The day is finally here, as the much-discussed Highguard has just launched. It’s been a strange road to launch, with the developers at Wildlight Entertainment choosing to stay silent for weeks since the controversial reveal of the raid-hero shooter at The Game Awards. Now that it’s out, players are making their voices heard over on Steam’s review section, and the scores aren’t good. From over 6,500 reviews, only 20% are positive at time of writing, placing the game in the “Mostly Negative” review band.
It’s worth considering that Highguard only just launched a few hours ago, so these are judgements being made rapidly with many reviews being based on less than 2 hours of playtime. Despite this though, players have criticised the size of the maps being so large despite the match sizes being 3v3, meaning there’s a lot of downtime between action. Other reviews criticise the performance on PC, alongside what many feel to be a derivative gameplay loop.
It’s unclear whether the silence around Highguard was intended to be a marketing tactic through its mystery, a strategic silence to avoid more backlash, or perhaps parts of both. What seems clear from launch however is that players aren’t enjoying the debut game from Wildlight, at least not in its first few hours. As a live service game, there’s plenty of chance for Highguard to grow, evolve, and perhaps even find its own fanbase. The current wave of Steam reviews based on just a few hours of gameplay – or in some cases less than one hour – should not be taken as a final judgement on the game’s quality, but they do suggest that perhaps the Highguard launch cycle will be a rough one, as many anticipated.
After an hour from launch, Highguard peaked with a concurrent player count of 97,000 players, which has since dipped to 46,000 at time of writing. Time will tell how players react long-term to Highguard, alongside how the developers at Wildlight respond to fan feedback and criticism. For more gaming news written by humans and for humans, keep your eyes on GameObserver.
