For Honor
Ubisoft Montreal · Fighting, Action
Overview
For Honor is a groundbreaking team-based PvP melee fighting game where Knights, Samurai, Vikings, Wu Lin, and more clash in endless battles. Pick unique heroes and master intense 4v4, 2v2, or 1v1 battles.
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GROUNDBREAKING MELEE COMBAT
Make your blade an extension of yourself with For Honor’s unique 3-directional combat system: the Art of Battle. Attack, parry, and block from 3 directions in immersive melee combat. Choose from a wide variety of weapons and fighting styles inspired by legendary warriors.
TEAM-BASED ONLINE PvP
Face other players in team-based brutal 4v4 Dominion. Hold objectives to push back the enemy team, or enjoy a more personal experience in 2v2 and 1v1. Once you're ready, go and prove your worth in our Ranked game modes.
BECOME A LEGENDARY WARRIOR
Choose from a wide roster of unique heroes, each with their own weapons and fighting styles. Pick a Knight, Samurai, Viking, Wu Lin, or Outlander and customize your hero with a wide variety of armor, weapons, colors, and materials to stand out on the battlefield.
10 YEARS OF EVER-EVOLVING CONTENT
For Honor is 10 years old! 10 years of new content are waiting for you, and you can expect new heroes, game mode events, and maps to regularly refresh your experience. There's always something new to enjoy in For Honor!
From the game's Steam store page.
THE GAMEQ VERDICT9,998 reviews analyzed
What players are actually saying
1. Summary
For Honor's reviews describe a ten-year-old game whose sword combat players keep calling one of a kind. The directional fighting, with its parries, feints and reads, gets praise even in negative reviews, and some players describe years of uninstalling and coming back. The rating suffers from everything around that core. Veterans say each new hero launches overtuned (Juren comes up more than any other) and that power creep has left older heroes behind. Newcomers say matchmaking drops them against players with hundreds of hours, and that they get ganked in team modes. Disconnects bring 15-minute penalties, and unlocking heroes takes a long grind or real money. In September 2026 the end of Linux and Steam Deck support set off a wave of negative reviews from players who could no longer launch a game they owned.
From November 2025 through August 2026 the monthly positive share sat between 60% and 72%. It fell to 38% in September 2026 during the Linux wave, then recovered to 55% in the first half of October 2026. Two points come up on both sides: reviewers who don't recommend the game still praise the combat, and the game is very hard on anyone who hasn't already put in the hours. Where they split is whether that combat makes up for the balance, the matchmaking and the community.
2. What keeps coming up
What players praise
Sword combat players call one of a kindHigh
Combat is the reason people play, and the reason some recommend the game while complaining about it. Several hundred reviews praise the combat outright or say there is nothing else like it, and many more mention the fighting in passing. Players describe a read-based fighting game with swords: directional guards, parries, feints and hero matchups that take hundreds of hours to learn. One player called it "One of the very few games that make melee combat feel good". Another accepted the trade-off: "There's nothing like it. It's not easy, it's pretty toxic, but it's nothing like it, and it's REALLY fun." A smaller group asks for a sequel that keeps this system and fixes the rest. When reviewers criticize the combat, they usually name specific heroes and the offense-heavy meta (see the frustrations below).
Looks, executions and fashion that hold upMedium
Positive reviews point out that the graphics, animations and executions still look good a decade after launch: "10 year old game with better graphics and animations than most games nowadays." Armor sets and hero fashion keep dedicated players grinding. One calls fashion "the endgame", and another asks for more armor tiers to chase. A few reviewers note that all fashion cosmetics can be earned in play, though the grind to earn them is its own complaint.
Cross-progression brought console veterans overLow
Dozens of reviewers say they already have hundreds or thousands of hours on Xbox or PlayStation. Cross-progression, which reviewers in late 2025 describe as a recent addition, brought some of them to Steam: "Then I found out they added cross save, I relapsed 2 days ago." One player called it part of "a pretty massive QOL update". Another found that crossplay doesn't cover every mode, story and arcade included.
Where players are split
A love-hate habit players can't quitHigh
6% of reviews (611) frame the game as an addiction, a "toxic relationship" or a cycle of uninstalling and reinstalling. One player wrote "This game is truly like a toxic relationship" and still rated it 8 out of 10, and another put it as "I hate this game, I love this game." These reviews praise the combat and warn people off in the same breath, and many of them are jokes about rage, broken controllers and suffering. With that much irony around, a thumbs-up is a poor guide to how much a reviewer enjoys the game.
The story campaignMedium
3% of reviews (338) mention the story or campaign, and they divide between players who enjoyed it and players who found it thin. Some had a good time with it: "Very fun game with a good campaign." Others call it short and see it as practice for the online mode: "The story is there i guess but its only there to prepare you for online multiplayer combat." A few ask for the campaign's outdated movesets to be updated and report old audio bugs in it. One co-op buyer found the PvE content mostly loading screens.
Value at sale pricesMedium
3% of reviews (292) mention the price, nearly always a deep sale, and many of them paid one to three dollars or euros. At that price some call it an easy buy ("Never thought I could purchase a psychological breakdown for just 3 euros."). Others say even a near-free copy wasn't worth the download, calling it "not even worth getting at 95 percent off" after bugs, the launcher or a first PvP session.
Ranked DominionLow
Reviewers say ranked Dominion arrived with the September 2026 anti-cheat change, and it drew a small, mixed response. Some long-time players welcomed it as the competitive mode they wanted. Complaints are about how it was set up: everyone was placed at bronze ("the way they started everyone at bronze instead of unranked like duels is the worst decision they have made"), groups are capped ("they need to remove the 2 player cap on ranked queue"), and disconnects there turn into abandonment penalties. Several Linux players say ranked was the reason given for removing their platform.
What frustrates players
New heroes launch overpowered and power creep keeps climbingHigh
Balance draws more complaints than any other topic. 8% of reviews (829) are about balance, nerfs, power creep or new heroes, and most of them come from players with 100 or more hours. They describe the same cycle: a new hero arrives with more options than the old roster (dodge attacks, unblockables, feintable bashes), dominates every mode, and gets nerfed months later, while older heroes fall behind. One reviewer wrote that "every new hero is more of a headache than the last". Juren, whose release reviewers place at the start of 2026, is named in more reviews than any other hero, with complaints peaking in February and March 2026: "any match you play you are plagued with a juren in your game no matter the mode". Virtuosa comes next. Some reviews tie this to money, describing heroes that are strongest while they can only be bought with real money, "releasing new heroes with seemingly deliberate overpowered bugs for the duration of their real money exclusive purchase window". A minority push back and say every kit has counters: "People like to complain about the new heroes and trust me, i am one of them. But in the end its just a matter of learning patterns".
Newcomers thrown in against veteransHigh
6% of reviews (605) talk about the learning curve, new players or matchmaking. Some accept the steep curve itself ("Takes a bit to learn but worth the effort. being able to read an opponent and outplay them feels super rewarding."). The anger is about matchmaking. New players say they meet opponents with reputation in the hundreds within their first games, which reviewers blame on a small, experienced player pool: "I only finished the tutorial and they immediately threw me against a guy with a hundred billion hours", and "im rep 1 and i keep getting put up against rep 400+ absolutely unplayable". Smurfs and veterans carrying new friends add to it. Some reviewers advise newcomers to practice against bots or learn with a friend before queuing.
Linux and Steam Deck support removedHigh
6% of all reviews (594) are about losing Linux and Steam Deck play, and nearly all of them are negative. Most were written in September 2026, around the September 10 cutoff that several reviewers quote from Ubisoft's notice: "This means that For Honor will no longer be playable on Steam Deck starting September 10th." Half of these reviewers have more than 100 hours on record, and what they describe is losing access to a game they paid for: "Played since launch. Bought the game twice, the second time explicitly due to Steam Deck verification. Now they're revoking it and banning all Linux players." 32% of these reviews (192) take on the anti-cheat reasoning, arguing that cheaters run Windows and that the same anti-cheat works on Linux in other games. A few say they bought the game on Steam only recently, for cross-progression, and couldn't get a refund. A few others say their negative review stays until support returns.
Ganking, sweats and a toxic communityHigh
6% of reviews (564) complain about toxicity, ganking or "sweats". This overlaps with the matchmaking complaint, but these reviews are about behavior. In team modes, players describe being 3v1'd or 4v1'd, finished off by teammates who interfere, and teabagged afterwards: "its quite disgusting when you and another person are having an honorable duel and your team is respecting it but their team wont." Others defend the community, or say duels and private lobbies with friends avoid the worst of it. A smaller group says the revenge mechanic, meant to help outnumbered players, is inconsistent or too weak.
Light spam, unblockables and offense-heavy kitsMedium
5% of reviews (465) single out specific combat patterns: light-attack spam, bashes, stun-locks, unblockable and undodgeable attacks and feint mix-ups. Newer players feel helpless against them. Veterans say faster lights and stacked offense have turned fights into tests of reaction speed and frame data. One player warned: "If you're playing on 100 FPS or lower, you're going to have a very different experience compared to someone with a better setup." This group overlaps with the balance complaint, but it covers the old roster too.
Disconnects and leave penaltiesMedium
4% of reviews (379) report server problems: being kicked mid-match with an error message, no reliable rejoin, and disconnects once ping climbs. The penalty system makes it worse. A disconnect, a short AFK or an anti-cheat error can bring a 15-minute matchmaking lockout: "the anticheat keeps kicking me out of the game and gives me a 15 minute matchmaking penalty." In ranked, players say a server kick counts as an abandonment. Others report the opposite problem: teammates leave, bots take their place, and nothing stops repeat quitters.
Grind and paid heroesMedium
3% of reviews (299) complain about microtransactions, the battle pass, steel (the in-game currency) or the grind. Unlocking a hero with steel takes weeks of play, they say, so new and returning players face a paywall to try the roster. One wrote that "the grinding required to acquire cosmetics and characters are such a sham". A long-time player says the game turned greedier once the battle pass arrived. A few counter that the grind is "a little slow and annoying but it isn't too bad", and one notes that gear changes made the game much less pay-to-win than it once was.
Crashes and long-standing bugsLow
2% of reviews (202) report crashes and bugs. The recurring ones are crashes when loading Breach or Dominion, a controller bug where touching the keyboard crashes or disconnects the game, and an audio bug players say has been there for years: "from the dawn of time theres been an audio bug that just cancels all sound from heros". A few mention an install size of well over 100 GB.
Cheaters and scriptersLow
2% of reviews (187) mention cheaters, scripters or lag switchers. Players name auto-parry scripts ("insane amounts of scripters in 2026"), lag switching in ranked, and known scripters who go unbanned. Others say they have rarely or never met one. Linux reviewers turn this point against the anti-cheat change, arguing that cheating went on regardless.
Ubisoft Connect, account and region problemsLow
2% of reviews (153) are about Ubisoft Connect and account linking, and these skew toward reviewers with under two hours. Their problems include account creation that fails, ownership checks or CD-key prompts that block launch, a copy linked to the wrong account, and support tickets that go unanswered: "Making a Ubisoft Connect account took longer than downloading the game". A separate cluster of 21 reviews from regions where the game sells with only Russian and Chinese menus asks for English: "I'm not russian!!! why should play thiss game in russian menu and subtitle???"
Long queues and a shrinking player poolLow
1% of reviews (111) call the game dead or dying, or describe long queues, especially in smaller regions and in event playlists. Several connect a small population to the matchmaking problem, since there aren't enough new players to match against each other. A few suggest a free-to-play relaunch to bring in new players.
3. The player conversation
The conversation is loud, profane and half-joking. Many reviews are a single short line, and many of the longer ones are rage-comedy: lost sleep, broken controllers, threats to uninstall that end in a 10/10 score. Under the jokes, the detailed positive and negative reviews describe the same game, with combat they rate highly and a lot of friction around it. They differ mainly on how much of the friction they will put up with.
Half the reviews come from players with 50 or more hours, and some of them mention hundreds or thousands more hours on console. Those veterans drive the balance and power-creep complaints, and they also speak up for newcomers getting stomped. Players with very little time on record often write about first impressions: their first matches against high-reputation opponents, the Ubisoft Connect account step, and regional language locks. The Linux reviews are a separate group: half come from players with 100 or more hours who lost access, and some from players who barely played and reviewed in protest.
Review volume jumped in late November 2025 and peaked over the December 2025 holidays, when reviewers mention buying the game for a dollar or two and describe cross-progression as new. Monthly positive shares in that stretch ran from 64% to 72%. Juren's arrival brought a cluster of hero complaints in February and March 2026, while the monthly share held around 60% to 63%. Then the September 2026 Linux cutoff pulled that month to 38%. In the first half of October 2026 it was back to 55%, below where it sat before.
4. What the developers could do
- Restore Linux and Steam Deck play with an anti-cheat setup that runs under Proton. Nearly all of the 594 reviews about it are negative, half of them from players with 100 or more hours, and a few say their negative review stays until support returns.
- Release new heroes at a sensible power level and close the gap with older heroes faster. Balance draws more complaints than any other topic, Juren is named in more reviews than any other hero, and some players read the timing of nerfs after the paid window as a money decision.
- Protect new players in matchmaking with separate low-reputation pools or brackets and a clearer path from the campaign into PvP. New players and veterans both describe first matches against opponents with reputation in the hundreds as the reason newcomers quit.
- Fix mid-match disconnects, make rejoin reliable, and stop server kicks and anti-cheat errors from triggering 15-minute or abandonment penalties. Players say they are punished for the game's own connection failures, in ranked as well as casual modes.
- Rework ganking protection and the revenge mechanic so outnumbered players have a fair answer. Ganking and team interference come up throughout the toxicity complaints, and some reviews call revenge inconsistent or too weak.
- Cut the steel cost or the grind for unlocking heroes, and drop the real-money-only window for new heroes. Reviewers say the paywall keeps newcomers from trying the roster and makes overtuned launches feel pay-to-win.
- Adjust Ranked Dominion placement and allow larger premade groups. Ranked players object to everyone starting at bronze and to the two-player queue cap.
- Smooth the Ubisoft Connect account step and offer English menus in every region. Account linking, ownership checks and Russian/Chinese-only menus stop some buyers from playing at all within their first hour.
