Skip to main content

Vikings, samurai, and knights face off in this month's 'For Honor' closed beta

For Honor Cinematic Trailer: Closed Beta Date Announcement – The Thin Red Path [US]
For Honor is shaping up to be one of this year’s most unique titles, delivering a mix of action and fantasy in both single-player and competitive multiplayer environments, and if you’ve been itching to try it out prior to its official release, you’ll soon be able to. The For Honor closed beta begins across PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on January 26.

The closed beta will give you access to “War of the Factions,” which has players choosing to become a member of the Knights of the Iron Legion, Warborn Vikings, or Samurai of the Dawn Empire. This choice will stick with you for the duration of the beta, and allows you to take part in a cross-platform, ongoing battle for global domination. Even if you choose to play as another warrior in particular matches during the beta, the points you receive will still go toward your chosen faction.

“Depending on your performance,” you’ll be awarded “War Assets” at the end of every match, which are allocated to particular regions of the War of the Factions map. These are also attainable if you choose to play against AI instead of real players, and will still count toward the overall War of the Factions struggle for dominance.

Everyone who participates in the closed beta will also be rewarded with exclusive “Emblems of Old” that correspond to their chosen factions. Once For Honor officially releases, these can be redeemed and you can “adorn your weapons and armor with their distinction.” Ubisoft promises that more exclusive rewards will also be available, and these will transfer over to the full game, as well.

For Honor‘s closed beta runs from January 26 through January 29, and you can sign up to participate here. The full game, which requires an online connection across both single-player and multiplayer, hits Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on February 14.

Editors' Recommendations

Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
Volgarr the Viking 2 will take you back to your Ghosts ‘n Goblins days
A viking slashes a tree in Volgarr the Viking 2.

Developer Digital Eclipse is working on a surprising project: Volgarr the Viking 2. The 2D retro sequel will launch on August 6 for PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

The news is an out of left field reveal. The first Volgarr the Viking game released in 2013 and was made as an ode to 1080s classics like Ghosts 'n Goblins. Despite being a small release, it sold over 1 million copies over the past decade. As revealed during today's Guerrilla Collective stream, the series is coming back with a new sequel by Digital Eclipse, the team behind this year's Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story.

Read more
3 Days of Play PS Plus games to try this weekend (June 7-9)
Key art for Streets of Rage 4.

June 2024 is shaping up to be a pretty great month for PlayStation players. Not only are we coming off an entertaining State of Play showcase, but a new Days of Play initiative surrounding all the video game showcases this month is bringing a lot of new PS Plus additions with it. Many of those games hit PS Plus this week, and three in particular stand out to us.

For owners of Sony's oft-neglected PlayStation VR2, the first game is one of its rare exclusives that take full advantage of the headset's eye-tracking by seeing how often players blink. The next is a new PS Plus Essential game that's a revival of Sega's classic beat-'em-up series for the modern gaming era. Finally, the last title is an atmospheric and eerie fishing game that should entice fans of Lovecraftian horror.
Before Your Eyes

Read more
3 first-party Xbox Game Pass games to try this weekend (June 7-9)
Gears 5 Kait Hero Close Up

Microsoft will hold an Xbox Games Showcase and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct. this Sunday. These shows will provide a much better idea of what to expect from Xbox over the course of the next year or two. That's really needed right now, as Microsoft has struggled to keep online discussions around Xbox positive as it went multiplatform with some games, laid off thousands of developers, and outright shut down the developers of Hi-Fi Rush and Redfall. Based on leaks and my personal expectations for the showcase, there are three games you can play on Xbox Game Pass this weekend to prepare for the event.

The first is the latest first-person shooter in a long-running series by id Software that might be getting a medieval-set spinoff. After that, we have the fifth entry in a sci-fi Xbox series that still looks fantastic on Xbox Series X/S even though it came out in 2019. Finally, you can prepare for Avowed with the latest RPG from Obsidian Entertainment, a satirical sci-fi game where player choice is critical.
Doom Eternal

Read more