Who knew that backflips could save your life?
At least, that's what a For Honor gamer found out when he used an emote to evade an attack. The backflip is part of the new set of emotes rolled out by the game for purchase, which many players found too expensive. But those who bought may have discovered these emotes have combat uses other than the usual cosmetic purposes.
For Honor is a multiplayer medieval fighting game developed by Ubisoft. It was released on Feb. 14 for Windows, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
Have Emote, Will Dodge
An internet user and For Honor gamer called TheRealCrayfish discovered that he could evade attacks using the "Flip Out" emote for the Berserker class. Emotes are in-game commands that let the character express emotions — or emote — through body language like taunting, dancing and even doing backflips.
The user posted a short clip of the actual move. When timed perfectly, the Berserker's backflip would dodge the attack. In the clip, the player's Berserker managed to backflip himself away from the incoming enemy Conqueror's whirling mace. The Berserker landed unharmed, leaving the enemy swinging in the air and eating dust.
This is not the only case of an emote being used for battle advantage. There have been stories from other gamers who dodged enemy attacks using emotes that cause certain classes like the Shugoki (Samurai) to kneel on the ground.
Have Connection, Will Not Lag
These sweet, perfectly timed dodge moves are of course at the mercy of the game internet connection. There's no perfect dodge to avoid the perfect lag.
The game's online multiplayer mode has received so much flak for severe lag issues. The connection problems have caused disrupted matches, a big no-no for a game whose combat mechanics depend on well-timed button attacks, blocks and reflex dodges. Players point to matches being handled as peer-to-peer connection, instead of having dedicated servers. In Match modes, one player's client is designated as the game's host. Thus, everyone's connection will depend on the stability and speed of that player's.
The game has also been plagued with other connection issues such as total disruption when the game's host leaves or disconnects, during which the game finds a new host or reconnects to the old one. The game's hosting nature makes it also susceptible to cheating via "lag switches," which players do by throttling their connection to land free hits on lagging enemies. The game also experienced an outage, which prompted Ubisoft to offer in-game rewards as an apology.
