Is Ubisoft's For Honor the Biggest Surprise of E3 2015?

We have come across quite a few big name titles in this year's E3 such as Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Doom, No Man's Sky and the new Hitman and others. However, Ubisoft's newly-announced title, For Honor, remains the biggest surprise in this year's event.

If you missed out on Ubisoft's presentation for the game at the event, you can check it via a number of gameplay and reveal trailers that are already up on YouTube (see below). And if you are watching the video, it must be noted that this game's multiplayer bits took E3 by storm this year.

For Honor "puts a blade in your hand" and "sets you loose in a medieval battle". This is a game for all those who are obsessed with knights and epic battles that involve fierce melees and a lot of blood.

The game also offers some of history's fiercest combatants, the loyal Knights (the Legions), the fierce Vikings (the Warborn) and the brutally efficient Samurai (the Chosen). The idea is simple: Kill or be killed. All in the name of honour!

The game's emergence at this year's E3 is quite surprising since we can't think of an instance where the title was heavily rumoured over the internet before E3 kicked off. But that makes the deal even more special since this is definitely out of the blue.

Developer Ubisoft claims that the game has been fitted with a new, state-of-the-art Art Battle system that will give players full control over the placement of their weapons. Not only can you move around the battlefield and attack enemies, you could even lock a single opponent and enter into a dueling mode.

"Wherever you're holding your weapon, that's where you're safe," explains Creative Director Jason Vandenberghe. "You're automatically blocking in that direction. So if I'm holding my sword to my left and you attack me on my left side, I'm going to block it."

"But if you attack me from the right or from above, I'm going to get hit. It takes time to change my stance, so I need to anticipate what you're going to do," he adds. Interestingly, the moment you lock a target, your right stick goes from controlling your camera to controlling your stance.

If you are wondering about a potential storyline for the new game, let us tell you that the team hasn't provided any detail on the campaign experience just yet. Still, according to Vandenberghe, "This campaign is really an invitation into our world. This is our special place."

"Knights and Vikings and Samurai all fighting on the same battlefield? I'm no history major, but I can tell you that never happened. But it does happen in the canon of For Honor and the campaign is your introduction to this world."

From whatever little we have seen about For Honor, it looks like the game could open up a brand new gaming genre going forward.

Even the folks over at Ubisoft can't seem to classify the game in a certain genre. They claim that the game "pulls inspiration from across the gaming board – fighting game combat systems mixed with some shooter reward loops and chaotic yet tactical battlefield scenarios." And, if that doesn't sound exciting to you, we don't know what will.

We don't normally say this, but we are expecting a lot from For Honor going forward. Maybe this is where Ubisoft makes a name for itself for bringing one of the hottest looking games of the year. We just wonder if the game will play the same way as it looks – only time will tell.

Stay tuned for more updates!