The team over at Wildlight Entertainment, a studio comprised of talent from the Apex Legends, Titanfall, and Call of Duty stables, had lofty goals with their debut title Highguard. However, while it has just gone for a surprise release onto the scene today across PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5, it seems not all is well. While the pedigree behind the project is respectable, it’s not been enough to make the game… well, fun. Given the early reception from the gaming public has been anything but positive, it shows you the danger of not having some kind of beta, or getting early feedback to make the launch product something that reflects what players actually want.
Highguard: A PvP Raid Shooter
The core of Highguard is built around what the developers call a “PvP raid shooter.” It’s a disjointed mash-up of MOBA-style base defense, survival looting, and objective-based combat. Matches are 3v3 affairs where teams must fortify their homes, mount up to scour the map for resources, and eventually engage in a massive siege to wipe out the opposition.
Game Director and studio Co-Founder Chad Grenier noted that the concept was born from the team’s love for raiding in survival titles like Rust, aiming to distil that adrenaline into a refined, repeatable competitive loop. “Every match is about escalation: fortifying, venturing out, clashing, then mounting coordinated raids and defenses until only one base is left standing,” Grenier explained.
Key Gameplay Features
- Phased Matches: Rounds move through fortification, gearing up, and raiding.
- Shieldbreaker Mechanic: Teams fight over a magical sword that acts as the key to initiating a base raid.
- Siege Towers: Once a raid begins, a massive tower materialises to provide a beachhead for the attackers.
- Diverse Arsenal: Ten weapons are available at launch, including the Ranger sniper rifle and Paladin automatic shotgun.
- Raid Tools: Strategic items like rocket launchers and explosive sledgehammers for base destruction.
- Mount System: Players can summon horses, bears, panthers, and gryphons to navigate the large maps.
Tell me more
Players step into the boots of one of eight Wardens, each acting as a unique hero character with their own passive, tactical, and ultimate abilities. These range from Atticus, who uses lightning spears for area denial, to Kai, a monk who can summon ice walls to control the flow of a match. The strategic depth continues with base selection. There are six unique bases available at launch, each with its own layout and vulnerabilities. For example, the Hellmouth fortress is suspended over a lava chasm, making its narrow bridges a prime target for defensive abilities.
Wildlight has already committed to a heavy live-service schedule, with content updates planned every single month. These “chapters” are expected to introduce new Wardens, maps, and weapons, with a ranked play mode arriving in the coming weeks. CEO Dusty Welch highlighted that the team is applying lessons learned from the launch of Apex Legends, ensuring they have a year’s worth of content already well into development.
A Rough Start
While Highguard managed to peak at over 95,000 concurrent players on Steam just an hour after release, the user sentiment has quickly soured. As of writing, the game holds a “Mostly Negative” rating on Steam. Out of over 10,000 reviews, roughly 78.2% are negative. The disconnect seems to stem from a perceived lack of direction; players are finding the 3v3 format ill-suited to the vast map sizes, leading to tedious stretches of mining and looting that clash with the promised fast-paced gunplay. Performance issues haven’t helped either, with many reporting “fuzzy” image quality on consoles and lacklustre frame rates on PC.
Where to buy
Highguard is available now as a free-to-play title on PC via Steam, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5. Hopefully, it can redeem itself with some switch updates, but honestly, taking a kicking on day one is usually a pretty rough sign for a shooter like this, and many initial gamers are unlikely to return. It is a free gam,e though, so I have to cut it some slack, and let’s see what it’s like in a few weeks.
