunities to thin out the attacking force with weapons such as ballistas and cauldrons to cause massive damage. Furthermore, archers can fling arrows from higher ground, helping to even things out. Of course, the defending four players will also be running around, holding the soldier line and breaking up the offense.

There’s a real tense back-and-forth flow to For Honor’s Breach mode, especially knowing that three journalists and a developer faced the game’s executive creative forces. The map’s openness means you need to keep balancing spinning plates, tossing them back up before they fall. The game becomes less about baiting zone-outs and trolling each other, but about accomplishing a task.

Another added layer of complexity is learning a brand new character. “Marching Fire” introduces warriors from the Wu Lin ancient Chinese faction, and I got the chance to try out Tiandi; a formidable class with a curved sword. He presents an intimidating size that was a tad slower but packed a wallop.

I found Breach mode a frantic, thrilling time, especially as us four strangers came together as a team. Players called up positions to take up on the field, and would often try to hero out by coming in for a last-second revive to save a respawn token or to help on a double-team situation. It’s like you’re playing chess boxing; needing to know when to make a jab where, while adhering to the strategy at hand.

Eventually, after escorting the battering ram and breaking through two gates, our ultimate goal became clear; defeat the lord of the manor and claim victory. Here is where it became a real cat and mouse game, as the lord is very powerful and will be guarded by players protecting the objective.

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As we stormed the castle and took the battle to its final stage, the balance shifted slightly to the defense. It’s easier to park the bus when you know where the players will ultimately attack. It’s here where I found myself strategically flanking for double teams and laying a strike on the lord, then peeling away, in order to withstand his mighty attacks and large health bar.

Eventually, as we got whittled down to one respawn token, our team of four met the opposition as we respawned all at the same time, charging headfirst and scraping away a last-second victory. For Honor‘s Breach mode will certainly galvanize your team in close matches, and will certainly make live stream competitions that much more intriguing.

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For Honor will release four total characters and additional gameplay modes when “Marching Fire” launches on October 16. As someone who lost interest in the other gameplay modes, this might be enough to pull you back in.