At times overwhelmingly absurd, at others dead roleplaying serious, Holdfast: Nations at War is a guilty pleasure for plenty of its players. The Napoleonic-era third person shooter has people manning the guns, riding the horses, and marching in line with muskets against the enemy.
Now the team at Anvil Game Studios is releasing an entirely free, total conversion DLC for Holdfast, called Frontlines, that transports the same gameplay to another era of total warfare: World War 1. Over five new maps, players will trade those muskets for bolt-action rifles, pistols, melee weapons, grenades, machine guns, and the explosive mortars and field artillery of the era.
"Proximity voice chat is a staple of the Holdfast title which will be available in Frontlines. We believe that it's the community that makes the game and VOIP is one of those things that enable beautiful interactions between players (Which we do our best to moderate and keep this an inclusive experience for all)," said Andrew Farrugia, a producer at Anvil Game Studios.
This continues Anvil's tradition of only releasing cosmetic DLC for Holdfast, which has been in development for at least five years now, but fully released in 2020. All gameplay updates, including, apparently, an entirely new milieu of war, have been free.
I can confirm, by the way. The voice chat roleplayers in Holdfast are perhaps the number one reason to try the game.
You can find Holdfast: Nations at War on Steam, where it sells for $20. Holdfast: Frontlines will release for free to all owners of the game on February 17th, 2022.
