I played this beta and the last one, and I honestly enjoyed myself.
However
It is definitely not worth 60 bucks.
The game itself is fun. If all you are looking for is a fun game, you can probably get your kick out of For Honor. However, the game is equally frustrating as it is fun. There are alot of balance issues, cheesey mechanics, and a suprising lack of depth.
Balance Issues - Basically, 3 of the 12 classes (1/4) were undebateably unbalanced. Unsurprisingly, 2 of the most popular (Peacekeeper/Orochi) fell in this category, and you fought against one basically every single game almost. Some of the mechanics that made them overpowered were not that bad as they were counterable, but still gave them more options than other classes, such as the Orochi's backdash into a heavy strike/sidestep slash, Peacekeepers incredibly punishing grapple/sidestep poke, and Warlords auto-parry with even more hitstun than a normal parry/headbutt. However...On top of that, the Orochi and the Peacekeeper had a deflect/counter move that did heavy damage and was unavoidable/unblockable, and the only thing they had to do was dodge in the direction of an incoming attack. Don't even get me started on the Warlord's hyper-armor either.
Cheesey Mechanics - Besides the standard environmental insta-kills, there was some cheesey shit in the game. Besides some of the moves listed above, there was the Warden's sweeping attack (Light Attack + Heavy Attack) that did more damage than a light attack, was just as fast, and also feinted the red triangles abit. Some of the biggest cheese of all though was how punishing the game felt to those who attacked first. Once you got into the higher level matches where everyone can parry basically every hit you can do, it was not uncommon to face opponents who would do nothing but wait for you to attack, parry the attack, then guardbreak + heavy attack combo you. The only counterplay is to bait out the parry with a feint, but he can also just as easily cancel his attack and go for another parry.
Lack of Depth - For all the moves you can do in the game, there was a surprising lack of depth. All the moves in the game are surprisingly easy to learn, and their usage is for the most part incredibly straight forward. The height of skill in the game is when you have mastered parrying and feinting, and can parry basically every hit and feint to bait out parries. That is really it, and people achieved that during the beta. After that, it is just a complex game of Rock Paper Scissors.
Normally I could write off these flaws as "oh its just a beta", however not only is it just a few days before release so this is most likely a 99.99% complete version of the game, alot of these flaws have actually been around for months. They even supposedly "nerfed" the Orochi, Peacekeeper, and Warlord before this beta, yet they are still OP. They also plan to add 3 classes back into the game that nobody has seen or tested since November of last year, so that will be a joy to watch.
For all its flaws though, it is still a fun game. It has incredibly satisfying gameplay (when it is not frustrating the crap out of you) and good animations/graphics to supplement that. I have not had a chance to look at the Singleplayer, and I feel as if it is only going to be a minor focus in the game, but I do like the concept of the story and the cinematics look great. However, despite all of that, I do not feel like it is enough to justify a $60 price tag. If it was however a $30-$40 price tag, I would have a much harder time not picking it up.
