For Honor

A multiplayer-focused melee game built around a genuinely clever one-on-one dueling engine, where pointing your sword to block and strike from three angles creates tense, skillful fights. Unfortunately that core is buried under padding: a thin throwaway story campaign, pointless collectibles, drab equipment and territory grinding, and a generic roster with no personality. The duel mode shines but few play it, while the chaotic 4v4 modes undercut the dueling skill it was built around.

A good, addictively fun melee game held back from greatness by serious technical problems. The rock-paper-scissors directional combat is excellent, with distinct factions and classes that feel like a 3D fighting game, gorgeous visuals, and near-flawless sound. But unreliable peer-to-peer connections, poor matchmaking, frequent drops, a thin campaign, busted gear balance, and intrusive microtransactions drag it down. Worth the price, but just barely.

An ambitious multiplayer melee game whose skill-based, weighty combat shines in tense 1v1 duels and the surprisingly deep Dominion mode. The campaign is dull and forgettable and exists mainly to teach the systems, and the combat can feel cheesed or break down in outnumbered fights. Deep customization is rewarding despite multiple currencies and optional real-money purchases. Whether you love or hate it hinges entirely on the combat, so it's hard to outright recommend.