Why Highguard Isn’t Landing for Everyone

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Wildlight Entertainment has finally revealed details about Highguard, holding a showcase to explain the game after a long period of silence. However, before they even got to discussing their vision for the game, I couldn’t help but notice they seemed less excited about it than I was.

It’s understandable why many players, including myself, were doubtful after the initial trailer – we thought it looked too similar to another game, Concord. Free-to-play shooters face a tough challenge already, and while Highguard looked beautiful, it didn’t immediately seem to offer anything new in terms of characters, settings, or story. That was weeks ago, though, and we only had that one trailer to judge it by. Even as a skeptic, I believed the best way to evaluate the game was to learn more or, ideally, try it out ourselves.

It’s impressive that Highguard actually launched, and it quickly gained a large audience, peaking at almost 98,000 concurrent players on Steam. However, player reviews told a different story. Unfortunately, the game received a very negative reception, quickly dropping to an “Overwhelmingly Negative” rating before climbing back to “Mostly Negative.” Currently, with over 14,000 reviews, only about 25% of players recommend the game.

Let’s take a step back. It’s obvious that a significant number of people were just waiting for the game to launch so they could write negative reviews – we saw something similar with the Steam release of Overwatch 2. This isn’t unusual, but Blizzard’s game was already facing criticism due to the cancellation of its PvE mode, the removal of key features, and its aggressive monetization. In contrast, Highguard didn’t have much of a negative history. It seems unlikely that everyone leaving bad reviews is genuinely unhappy with the game, doesn’t it?

Sadly, no. Server issues and players getting disconnected are a major problem, and I’ve seen many games receive bad reviews because of them. It seems Wildlight didn’t anticipate such a huge reaction to the game. In fact, if they had originally launched the game unexpectedly at The Game Awards, instead of just showing a trailer (it’s pretty clear who changed their plans), they might have faced fewer problems.

The game also has some technical problems. Even players with powerful computers have reported performance issues, in addition to the required motion blur and anti-cheat software. Console versions aren’t much better, as they don’t allow you to adjust the field of view, and the game generally looks blurry. On top of all that, there are bugs, such as missing dialogue during the tutorial.

Look, I really want to love this game, but a lot of us are starting to feel like Highguard just doesn’t quite click. We were worried after the first trailer that it felt too familiar, like it was borrowing bits and pieces from other games without really finding its own identity, and it seems like those fears were right. While they could probably patch a lot of the issues later on, the game really needs to grab you right away, and right now, it’s just not doing that. It feels a bit… disjointed, like a bunch of good ideas that didn’t quite come together.

Here’s how the game works: You play as a Warden and team up with two others to venture out and capture the Shieldbreaker – a powerful sword used to attack the enemy base. It takes a while to get the sword ready, so you’ll need to gather resources – like finding better weapons, gear, and items in containers, or even mining for materials – to strengthen your character. Each character has unique abilities, and you can use resources to buy upgrades and improve your combat skills.

After capturing the Shieldbreaker – usually by defeating the opposing team – you attack their base. You can summon a siege tower as a respawn point while your teammates destroy the generators. Alternatively, you can directly target their Anchor Stone to speed things up. Along with weapons and magic, there are tools to break down walls, but defenders can rebuild them with limited resources. If the defenders manage to hold on, the cycle repeats until one team finally wins.

Despite sounding like a mix of other games – borrowing ideas from titles like Valorant and battle royales – Highguard had the potential to be a really enjoyable, fast-paced experience. It could have been similar to Tribes, a game that, despite its troubled history, remains interesting. Even though it doesn’t offer much new, the large maps and the choice of four different base types at the start are promising features.

So, I jumped into a game, and it hit me – it was just 3v3. Seriously? These huge maps only fit six of us total, split into two teams. It played exactly how you’d imagine – tons of running around trying to find someone, with fights happening every now and then, but mostly just a lot of waiting.

Although some players like how the guns feel – which is good, considering the developers previously worked at Respawn – most people find Highguard to be a boring game. You could point to the unoriginal characters, the strange and unremarkable combination of guns and magic, or the limited single game mode. But none of that really matters because the gameplay itself is just too slow and uneventful. Players find themselves spending more time mining and opening boxes than actually fighting, with very few exciting moments.

Look, I’ve played a ton of games, and honestly, so many try to be something special but just fall flat. There’s so much competition out there! You can throw every cool feature under the sun into a game, but if it doesn’t have something unique to grab you, it’s going to struggle. And if the gameplay itself is boring? Forget about it. It doesn’t matter if thousands of people try it at first – they won’t stick around.

Okay, I’ll admit, the game’s monetization isn’t totally awful to start with, which is a nice surprise. And hey, they even have a free battle pass, so that’s a definite plus! Gotta appreciate those little wins, right?

Wildlight Entertainment is committed to continuing development on Highguard, and despite recent issues, they’ve shared a plan for the next 11 months of content. This includes new characters, maps, bases, mounts, items, raid features, a temporary game mode, and potentially some surprises. While this is ambitious, it’s hard to be fully optimistic considering how quickly games like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Anthem lost support, or how briefly Concord was available. For now, it’s best to wait and see if Wildlight follows through on its promises.

It’s really disappointing to see what’s happening with Highguard, especially considering the team behind it gave us amazing games like Titanfall 1 and 2, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. They’ve been working on this for four years, and it just feels like it’s going to fade away quickly. I keep hoping it’s just because the market’s crowded or people are being unfairly negative, but honestly, it looks like Highguard will be another game people forget about soon.

Please be aware that the opinions shared in this article belong solely to the author and don’t reflect the official stance of GamingBolt.

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2026-01-29 15:43