“From The Makers of Apex Legends and Titanfall.”
“Comes a New Breed of Shooter.”
It’s not surprising that one would believe that whatever game would be shown would be absolutely spectacular from just these quotes alone. Apex and Titanfall are already highly received games, so surely this would be another one, right? However, it doesn’t seem that the public viewed it that way.
Highguard received a very mixed set of reviews. Some were clearly just to spur arguments or spread hate, but most were opinionated on two things: either the game was actually fun and of quality, or it was simply a bore and was clearly just another developer looking to reap the profits of the live-service market.
So, what is Highguard exactly?
Highguard presents itself as a 3V3 “Raid Shooter”, one that is somewhat new to the genre. Each match contains 4 stages: Prepare, Loot, The Stormbreaker, and Raid.
The Prepare stage occurs at the very start of a match, during which players have about a minute to fortify their base. Before the match even starts, players are given 4 options on which base they would prefer, adding a bit of tactics as each base contains its own pros and cons that could make or break a match. The way one would fortify a base is simply by using the 5 reinforcements they are automatically given to reinforce walls, windows, or roofs. The base is also constantly protected by a spherical shield that only the team of that base can enter and exit from (it’s also important to note that in this stage, you are unable to leave your base).
Once the Prepare stage is over, the Looting stage begins, and the shield opens up to your team. The map is randomly selected in each match, adding a bit of variation to the scenery and potential tactical locations. Players will also start off with mounts, various animals that allow players to traverse the map at decent speeds. Once players start to explore the map, they’ll quickly find three things: chests, Vesper, and the shop. Vesper is the main currency of the game, being a mineral that can be obtained either from finding packs of vesper across the map and mining it with your axe, or by downing enemy players. The shop is where you can spend the vesper you have obtained, buying various items without worrying that the item will be in a chest.
When the looting stage concludes (about 2 minutes), the stormbreaker stage begins. The stormbreaker is one of the most important items of the match, being the only way to start a raid at an enemy’s base. This is where encounters should start to heat up, as both teams will fight each other multiple times while making their way towards the Stormbreaker. If a team reaches and plants the stormbreaker at an enemy base, the raiding stage will begin; if the stormbreaker is not planted on a base after a certain time limit, then overtime. In overtime, respawns are turned off, giving more incentive to wipe out the enemy team to either protect their base or raid the enemy’s. If neither team is eliminated by the time overtime ends, then the stormbreaker will automatically plant itself at the nearest base.
The final stage, raiding, is the main essence of Highguard. The main goal of raiding is to take down the enemy’s generators by placing bombs in order to win the match. There are 2 types of generators in a team’s base: The 2 regular generators and the keystone. Winning a raid requires the raiding team to either successfully bomb the 2 regular generators or just bomb the keystone. Bombing a generator is no simple task, as the bomb takes about 40 seconds to blow up on normal generators (and 60 on the keystone), forcing the raiding team to protect their bomb before the opposing team can defuse it. The raiding team also has a limited number of respawns, incentivizing them to take a more tactical approach when raiding a base. If the raiding team is unable to successfully bomb the generators, then the match will cycle back to the looting stage (increasing the rarity of loot) and continue until one team’s base reaches a health of 0.
Overall, my time with Highguard felt very mixed at times. The game was fun, and the stages do complement each other, but Highguard is far from perfect. Armor can feel too squishy or too tanky, the game can randomly lag when aiming at targets far away, and matches can often reach 30 minutes or longer when teams feel too evenly matched.
Rating this game from 1-10, I would give this game about a 6.5. Highguard definitely has a chance of succeeding as a live-service game, but its developers will have to put in the effort if they truly believe that Highguard has a chance.
