After being featured right before the Game of the Year announcement at The Game Awards 2025, the most important spot of the night, many started wondering what the deal was behind Highguard.
The game wasn't marketed in any other way until one day before launch, which also sparked curiosity among the community, with some thinking the game's development was experiencing some issues, and a delay was imminent.
However, the title launched on January 26, just as previously announced, and I jumped on the "hype train" to see what the game has to offer and to share with you my first thoughts fresh out of the oven.
The title from former Respawn Entertainment developers, the same studio behind Titanfall and Apex Legends, appeared to be a new hero shooter with a few new mechanics at first glance. Many branded it as such after the announcement, but I can now tell you that the tile aims for more than that.
The developers call it a "PvP raid shooter", alluding to the game's main objective. The idea is simple: two teams of three players try to secure a sword that spawns after a preparation phase, and the sword has to be placed in the enemy base's main entrance to start a raid. The first team to start a raid and destroy the enemy's bomb sites or main reactor wins.
This concept might be reminiscent of a traditional MOBA game, where players try to advance through the field until they reach the enemy base and destroy their command center or the Nexus, something that League of Legends players are familiar with.
The game mixes this MOBA-style concept with the traditional hero shooter mechanics, where players select a character with unique abilities. I would say that the game also has some battle royale inspirations, as matches take place in large-scale maps where players can roam around and search for loot to get better equipment.
Being a person who enjoys shooters and dislikes MOBAs with all my might, I don't hate this combination of genres at all. In fact, on paper, they sound like a really nice mix, and it reminds me quite a lot of Deadlock, the Valve game that is still in beta.
However, the execution lacks work here, and that's my biggest issue with the game. The matches feel boring at times, and they can even extend for too long, to the point that you might just want to move on after it's over.
My first game felt like a table tennis match, with my team starting a raid on the enemy base, losing it, then defending successfully from an enemy team's raid, and then repeating the process. This kept going for a while until a sudden death phase was triggered, where the team that started a raid automatically wins.
Even though that sudden death phase is there to prevent the games from going on for too long, this match still felt like a drag at one point.
As I mentioned before, maps are large-scale, but this also hurts the game's pacing, since it feels like engagements take too long to happen, and getting back into the fight after dying can also take a while.
I won't only point out the negatives, because the game has some positive aspects. One of them is the mounting mechanic, where players can summon a companion to ride and move quickly through the map. The riding is fun, and this mechanic is certainly there to avoid players from getting frustrated when respawning at their base and having to return to the fight.
Nonetheless, I feel like something more can be done in this department. One thing off the top of my head is that the game could integrate a Quads mode, where teams are made of four players, potentially increasing the amount of action in a match.
I haven't tried all of the heroes, but some abilities seem inspired by other hero shooters like Valorant or Apex Legends (rightfully so). There is a character that can phase out and become invisible like Wraith, another character that creates ice walls like Sage, and another character that creates ziplines like Pathfinder.
There is even some Rainbow Six Siege inspiration here, as players can fortify walls in their base to make it more difficult for enemies to get in, and by more difficult, I mean requiring an extra shot of the rocket launcher to bring the walls down.
All of these mechanics help the game feel more tactical, and not just a run-and-gun. Teamwork is definitely important, and it will definitely come into play more when players figure out the strategies and competitive meta.
There are still some mechanics I'm not very familiar with, but I can say that the game has a lot of inspiration from many popular titles out there. Is this a bad thing? I would say no, but the game's biggest problem in its current state is keeping the players engaged.
The repeated downtime during matches and the aforementioned pacing issues will make players lose interest quickly. Player retention is key for a live-service game, and I'm not sure Highguard is there yet.
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