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Highguard’s Lows

The Game Awards, which took place in December of last year, showed off what would be in store for the following year and which games of 2025 were worth celebrating. The Game Awards were controversial, as any awards show tends to be. There were things that people liked about it, such as major games being revealed and Expedition 33: Clair Obscur winning GOTY and sweeping up the categories, and there were things people disliked, such as the heavy hitters being placed at the beginning of the show and Expedition 33: Clair Obscur winning GOTY and sweeping up the categories.

And one of the highlights of the show, if you can really call it a highlight, was the final reveal of the evening. The show’s host, Geoff Keighley, kicks off the last segment of the show by hyping the game that is to be revealed, with the teased scenery in the background looking like something that could be in Elder Scrolls VI. The grand reveal of a game from the ex-developers of such games as Titanfall and Apex Legends (although this info was soon removed from the official Steam page) sounded good, and with Keighley promising the stars for it, the audience awaited with bated breath. Highguard was here at last.

Geoff Keighley presents Highguard. (Youtube 2025, 3:22:40)

Now, Highguard is sitting at about 1,200 concurrent players on Steam, and the total review score is mixed with about 39,000 reviews (as of 20 February 2026). So, I ask the question: why does the game seem unattractive to the global Steam audience?

For a fair critique, I tried Highguard as soon as it launched on January 26th (and again at the time of writing this article), when it still had around 97,000 concurrent players (on Steam). Highguard, that Keighley apparently decided to advertise without pay from the devs (bold move, let’s see how that plays out), is a free-to-play 3v3 “raid shooter” that emphasizes fast combat. The objective of the game is to raid the enemy’s stronghold and ultimately destroy the core. If the game had been released a decade ago, it could’ve penetrated a market yet unexplored that by now has long been overcrowded with similar games, such as Overwatch, Apex Legends, and Marvel Rivals; all of which are free-to-play as well, and each with an already established fanbase and more fleshed out gameplay. So, is there enough of a reason to dismiss the strong competitors and play this? I don’t know, so let us find out.

The game is, at best, barebones. While I would not call it terrible, it is not amazing either. First impressions are vital, and this game was raised on a pedestal as the final reveal for a massive show, so there were expectations. The matter-of-fact is that people had already made up their minds about it at the Game Awards, and the game’s buggy launch (I did not even make it to the tutorial before the game crashed) – burdened with poor optimization – did not improve that impression. The initially high player count was the result of buzz from the awards and due to the game being free-to-play.

The game also works as yet another example of journalists and gamers being at odds. Despite multiple outlets pleading with players to give the game another chance (e.g., IGN, TSA), they forget about the fact that players do not owe game developers anything. If it does not immediately pull people in, then why would they continue playing it? Not to mention that the game is without a distinctive brand, so there is no reason to “stay loyal”. It is simply a product that does not have enough to differentiate itself from the competition. Let us get into the specifics.

Screenshot from Apex Legends. Similar in style and in terms of gameplay to Highguard. (newgamenetwork.com)

 

It is obvious from the get-go that it is a game from people who were involved in Apex Legends; the shooting, the movement, the pace, and even the chests you get weapons and items from feel nigh identical to anyone who has played Apex. It is satisfying enough, and there can indeed be intense moments while playing. And, personally, I find the sound effects to be extremely satisfying. I am a sucker for sound design, after all. The mount is also handy, and it does not feel like a hindrance to gameplay when you switch to using one (I do wonder where the damn animal materializes from, though). Besides, I can appreciate how they have published a concrete roadmap for new updates. This is, however, where the good ends. The lack of maps or characters is not the problem; it is the gameplay itself.

Breaking the shield of a base with the ‘Shieldbreaker’. (pcgamer.com)

 

The gameplay feels good? It also feels good in Highguard’s contemporaries. And each of those games has something to separate them from the competition. The game has vast maps, but at the time of the release, only six people to populate them. Once in a blue moon did you see another person. That’s fine – they added a 5v5 mode soon after launch in an update, so now it is a bit more likely that you’ll see someone other than the trader. This absence of conflict would not be so bad to begin with, however, if there were something to do during the prep phase.

Except, you don’t. There is about half a minute to reinforce the base before you are let out, and it feels rather pointless, since you can calmly go around or just destroy them with abilities or tools. After you are let out, you will need to wait longer for the ‘Shieldbreaker’ to appear on the map that you use to penetrate the enemy base. How do you then spend this precious time? You mine ore, like in Fortnite (with the precise timing for hitting the rock as well), but unlike in that game, the materials you collect here are functionally useless, since you can get both armor and weapons from chests. And there are a lot of those. So, you spend your time hitting rocks and opening chests colored blue and red (colorblind say what?), most likely bored out of your mind. The game is filled with constant waiting, and every time something mildly interesting happens, you are immediately pulled back from that ‘excitement’ to wait some more. If only there was something that kept you “in the moment”.

The blue ore is there to mine, and the chests provide equipment and items. You may notice that while I was preoccupied with taking the perfect shot, my teammates, too, were being shot at my base. They were valiantly trying to defend it from being invaded.

 

The actual fighting takes place 1) when capturing the Shieldbreaker, and 2) when raiding a base. Unlike in a game like Apex, where you will have to stay tense constantly because enemies could be lurking at every corner (matches are designed in a way so that players end up meeting), in Highguard, you will be checked out for most of the game, because there is no reason to be wary. Besides, as a raid shooter, there sure is a significant lack of ‘raiding’. It would be a lot more entertaining if you could steal the enemy’s resources from their base. Also, the abilities feel rather useless. Each character is given an active ability (to activate at will; has a significant cooldown), a passive ability (that persists throughout), and an ultimate (powerful ability that is “supposed” to be a tiebreaker). These do not give enough of an edge to matter, so the amount of armor you have, and your weapon’s tier (the bigger, the more benefits you have), end up deciding the match.

Segway into the character design. It is so dull, and I say this with all my heart. The characters are not particularly unattractive, nor do they inspire. Great characters breed fan art, because people want to be them. The art community has single-handedly kept Overwatch alive over the past few years. You do not need to have played the game to know of characters such as Junkrat, Widowmaker, Tracer, Reinhardt, and Mercy, because the community has made sure you are aware of them. No one wants to play as the characters from Highguard because they do not have great character design. The same problem is seen in games such as Concord, Marathon, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and more. It is not merely that the characters must be attractive (because no one wishes to be ugly), as in aesthetically pleasing; they also must be memorable. These characters are neither.

The roster of Highguard’s characters at launch. (esports.gg)

 

I have said my piece. My take on the game appears to be rather rare in game journalism. Some articles claim that it failed because of the “unfair overhype” and because players are not engaging with it the right way (an odd claim, considering that the Highguard team willingly accepted the spot at the Game Awards), while others claim that it “slaps”. These articles do bring up good points about the gameplay, but I believe they are missing the broader point. People tried the game out and did not like it, as evidenced by its peak of almost 100,000 concurrent players on Steam, soon after which the numbers fell below 10,000.

It is also ignorant to presume that updates will drastically improve the game; they had plenty of time to develop it (and apparently even the funds, since Highguard apparently could’ve been funded by the Chinese gaming giant, Tencent. Note that being funded by a massive corporation like Tencent immediately disqualifies the team’s claims about them being indie), and experience with the genre from Titanfall and Apex Legends.

Under normal circumstances, I would suggest for you to try the game out yourself, but as it turns out, the game is soon going to be shut down. This development comes soon after the developers shut their website down and fired most of their staff. It turns out that working on a dead game is a bit of a logistical challenge. In an X post made on 3 March 2026 Wildlight Entertainment claims that “despite the passion and hard work of our team, we have not been able to build a sustainable player base to support the game long term“, which is why they have decided to go ahead with terminating services. This is actually quite ironic taking into consideration an earlier statement made by the studio head Chad Grenier: “Whether it gets a thousand people or a hundred million people, it doesn’t matter. What matters most is that the game is loved by the people who played it.” Apparently it did matter a bit. To tie this article up, I will leave you with a quote from one Fleekazoid that while quite harsh, I feel is apt: “Highguard was supposed to be a game that quietly dies on the back pages of Steam, but thanks to Geoff, it’s getting a public execution” (3:33).

Publisher/Developer – Wildlight Entertainment

Platforms – Playstation 5, Windows, Xbox Series X/S

Release Date – 26 January 2026

Genres – First-Person Shooter, Player-vs-Player, Hero Shooter/”Raid Shooter”

PEGI – 16+

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Joel Karjalainen

Lover of Japanese RPGs, and authentic video games. Nostalgic of a time when the developers of video games actually liked the medium. Dislikes nothing more than when developers dismiss their audience. Terrified of space, the deep-ocean, and everything that lives in Australia.