For Honor's Marching Fire expansion is getting a free "open test" weekend
Starts next week on PC.
Ubisoft's melee-focussed multiplayer brawler, For Honor, is hosting a special free "open test" weekend for its upcoming content expansion, Marching Fire - starting next week on September 6th.
More specifically, the open test will run from September 6th to September 10th, and will be available to everyone on PC, regardless of whether they currently own For Honor or not. Players can download the client ahead of time, from September 4th via Uplay.
Those that participate in the open test will have access to all 22 of For Honor's heroes, including the four new Wu Lin fighters (that's the Tiandi, Jiang Jun, Nuxia, and Shaolin) introduced as part of the Marching Fire update. Duel mode and the brand-new 4v4 PvP Breach mode - which sets opposing teams the task of either defending or storming a fortress - will be available, and all three Breach maps will be playable in PvP, PvAI, PvP, and Custom Matches.
Alongside those headline features, For Honor's open test offers the chance to explore some of Marching Fire's smaller additions. These include the new Perks system, which replaces the current Gear Stats, as well as the new Victory Celebration Screen - which fancies up wins by showcasing the victors in selectable poses, alongside their customisations and stats.
There's also a look at For Honor's new "responsive dialogue system" which, says Ubisoft, "brings the Heroes to life through an immersive speech realisation system". In simpler terms, characters now interact with each other through short dialogue sequences "based on their personalities and the context of in-game situations".
Following the open test weekend, For Honor's Marching Fire expansion fully launches on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 on October 16th. It will cost £25.99/£$29.99 USD and includes access to numerous new features, although some of these - including new visual and interface enhancements - will be free to everyone.
Raid mode, for instance, can be accessed by all players from October 16th, but the four new Wu Lin faction heroes will only be available to expansion owners on launch day; free players can start to use them two weeks later, but they'll need to be purchased using Steel. The new wave-based PvE Arcade mode, meanwhile, is exclusive to expansion owners, but it's possible to invite non-paying players into a game if so desired.
For Honor's Marching Fire update continues Ubisoft's impressive support for the game, which has developed significantly over the last year. Eurogamer contributor Edwin Evans-Thirlwell recently revisited For Honor, to see how it had evolved since its 2017 debut.