During Ubisoft’s E3 press conference they revealed that For Honor would be releasing on February 14th, 2017 for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. They’ve repeatedly reiterated that this is going to be a hardcore game for hardcore gamers, and the footage they released during their E3 press conference confirmed that.

But before getting to the footage, creative director Jason VandenBerghe revealed in a post-conference interview with Aisha Tyler that players would be able to take control of each of three factions within the game during the story mode.

We haven’t seen or heard much about the story, but it will revolve around a great cataclysm that occurs where the Vikings, Samurai and Knights are fighting for their own survival and against each other. Little do they know that they are actually being pitted against one another by the war mongerer, Apollyon. You can check out the campaign story cinematic below to get a taste of what they have in store for you when the game launches early next year for home consoles and PC.

As mentioned, players will alternate between playing the Vikings, Samurai and Knights in the campaign story mode. It has a fixed story that will focus on each of the factions and give players some insight into how they came at each other’s throats and how Apollyon ties into it all.

It instantly makes me question if Apollyon will have her own crew that players will be able to unlock if they beat the game? I miss the days of unlocking content by beating the game.

Anyway, they had a second trailer available that aired during the E3 press conference as well. The second trailer featured a gameplay walkthrough of one of the levels that showed the Vikings in faction for the very first time. All I can say is that I love, love, love the combat system and animations in For Honor. That is how you do smooth, combo-oriented melee weapons.

Unlike a lot of other games where the frames freeze after each combo, practically creating a big red sign saying “Your combo ends here!”, For Honor keeps the movements smooth as butter. You can’t even see the transitions between the animations, everything just happens seamlessly as if the fighters are actually engaged in battle and reacting organically with their attacks. It’s such a rare treat to see that kind of dedication poured into the combat system of a hack-and-slash title like this.

Originally I thought I would be playing the Samurai faction exclusively, but now I’m thinking that maybe the Vikings might be more up my alley. I’ve really been craving some good, grounded, melee based sword play and it looks like Ubisoft is possibly going to deliver that in spades.

I sure hope they don’t screw it up.

For more info feel free to visit the official For Honor website.