SWORDS are extremely cool. Whether it’s a broadsword being wielded by a knight, a katana in the hands of a samurai or a lightsaber being used by a Jedi to slice through Imperial Stormtroopers, pretty much any form of entertainment gets better when the steel starts flashing.

This attraction is something Ubisoft are capitalising on with the forthcoming release of their latest game, For Honor.

Developed by Ubisoft’s Montreal studio, the multiplayer game is due out on February 14 and puts the players in the armour of either a knight, samurai or Viking in a fantasy-setting world where all three factions are fighting each other for handwaved reasons involving a displeased God of War.

Swordfighting games aren’t a new thing, but For Honor features a newly developed gameplay mechanic, known as The Art of Battle that took more than four years to develop, designed to better reflect the realities of sword-based combat.

Game director Roman Campos-Oriola said the mechanic was a combat system that delivered the feeling of real swordfighting without sacrificing accessibility and simplicity.

“If you compare it to a traditional fighting game, there are some similarities of course: the

importance of range, of speed, the fact that each Hero/fighter has unique abilities and moves for players to master,” he said.

“But there are elements that make the system stand out. First, as it is the case in a real martial art, we have put a lot of emphasis on defence. To be efficient in For Honor, you absolutely need to master defence.”

Mr Campos-Oriola said the approach to chain and combo attacks was much simpler than in most fighting games, with the core gameplay revolving more around anticipation, guessing and adaptation than on memorisation.

“Last but not least, while most fighting games are played 1v1 and in small arenas, three of the five For Honor multiplayer modes are 4v4 so team-strategy and the use of environment such as traps, ledges, spikes and fire to your advantage plays an important role.”

Mr Campos-Oriola stressed For Honor was not an action role-playing game, and advancement was based more on player skill than levelling up.

“At first, the game looks like a third person action adventure game, but it’s not — it’s a brand

new system,” he said.

“The depth of the gameplay comes from your personal skills and your knowledge of your fighter; not on the progression of your character and unlockable powers.

“We had to be especially careful about the learning curve and make sure the Art of Battle is easy enough to access so everyone can have fun, but at the same time has enough depth so more seasoned players have plenty of options and things to learn.”

Despite being designed with console gamepads in mind, the PC version of the game features fully customisable controls that allow the player to easily lock onto opponents, parry, thrust, dodge, attack and generally swashbuckler with ease.

It’s one thing to hit people with swords in a video game and another thing to do it in real life, so we asked someone who actually does that for their thoughts on The Art of Battle.

Tim Reeves is the vice-captain of Sydney-based Team Havoc, participants in Australian Medieval Combat — a sporting league devoted to full-contact medieval-era swordfighting with historically accurate (albeit blunted) weapons.

Mr Reeves said the combat realism in For Honor blew him away, particularly with the combat system’s focus on movement and fluidity.

“It was really cool to play a game that captures what we do and from an education perspective of history, it shows those aspects more realistically — you’re not just hacking and slashing to win a fight, you’re manoeuvring,” he said.

“There is a lot of body movement, we use a lot of judo throws and mixed martial arts grappling to manoeuvre around your opponent and break their guard.

“The way a real two-handed sword moves in real life is very different to the movies, and the game captures that well.

“The way you move through different stances and especially the longsword fighting — you can totally change the way you strike just by moving your feet and that’s something that’s totally been captured in the game.”

Actual swordfighting was strenuous work, Mr Reeves added, with participants in Australian Medieval Combat bouts typically wearing about 30kg of armour for safety reasons.

“The bouts typically are generally pretty quick — a five vs. five match generally takes less than a minute and we do multi rounds with short break in between,” he said.

Mr Campos-Oriola said with For Honor set for a Valentine’s Day release, love may not be on everyone’s minds that day.

“Don’t plan too much romance on the 14th of February this year, unless you date an axe,” he said.

For Honor is released on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on February 14.