Ubisoft's upcoming action game For Honor may have garnered a lot of attention for its multiplayer gameplay as of late, but the developer has stated that the game's single-player campaign will also be able to stand on its own as "full experience." Speaking to GameSpot during an interview in the lead-up to EB Expo 2016, creative director Jason VandenBerghe described the single-player campaign experience players can expect in For Honor.
"It's a full story campaign, a cinematic adventure where you will play as the knights first as the Warden, then you play as the Raider, then you play as the Orochi... You'll play all through three different regions; the knights' homeland, the viking homeland, and the samurai homeland. You'll go on this great adventure... We built the campaign so that if you bought the game just for that, that you would be satisfied even if you never went online and played multiplayer. It's intended to be a full experience."
For Honor's story will centre on a warlord named Apollyon, a character who VandenBerghe described as "pro-war" and "interested in chaos." The story pits the three central factions against each other in a conflict that has been waged over a long period of time. You can check out the rest of GameSpot's interview with VandenBerghe below.
GameSpot: With the multiplayer matches, what kind of match length are you shooting for?
VandenBerghe: Matches are between 8 to 12 minutes generally. That feels about right. The game is intense, right? We find that much longer than that you start to get exhausted. So we need to have a nice break in there. And sometimes the games can be shorter, or go as long as 15 minutes.
You've spoken before about a levelling system. Can you explain more about how that will work?
You bet! We have 12 heroes and types in our game. Each of them has their own level, and as you play you're going to get experience for the character you're playing. You'll also gain equipment and gear for that character. As you play you're going to unlock things like feats, you're going to unlock emotes and cosmetic options for them. So you'll fill out your character's skillset and then you'll have to unlock cosmetic stuff along the way.
When you reach level 20 you can start over, you can prestige. And then you can continue to unlock cosmetic stuff as you go.
And that's all bound to each character?
Yes.
How long would it take a player to prestige a character?
Getting to full level, we're shooting for 8 to 12 hours. It's pretty quick. We want you to be able to quickly have the full power set. You get that early on in your level. From then on it's more about the cosmetics and bragging rights.
Does that matchmaking take that into account? What if I was an experienced player but I was playing a brand new character who I haven't played before?
It doesn't change the character's power level, it just changes the options that you want to use. But there's really no change in the character's effectiveness as you level up. A level one character is just as effective as a fully levelled up character. The power curve is very flat. We've worked hard to ensure that. It's really more about just opening up other options that allow you to play a little differently, and open up the cosmetics that you can dress however you want.
Separate to that, will there be a persistent progression system that rewards players who have played for longer?
Of course we'll have achievements and all that normal stuff. But really the main level focus is the level of your heroes.
Will there be different multiplayer modes, or gameplay always centre around a capture-zone mechanic?
Yes. We have five multiplayer modes, including the 1v1 duel. We have a 2v2 duel mode called brawl. Then we have a couple of others that we haven't talked about yet.
With the cosmetic unlocks you mentioned before, can you give us examples of how much players will be able to customize their characters?
Well you've got helmet slots, shoulders, arms, and body for all your gear. Each character's weapons are also customisable. So for the sword you've got the hilt, guard, and blade. There's different item slots, and each of those have a very different look. So for the Warden, you have many different types of helmets, different shapes. Then you have different layouts. You can basically create your own sword out of those pieces.
On top of that, you can put your own colour patterns [on them]. We have different symbols you can build. There's a huge amount of customisations you can add. It's pretty deep. And that's true for all 12 heroes. There are ornaments as well, stuff you can attach to the character.
And you'll need to unlock them per character?
Yeah. You'll kind of earn them as you play each match. You'll get gear, and the gear comes with stats as well, which let's you do some fine-tune modifications to the way the character plays. So you can slightly adjust it--like trade off a little bit of speed for a little bit of damage.
Are there any more examples of stat changes you could provide?
In general, you have some defensive stats, you have aggressive damage stats, you have your speed control stats and recovery stats, stamina control, that kind of stuff. So you can tweak how quickly your character recovers and how quickly your character does damage, or how much damage they take.
Do you think For Honor has esports potential?
Esports is something that happens because other people decide to play it that way; it's not something that we declare. I hear that a lot, and the game is certainly compatible with that, but it's just one part. It's a big offering. There's a lot going on inside this game. However you want to play, we want that to be in there.
