Holdfast: Nations At War – PS5 Review

There’s still a sense of novelty are massive online player counts. Even with battle royal taking those numbers until triple figures, I wonder how any game of that size can play out. Holdfast: Nations At War takes the concept and lets the community run wild with it. On the face of it, Anvil Game Studios have created something basic but functional. The human element makes it surprisingly more fun and chaotic.

Holdfast: Nations At War is a strictly online experience. There is no tutorial but, aside from some class-specific abilities, it’s easy enough to grasp. It’s a game about defence versus attack with two opposing armies vying for control of territory. One side will gain whilst the other retreats until a last stand inevitably decides the victor.

There are two eras on offer. The Napoleonic battlefields feature more primitive weaponry. Muskets take about a year to reload and their single-short armaments. There can be some real tense times in store as you cover between shots. Steel sabres provide a quicker option, assuming you can get close enough to shank them. As mentioned, there are classes that spice things up. Cavalry ride on horseback which gives them great speed but the horse provides a big target. Being bowled over by one is par for the course. Drummers offer morale boosts, although feel incredibly exposed. There are player caps for classes so the hope is that your team is well-rounded enough.

Closer to modernity, World War I lobbies feature more capable firearms, explosives and carnage on a more industrial scale. Officers can shout orders from afar but the army as a whole feels more homogenous. Roles are much more formalised and everyone is intended to be armed. As a place to get kills, I feel more at home here. It’s an era that’s been covered with the likes of Verdun and Isonzo. That doesn’t make it any less spectacular.

The maps are voted upon between rounds and they all carry a good sense of scale. They accommodate the massive lobbies quite well and tend to cover the key geographical conflicts. The Napoleonic era features snowy, wide-open forests with a smattering of camps to hunker down in. I will say this tends to result in those areas being clogged with teammates. Some offer farmland and crops to hide behind and the shifting territory means you are never too far away from advancing or retreating.

It’s hard to think of Holdfast: Nations At War as a serious, tactical game. Cooperating within dozens of players is difficult to do, even with the squad commands. That said, I don’t think any of the players care about results. Within seconds, you’ll get a good sense of what madness awaits you. There’s proximity chat on by default and players will absolutely blast out heavy metal ahead of an attack. There’s a lot of shouting and roleplaying that, so far, hasn’t degenerated into vitriol. I even found myself bewitched by a drummer’s music as his mate snuck up behind to stab me. That’s the kind of dumb teamwork that’s hard to find anywhere else.

The server load doesn’t seem to impact performance and cross-play helps provide most lobbies with willing recruits. It’s quite active and it’s wonderful to see the PC contingent going strong after five years. I do feel it’s slim on content. I’d welcome another conflict to dive into. At least the Napoleonic wars featured all these empires desperate for control. That can sometimes be to it’s detriment. Whilst there’s only one opposition, spotting them at a distance can be a problem. There are icons above friendlies but that can sometimes be hard to spot. The further back in time you go, the uniforms are more colourful but, even between your own units, I found it tricky to decide friend or foe.

You do get daily missions to attempt. These seem quite simple, usually involving getting a number of kills. The armoury features a more permanent progression and tracks your performance over time. That can lead to new weapons to purchase. Feats celebrate your accomplishments and, whilst it does feel like garnish, at least it adds some structure your participation. For more ways to assist, medics can patch players up. Whilst the majority of kills come from one shot, explosions and horses can, if you’re lucky, knock you down. Surviving a marauder on horseback can be quite exhilarating.

I don’t sense battlefield efficiency is what the players are bothered about. It’s moments like being trampled by a horse or following around someone blasting Metallica’s For Whom the Bell Tolls the whole match. The stakes simply don’t raise too high. There’s a lot of chaos on offer and I think the game presents it well. Musket fire leads to smoke hanging in the air. Artillery can blast unsuspecting people away. The trench warfare leads to me having my eyes on stalks and having a gas mask ready to go. The battlefield always feels active and that brings with it a lot of noise. Not just the speaker nonsense but gunfire and explosions.

Above all else, the absurd reactions of the community turn Holdfast: Nations At War into something unique and interesting. Five years in, the novelty hasn’t faded and I do find it a nice companion to those more serious depictions of war. It is a memorable experience and I’ve been surprised by the willingness for people to play a part. As a contest, it’s lacking in modes and coordination but that rarely seems to matter.