My review of HoldFast: Nations At War.

Let me first start by saying that it has been well over a year since a game has been able to bring an actual smile, applause and a quality chuckle from me. I am very pleased to say that HoldFast: NAW has remedied that.

When I decided to buy into NAW I wasn't expecting more than a few hours in such a game. A quick hold-over until say the next Total War game or BannerLord. I quickly learned that I had made a mistake in judgement and as I sit here at work typing this up I can't help but feel anxious to run home a play! At a price of $19.00U.S it's a relatively cheap and for what you will be getting its well worth the purchase. So let's talk about some of the Pro's and Con's that make this game.

The first thing that will separate any quality game is many a time the Development team. As some of you may know, this is three young men working in an Indie studio, however don't let that fool you. These three men are well above their peers and have done an excellent job in programming, design, as well as production. This team knows that this game is their baby and their ticket, and they are incredibly active in and out of game with their communities. The time that I've been browsing the discussion board and every match I've played there has been a quick response as well as at-least 1 Dev showing up. This isn't one of those cases where people say "The Dev teams active with the community" and you see a reply once every three weeks to a month. No this is the real deal, daily notification kind of team!

The second most important thing is gameplay, how does it handle? While you be immersed? Gameplay is far from polished but still the game finds a way. Firstly, the game has era accurate rifles in design, as well as uniforms/music. There is a multitude of game options available as would be the norm for Line battles of the Era portrayed. One of the most interesting concepts is the Naval warfare, yes this is what you think it is. You, a few player crew, controlling a ship/boat and living out your Pirates of the Caribbean fantasies, if those fantasies were blowing the holy bajeebus out of your enemies. Pair this with the Combined Coastal siege and your day is made! Oh I forgot to mention, 150 man battles. Now think Regimental Guilds on Community Events. Oh yes I feel that cold chill as well, it's as glorious as you think.

Rifles, Muskets and other weapons while not as accurate as they were in the real world, still pose an incredibly huge threat and if played properly, a Rifleman on a ridge or a Lineman on a Line can and will hold their ground and wreak havoc on the opposing team. There are also other classes such as Musicians (Drummers/etc) who can play a few period era songs if that is your thing, and boy is it great if they are in unison playing the proper song. It really rallies the blue-berries! Then of course there are Flag-holders, Officers, whom are the most inspirational and notably are taken up by the RP guys who even in random matches can get groups in a line which is neat to see. Lastly there is the Carpenter class which I haven't played but they do have a shotgun that rocks me.

Immersion is fantastic as well, the burst of smoke as your rifle fires mixed in with the heavy sound of those era-muskets is an ear-gasm if there ever was for a game. The Cannons, clink of shots, screams of fallen foes, and the music; provided you have a somewhat decent headset (a $20 Logitech will do you justice), will put you on the field. The game also supports dynamic weather which really changes the battle, lord help you if your fighting at night with fog, on top of the smoke from rifles. Que a bayonet to your face if so. This is early access as well so keep that in mind, this will only get better with more classes, sounds etc. -Bagpipe class is on the way-

Graphics are another thing that aren't as important but for me keep me playing a game and the reason for that is immersion. I personally have a hard time if the game looks like a potato macgyvered to shoot a musket. So what does NAW do? Well it takes it's predecessors ideas and puts them together with a realistic quality 3D artistic style. One that clearly defines the roles, the bright uniforms of the era, all the way down to the differing details of faction rifles. I'd also like to point out that it is a real treat to see the fancy uniforms of the French Grand Army, especially the Guards and Musicians. There are many other fine details such as quality grass, water, dirt and grime and the textures (other than the houses) seem to be very HD.

This all being said, it's still Early Access and the game does have it's flaws. I'll put them in order of what I've seen, and the rate at which they've impacted my experience.

Cons:

1st: There is no Auto Ban, Vote Ban, Server Kick yet for the general populous. So expect to be killed by trolls that for some reason dropped $20 to TK. Luckily this is going to be a quick fix and the Development team has responded to numerous threads, first come will be Admin controls for private servers to turn on/off Friendly fire, followed up by community Auto Ban. So that's promising.

2nd: Melee, The Melee is pretty terrible, swings miss that should have hit, and one guy with his cavalry sword can bunny-hop through 10 guys with guns and slaughter them up in 20 seconds. God save you if you try and bayonet against a Cavalry sword. This has resulted in many players filling the Rifleman class and Officer class just to use the Cavalry sword for Kill-Spam. This however has been replied to by the Development team and is the #1 priority fix and will be dropping in the next few updates.

3rd: VOIP, I like to have line battles, I like to lead. I also don't have the time to regiment stuff all day as I wish I could. So to gather a few friends, or few randoms in Community server would be nice to do. The In-game voice is hit and miss, the radius is incredibly small so chances are you'll only hear people at initial spawn. I hope to see more implemented

4th: Customization, this is coming so it's going to be fixed. It will have a realistic approach so don't plan on running with Goku Hair, a hot-pink musket, and a cat tail, but do expect good realistic gear from the era and uniforms that will help you stand out alittle.

5th: Server latency, I personally haven't experienced this but it's a big enough concern throughout the community that it needs to be addressed. Luckily the Development team hears the concerns and from day 1 have already released two updates working on this fix. More optimization required.

Lastly these are my specs, I get 50-60fps (I've gotten Lucky, there is optimization that needs done)

i7 6700k 4.0Ghz
970GTX
16GB RAM
250 SSD
50'inch Vizio TV 1080p

I really hope this helped, and wish you the best! This game is very much worth it, and the community is great aside from a few bad apples! Happy Hunting!

My review of HoldFast: Nations At War. Let me first start by saying that it has been well over a year since a game has been able to bring an actual smile, applause and a quality chuckle from me. I am very pleased to say that HoldFast: NAW has remedied that. When I decided to buy into NAW I wasn't expecting more than a few hours in such a game. A quick hold-over until say the next Total War game or BannerLord. I quickly learned that I had made a mistake in judgement and as I sit here at work typing this up I can't help but feel anxious to run home a play! At a price of $19.00U.S it's a relatively cheap and for what you will be getting its well worth the purchase. So let's talk about some of the Pro's and Con's that make this game. The first thing that will separate any quality game is many a time the Development team. As some of you may know, this is three young men working in an Indie studio, however don't let that fool you. These three men are well above their peers and have done an excellent job in programming, design, as well as production. This team knows that this game is their baby and their ticket, and they are incredibly active in and out of game with their communities. The time that I've been browsing the discussion board and every match I've played there has been a quick response as well as at-least 1 Dev showing up. This isn't one of those cases where people say "The Dev teams active with the community" and you see a reply once every three weeks to a month. No this is the real deal, daily notification kind of team! The second most important thing is gameplay, how does it handle? While you be immersed? Gameplay is far from polished but still the game finds a way. Firstly, the game has era accurate rifles in design, as well as uniforms/music. There is a multitude of game options available as would be the norm for Line battles of the Era portrayed. One of the most interesting concepts is the Naval warfare, yes this is what you think it is. You, a few player crew, controlling a ship/boat and living out your Pirates of the Caribbean fantasies, if those fantasies were blowing the holy bajeebus out of your enemies. Pair this with the Combined Coastal siege and your day is made! Oh I forgot to mention, 150 man battles. Now think Regimental Guilds on Community Events. Oh yes I feel that cold chill as well, it's as glorious as you think. Rifles, Muskets and other weapons while not as accurate as they were in the real world, still pose an incredibly huge threat and if played properly, a Rifleman on a ridge or a Lineman on a Line can and will hold their ground and wreak havoc on the opposing team. There are also other classes such as Musicians (Drummers/etc) who can play a few period era songs if that is your thing, and boy is it great if they are in unison playing the proper song. It really rallies the blue-berries! Then of course there are Flag-holders, Officers, whom are the most inspirational and notably are taken up by the RP guys who even in random matches can get groups in a line which is neat to see. Lastly there is the Carpenter class which I haven't played but they do have a shotgun that rocks me. Immersion is fantastic as well, the burst of smoke as your rifle fires mixed in with the heavy sound of those era-muskets is an ear-gasm if there ever was for a game. The Cannons, clink of shots, screams of fallen foes, and the music; provided you have a somewhat decent headset (a $20 Logitech will do you justice), will put you on the field. The game also supports dynamic weather which really changes the battle, lord help you if your fighting at night with fog, on top of the smoke from rifles. Que a bayonet to your face if so. This is early access as well so keep that in mind, this will only get better with more classes, sounds etc. -Bagpipe class is on the way- Graphics are another thing that aren't as important but for me keep me playing a game and the reason for that is immersion. I personally have a hard time if the game looks like a potato macgyvered to shoot a musket. So what does NAW do? Well it takes it's predecessors ideas and puts them together with a realistic quality 3D artistic style. One that clearly defines the roles, the bright uniforms of the era, all the way down to the differing details of faction rifles. I'd also like to point out that it is a real treat to see the fancy uniforms of the French Grand Army, especially the Guards and Musicians. There are many other fine details such as quality grass, water, dirt and grime and the textures (other than the houses) seem to be very HD. This all being said, it's still Early Access and the game does have it's flaws. I'll put them in order of what I've seen, and the rate at which they've impacted my experience. Cons: 1st: There is no Auto Ban, Vote Ban, Server Kick yet for the general populous. So expect to be killed by trolls that for some reason dropped $20 to TK. Luckily this is going to be a quick fix and the Development team has responded to numerous threads, first come will be Admin controls for private servers to turn on/off Friendly fire, followed up by community Auto Ban. So that's promising. 2nd: Melee, The Melee is pretty terrible, swings miss that should have hit, and one guy with his cavalry sword can bunny-hop through 10 guys with guns and slaughter them up in 20 seconds. God save you if you try and bayonet against a Cavalry sword. This has resulted in many players filling the Rifleman class and Officer class just to use the Cavalry sword for Kill-Spam. This however has been replied to by the Development team and is the #1 priority fix and will be dropping in the next few updates. 3rd: VOIP, I like to have line battles, I like to lead. I also don't have the time to regiment stuff all day as I wish I could. So to gather a few friends, or few randoms in Community server would be nice to do. The In-game voice is hit and miss, the radius is incredibly small so chances are you'll only hear people at initial spawn. I hope to see more implemented 4th: Customization, this is coming so it's going to be fixed. It will have a realistic approach so don't plan on running with Goku Hair, a hot-pink musket, and a cat tail, but do expect good realistic gear from the era and uniforms that will help you stand out alittle. 5th: Server latency, I personally haven't experienced this but it's a big enough concern throughout the community that it needs to be addressed. Luckily the Development team hears the concerns and from day 1 have already released two updates working on this fix. More optimization required. Lastly these are my specs, I get 50-60fps (I've gotten Lucky, there is optimization that needs done) i7 6700k 4.0Ghz 970GTX 16GB RAM 250 SSD 50'inch Vizio TV 1080p I really hope this helped, and wish you the best! This game is very much worth it, and the community is great aside from a few bad apples! Happy Hunting!