Highguard was hot dropped onto the scene by Wildlight Entertainment, which has people who worked on the likes of Titanfall and Apex Legends. As a huge fan of both titles, especially the latter, I had pretty high hopes for the game.
Now that the game is out, I can say that it’s the most “5 to 6/10” shooter I’ve ever played in recent times. It’s nowhere near as bad as review bombers will have you believe, and I daresay it’s really fun during the “raid phase”, which is its unique selling point.
However, I think there are some serious kinks that they need to sort out. The game definitely could have used a few playtests, because a lot of the issues people have with it (the valid ones, because not all are) are absolutely fixable.
I added two animated WebPs in the post to show you what gameplay looks like. Recorded by myself, of course lol.
What Makes It Unique? – The Three Phases
Highguard calls itself a “raid shooter”, which may have you thinking that it has some PVE elements to it. Well, it doesn’t. The main objective of the game is to destroy the enemy team’s base by “raiding” it. Each team gets to vote on a base layout out of four random choices, and each offers their own unique themes and strengths.
The game is split into some very loose phases, which I do think feels a bit clunky at times, but we’ll get to that as we talk about each part. All you need to know for now is that each base has a life bar that goes down whenever you do the following:
- Start a raid phase (-30hp)
- Destroy a generator (-35hp)
- Blow up the core (guaranteed win)
Phase 1 – Defense Phase
At the start of each match, both teams of three are briefly confined to their respective bases, where each player can manage their initial loadout and reinforce their walls.
This part’s fairly uneventful. I typically just slap my wall reinforcements around the core of the base, which is an instant win for the other team if they can blow it up. After that, I just sit by the dome’s edge and wait for it to open up.
This only really happens once per match, unless you’re really invested in reinforcing walls in between raids. I typically just run straight out and start upgrading my gear unless I feel like using any reinforcements I picked up earlier.
Phase 2 – Intercept Phase
Both bases are protected by an impenetrable dome, and each team has to fight over the shieldbreaker to momentarily break through these defenses. It’s that sword you see in the trailers, and shoving it into one of the designated spots at the dome will summon a massive siege tower that’ll initiate the raid phase for your team.
Before the shieldbreaker spawns, both teams will be running around the map looting chests and mining vesper deposits (the currency used for the item shop) to prepare for the upcoming fights.
A Quiet Map
This is where I think the developers have a massive opportunity to make the game feel a little more alive, for the lack of a better term. You see, until the shieldbreaker spawns, there’s nothing really incentivizing both teams to hunt each other down.
So, for the couple of minutes before both teams bump into each other at the objective, you’re just aimlessly gathering resources in your side of the map. I’m sure this can be a little more coordinated and aggressive in a premade group, but if you’re playing solo queue, you’re just doing random crap until the shieldbreaker starts forming.
I’ve seen complaints about the map sizes, but with the speed of the mounts and general movement (slide jumping is pretty fast), it doesn’t feel large at all. You can cross the whole map in seconds by just spamming shift on your mount and running through gates that give you speed boosts.
Instead, I’d like to point out how empty it feels because of the lack of PVE encounters. If the tutorial was any indication, they’re perfectly capable of adding neutral enemies around each map instead of just loot barrels, chests, and ore. These could act as alternative sources for loot and/or vesper that are actually engaging.
First Contact – The Shieldbreaker Spawns
Once the shieldbreaker starts forming, that’s typically when solo queue players run towards it, and first contact is finally made with the other team.
This is when the action finally starts, and the game’s actually incredibly enjoyable from this point on until the next intercept phase. As long as both teams have a somewhat good head on their shoulders, the engagements are going to be fairly frantic and, quite frankly, very fun.
There’s this tug of war as you try to run the shieldbreaker towards the other team’s base, and you have to be fast, as there are mechanics in place to stop this from dragging on too long. Once a team manages to spawn a siege tower, the final phase of the round begins.
Phase 3 – Raid Phase
After spawning a siege tower, the raid on the receiving team is inevitable, and their base already loses health here. Once the dome is breached, attackers have limited lives to try and destroy the generators by planting bombs on them. There’s also a base core that guarantees the win, but it’s generally harder to blow that up.
This is when the defenders’ reinforcements come into play. Yes, the base is currently rather flimsy, especially if the attackers have a Redmane, the only destruction-centric warden on launch. However, I’ve noticed that players tend to be allergic to reinforced walls, so they’re at least usually enough of a deterrent that forces people to attack from more predictable angles.
Raids are when the game’s snappy shooting gets the spotlight. The gunplay in Highguard feels a lot smoother and more forgiving than in Apex Legends, and coupled with the relatively fast movement and satisfying warden abilities, the combat is actually great.
I’ve been playing as Redmane most of the time, and his leap ability (which can break walls) has been a blast to use. It opens up some unexpected flanks, as people don’t usually expect you to burst through the upper walls of their base.
Fast TTK, No Coordination
Currently, I do think the TTK (time to kill, for the uninitiated) is too low for how frantic it gets. With how uncoordinated teams in solo queue can be, you’ll get moments where people respawn and immediately get themselves killed before the rest of the team can even hop back in.
It doesn’t help that armor breaks on death, which means that you’ll be burning through them if you keep getting mogged within seconds. Funnily enough, the intercept phase being a loot hoarding snoozefest completely cancels out this issue most of the time. I don’t recall ever running out of armor at any point.
It’s this low TTK that causes a lot of games to be complete stomps. I’ve had a hilariously short 7-ish minute match where we just completely wrecked the other team in the first raid.
On the flip side, more balanced matches had us duking it out for a full 20+ minutes as we’d constantly engage one another before the shieldbreaker even spawned.
Heck, one of my matches on the first day ended with me inserting the shieldbreaker, because the game lasted long enough without generators going down that the mere act of starting the raid dealt the killing blow. This isn’t a regular occurence right now, unfortunately.
The Gameplay Loop
After the raid phase ends, which is when the attackers can no longer respawn, the match loops back into the intercept phase as the attackers are forced back into their base. From here, all of the loot in the world and in the item shop is upgraded to the next tier.
If you ask me, the only downside really is just the dull intercept phase where nothing happens most of the time. The one positive I can say about the pre-raid silence is that you at least get to upgrade your saddle, which significantly speeds up the already fast map traversal.
Honestly, my only real hope for a “quick fix” while they work on other refinements is a shorter wait time for the shieldbreakers. Just do something to push players towards one another, because nobody is seeking out fights before you can initiate a raid.
No Harm Trying
Overall, I’d say that Highguard in its current state is painfully average. It’s fun enough that I’m still playing it as we speak, but I’m weaving in other games as a way to avoid burning out too fast.
It’s a nice palate cleanser from other shooters that I’ve been playing recently, such as Battlefield 6 and The Finals, and it’s unique enough that I don’t feel like I’m playing just another generic hero shooter.
It’s a free game, so there’s literally no harm trying, especially since it just takes around 20GB of space. I’d be cautious about the graphics settings though, as it does seem to be a little unoptimized at the moment. It’s perfectly playable, but don’t be surprised if your framerate is just safely between buttery smooth and choppy, even with low settings.