This past 4th of July holiday weekend was an excellent three-day weekend for many of us in the US. There was food, drinks, and a whole lot of good times (at least if you weren’t on the East Coast, hah). And if you are anything like me, then your good times will also include some time away from all that hustle and bustle. That’s when this guy takes a break and finds peace and quiet. And there’s no better way to do that than to sit down at the PC after everyone’s gone to bed!
I’ve had my time split between a few different games recently for the Fight or Kite column, but like lightning striking a kite, I suddenly realized how perfect the timing was to play Holdfast. It’s a 75 vs. 75 person shooter where two teams face off for a set time limit. Points are earned through killing enemy players, and once time expires, a winner is declared. Rinse and repeat. And fortunately, a few weeks ago Holdfast launched the perfect update for the season, the American Revolution. Players choose whether to represent the American revolutionaries or the British and go about shooting it out. Fortuitous timing for the 4th of July, right?
Now, Holdfast was originally based on the Napoleonic era, though there have been some expansions that added ships and even some other eras like WW1. So when I read about the American Revolution DLC, I really didn’t expect it to be much more than a simple reskinning – as in, I figured that instead of wearing French outfits, we’d be dressing up in a few Colonial and British-themed ones. But it really doesn’t feel that way! There are dozens of classes (27, actually), the weapons are single-fire muskets, and the reload time is brutally slow. The feeling and vibes are just right, and I had a blast playing.
While the game is a third-person (or first-person, if you change perspective) shooter, the two different modes are seamless and give an FPS noob like me a chance to play and still have fun. The gameplay is so slow that at first it feels sluggish. I’ve gotten so used to most games where you are running at a full-on sprint, shooting here and there, sliding down an embankment, and leaping between buildings, that it feels almost painful. But then you take a shot and realize you have to reload – after a single shot. And then you are waiting so long for that reload that I was wondering if I had lagged out.
But no, there was no lag. There wasn’t an issue with my PC. There wasn’t tiny gremlins inside my PC yanking wires and touching their tongues to 9v batteries while exchanging stories about that time they met Phoebe Cates on set. This was exactly as the game was intended, and it really captures the essence of a slow battle. Of course, the battles aren’t that slow; this is a video game after all. We’re all gamers, so we just go recklessly charging around and respawning like mad folk. But it had the right vibe.
I mentioned it above, but Holdfast features 27 classes. That’s absolutely insane. I suppose it’s largely because this isn’t like a battle royale where we have different weapons to swap out to and different skills to learn. Instead, the class is fairly static, but it is still very cool. Each features a unique mechanic that only players with that class will have. And the classes are really creative!
If you queue up as an officer, you’ll have abilities that increase your allies’ accuracy and damage resistance, artilleryman can operate canons, and medics can provide some healing. As a treat to a former musician (myself), they even have a musician class! Standing near one who’s playing a song will add a speed buff to your reload! Yeah, this game even has bards.
Holdfast is a quick arena battler, basically. So you aren’t really creating a hero and building him up; instead, you just choose the class you want to play right now and dive in. So there isn’t that lock-out kind of mechanic that you’d feel in an MMO or anything similar. Just because I played as the musician for the last week doesn’t stop me from queuing up as the sapper for this next round. Not that most games stop you from alt-ing, but in Holdfast it isn’t as if you’ve got this high-level warrior and you’d have to go back to the starter zone to play a different class. Just jump in and play. (And yes, you do have levels for each class, but I couldn’t even tell what they were for – certainly not for traditional RPG leveling.)
Now, one of the bigger letdowns for me, and perhaps a boon to other gamers, is the lack of a tutorial, or really a lack of much explanation for what anything really is in game. There is some hover text over the various weapons and traits of the different classes, but with 27 classes, that’s a lot of hint text to pore over. You simply pick a class, go to the Play tab, and find an open server to join in the battle.
The game will then spawn you in the zone, and it’s up to you to figure it out. There is local, open chat so I guess you need to be social and start asking what you’re expected to do. As an absolute shut-in and person who gets anxious in crowds of three, I tend to instead turn off the audio and play as if it doesn’t exist. If I get brave, I’ll turn off my mic and listen in, but let’s not get crazy. We start with audio off.
All in all, the initial impressions I got joining a round of Holdfast: American Revolution started similar to Foxhole, where I felt a bit lost, like this was a whole war simulator where I was going to be totally out of my depth. But while there are roles and jobs, different players in a round can take on to improve their side’s chances of winning, meaning it’s much much simpler than Foxhole. This is just the battle. Foxhole simulates the entire production line of generating a war machine and getting troops and supplies to the front lines. Holdfast is just the front lines.
Sure, different classes have their roles. The front lines needs players to build respawn points and defensive walls to launch the next push from. But it’s a much more straightforward fight, and for me, that makes it a lot easier to digest.
The last thing to mention is how – believe it or not – the monetization is not outrageous. The game is buy-to-play, which is probably why it’s not over the top. Players can buy different outfits and some other cosmetics and gear and weapon types, and there are plenty of those to go around. But a lot of it was full bundles too. It didn’t feel as piecemeal or as predatory. Also, the entire American Revolution DLC was totally free. Not to mention the game is currently 50% off on Steam (about 10 bucks).
The current American Revolution event is active until July 12th, so even though we’re past the 4th, it isn’t too late to get in there and enjoy the battle. The Americans are winning by a fairly large margin, currently (sorry to our friends across the pond). But if you’d like to experience a really easy drop-in-and-play shooter with some unique features, I highly recommend Holdfast.
