Holdfast Nations At War
Updated: Sep 3
🎮 Gameplay
Holdfast: Nations at War is a first and third person historical battle simulator based in the Napoleonic Era. In Holdfast, you play online vs. players around the world, on servers with up to 200 people.
Upon joining a server, you will be required to choose one of two factions (or nations). Currently, the game includes four factions - British, French, Russians and Prussians. After choosing a faction, you will select the soldier you wish to play as from a list of different classes.
Each soldier class has their own special passive abilities, which benefit certain factors in war, such as movement speed, accuracy, or health.
After choosing a soldier class, you spawn into a map in the next wave. Waves are 10 seconds long for most infantry but 20 seconds for cavalry (these are the most common times, it does seem to change on different maps).
Maps can either be navy, coast guard, or army. In a navy map, you have the option to select from exclusive navy classes, as well as choosing a ship to spawn on. Navy/Coast Guard modes include Naval Assault, Naval Battlefield, Coastal Siege - depending on which map is selected.
In army maps, you fight over land rather than sea. You can play in a number of modes, each with slightly different win conditions. The variety of maps and victory conditions will offer even more motivation to play, knowing you will not become bored very easily.
Classes such as the carpenter can build a number of defenses on the battlefield; the better the defense, the more 'resources' it will take to build. Resources are capped at specific amounts, so use them efficiently. Units can also enter most buildings present on maps, and fire out of windows while remaining highly protected from the enemy. You may also crouch to increase accuracy and leave less of your body exposed.
Units can adopt multiple stances in the interaction menu, by clicking 'v'.
Through my short game-play, I've become attached to the rifleman (because of +25% accuracy) and any class that has a pistol equip-able (they are really fast to reload and good at one-shotting enemies at close range). The worst class, however, would have to be cavalry. Cavalry units are very hard to control, having very slow response speed and bad accuracy (when shooting) - so bad in fact, that I will usually dismount my horse and fight on foot.
Another feature of multiplayer is the ability to join a regiment, which is basically an in-game clan. Your regiment can schedule line battles and other events.
📝 New Gamemode Trailers
Holdfast Frontlines
Holdfast Age of Sail
Holdfast American Revolution
What more will they add to this game? Stay tunned!
💻 Graphics
The graphics in Holdfast: Nations at War are very well done, pin pointing even small words on satchels or other objects very neatly and carefully.
You will notice plenty of wind effects, blowing leaves, snow, rain etc. around. This adds a more realistic feel to your gameplay.
Each soldier class and regiment look different to the rest. This does not affect gameplay, and is purely cosmetic. When a unit receives damage, they will spurt a minor amount of blood when in 3rd-person view. Blood does not pool on ground at any time.
Buildings are designed and colored to reflect the style of architecture from that time period, which has been done very well.
The carefully and smoothly designed graphics make Holdfast a very enjoyable game, and visually pleasing. You will need a strong GPU to achieve the best quality graphics.
🎶 Sounds
The sound effects in Holdfast: Nations at War are superbly done. Each unit has a number of cheers, chants and songs they can select in the interaction menu. These allow a unit to scream out the selected phrase in their faction's language. For musician class support soldiers (drummers, fifers, bagpipers, etc.), you will have the option to play several common songs present in the Napoleonic Period.
Battle noises have replicated their real-life counterparts in order to create a more immersive and realistic battle scenario. Guns, pistols and cannons make the notorious 'poompf' sound, and when fighting in melee combat your weapons will clash, clang and make that fleshy noise when they make contact with your enemy.
Horse sounds are not very good in-game; horses can ride right up to you and you still won't hear a thing. This makes it very easy for you to be smitten by a cavalry unit.
Pros 👍🏻
Realistic, great looking graphics
Plenty of maps to play on
Historically accurate looking soldiers, weapons and buildings
Accurate shooting/fighting mechanics
Updated frequently with bug fixes and new content
Up to 150 players on official servers
Four factions and several faction unit types to choose from
Three game modes
Cons 👎🏻
Some poorly made maps (long walking distance etc.)
Bad horse riding control
No background music option
Unstable frame rate Long wait times to join official servers (due to them being almost constantly full)
👨👩👧👦 Audience
Holdfast: Nations at War is most suitable for late teens and over. If you like historical battle games - and have a pretty decent build - this is the game for you!
🔥 Performance
This game is very GPU heavy, and to have an enjoyable experience, you would need a mid-high range GPU.
I played the game on medium-high graphics settings. Although I do not think it is GPU related, frame drops are frequent but don't have much of an effect on the overall game-play experience.
Players outside of Europe or North America may also face ping related issues when playing on the official servers, but the game was still perfectly playable with my 350+ ping.
Settings also allow a user to select from 30FPS limit to unlimited, to assist people with lower-end machines.
❓ Conclusion
For a base price of 20$ US, I would highly recommend purchasing Holdfast while on sale or at full price. Either way, you will be making a great purchase for a great game. Holdfast offers addictive game-play, bounding to give you endless amounts of adrenaline-fueled fun.
As time progresses, expect the developers to add many beneficial new features, as well as new units/factions in future.
Rating: 8/10
