New 3v3 'raid shooter' Highguard is out - it's free, but very much a love or hate game so far

This FPS team battler with CTF and other elements is from Wildlight Studios, an outfit that has a number of former Respawn (Apex Legends) devs on board.

New 3v3 'raid shooter' Highguard is out - it's free, but very much a love or hate game so far
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Tech Reporter
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TL;DR: Highguard, a free-to-play PVP raid shooter from Wildlight Studios, has just been released to a very mixed reception. There are plenty of haters of various elements of the game, criticizing its performance, slow pacing, and overly large maps. However, there are gamers out there who feel it's being unfairly treated, and that Highguard is a blast to play, and something genuinely innovative. The Steam player count, however, is dropping like a stone.

Highguard is a free-to-play 'PVP raid shooter' which was showcased at the end of The Game Awards, and it emerged yesterday - to a very mixed response.

On the one hand, the game from Wildlight Studios - which has a number of former Respawn staff on board (of Apex Legends fame) - received a battering (mostly) with the reviews on its Steam page. But on the other hand, some gamers are enjoying it, and feel that Highguard is being unfairly treated by its detractors.

Whatever you think of the game - if you've tried it, or just watched some gameplay footage (and I fall into the latter camp) - there's one thing that's clear: it's highly polarizing.

The gist of Highguard is that it's two teams of three pitted against each other. You choose your heroes, reinforce your base, secure resources (and weapons), then it's game on as you try and destroy the opponent's base using the 'shieldbreaker' (a CTF-style mechanic) and then some well-placed bombs.

Visually, it reminds me a fair bit of Apex Legends, and the gunplay looks pretty similar, but it's obviously a very different game (you also get mounts, which are pretty smart - and necessary as the battlefield is sizeable).

Let's start with the criticisms, which are that the maps are too big, and better suited to larger teams (like a 5v5 or 4v4) - or perhaps more teams (like a 3v3v3 setup). There are a lot of lulls, the negative reviews note, and the early build-up is slow paced.

On top of that, there's plenty of hate for the visuals in terms of a blurry look (and use of motion blur), along with optimization and performance complaints - there are quite a number of the latter.

Some people also think that Highguard feels too generic, and tries to jam bits and pieces of other games together, but none of it really gels.

That said, there are folks defending the game who believe it's genuinely innovative, and they've had a blast playing it so far, with the sum of its admittedly derivative parts adding up to make something well worth playing. Especially considering that it's free, of course (the mounts have also gone down very well, and look genuinely cool).

Some of the problems also lie with folks dipping into the game and just not getting it, then quitting matches early (making it difficult to get a decent game in these early days at times).

It'll definitely be interesting to watch how Highguard fares from here, but the player count on Steam is already dropping fast. The game quickly peaked at 97,000 yesterday after it was launched, but has now fallen to 16,000 concurrent players.

The good news on the performance front is that the developer has promised that a patch is imminent to "address various stability issues", so here's hoping that deals with some of those optimization complaints.