The day is finally here. After almost complete silence since the Game Awards, Highguard has officially released, and already on day one, it’s not looking good. Within mere hours after launch, Highguard’s Steam page has already plummeted to mostly negative reviews. However, are these reviews justified, or merely just to review bomb Highguard?
The Disappointing Launch of Highguard
With absolutely no advertising, marketing, or gameplay demos, the internet was basically riding on Geoff Keighley’s word and the high expectations of quality, since the dev team includes folks who worked on Apex Legends and Titanfall 2. Yet, as many people expected, Highguard’s reviews are currently plummeting along with its player count.
Highguard initially began with 97,249 players on Steam, and after a few hours, that number had already dropped by half. Many reviews are commenting on the game’s poor optimization and that it ships with a kernel-level anticheat. The overwhelming negativity has also spread to the Official Launch Showcase trailer, leading to the comments being disabled for that video.
Confusing, or High Skill Ceiling?
Another major critique many reviews have is that Highguard feels like it’s mashing together multiple elements from several genres or games, making the game all the more confusing or having too much. Highguard is a blend of Battle Royale, MOBA, and FPS, with minor elements from several other games, such as movement and looting from Apex or Fortnite, and defensive warfare akin to Rainbow Six Siege, all set on a huge 3v3 map.
If that sounds like a lot, it’s because it is. The basics of gameplay involve picking a hero with different powers and ultimates, running around the map looking for gear and weapons, all before trying to raid the enemy’s base and destroy generators to win the game.
If you enjoy hyper-competitive, fast-paced BRs, then this might sound like it’s up your alley, but even fans of that genre are finding it difficult to get into Highguard. Is this from a high skill ceiling that players cannot reach on day one, or is it merely from the fact that Highguard is doing too much at once?
Too Big, Too Much?
Of course, that’s not even getting into mounted combat, base repairing/ breaching, buying, ziplining, and much more. There’s a lot going on across a huge map, only meant for 3v3. Another popular critique is that players believe that Highguard’s huge map is too big for two teams. Many suggest increasing each team size to 6v6 or even having multiple teams.
But despite all of these complaints, the game does show promise. The concept of raiding and defending bases is always interesting. Perhaps Highguard will eventually find its core audience, or at the very least shape itself to be easier to understand.
For more news and updates, keep an eye on our Other Games section.
