Highguard Review – Promising Contender

Reviewed on:
PC

Platform:
PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC

Publisher:
Wildlight Entertainment

Developer:
Wildlight Entertainment

Rating:
Teen

Not every game clicks instantly. Highguard was released with little prior fanfare and even less explanation of its novel systems; my early games left me confused and frustrated. But with each match I played, I warmed to the flow of the action, the feel of movement and weapons, and the unique playstyle developer Wildlight Entertainment is trying to introduce. The game has a long way to go to be at its best, but for competitive shooter players looking for a departure from expectation, there’s good reason to be hopeful about Highguard’s future.

Highguard drops players into an unusual magical world of high fantasy, but also populates that world with assault rifles and rocket launchers. The towering ruins and castles that dot the maps are impressive, the characters are all visually striking, and the in-game dialogue alludes to what might be a cool fiction. Unfortunately, the lack of in-game lore explanation or exposition left me feeling rudderless and at a loss. Is that person a princess? Why are we fighting each other? How is it that we can summon massive siege towers by slamming a sword into a wall? Wildlight presents a surprising mix of genre influences, but without meaningful, cohesive storytelling, the world is hard to embrace.

Thankfully, Highguard’s gameplay fares much better. Wildlight’s background as prior developers of Apex Legends shines through; tight, fast-moving gunplay feels tense and precision-focused. Traversal of the world is great fun, especially the incredibly cool summonable mounts that let you gallop at high speeds across rock and meadow.

Likewise, Highguard’s core raid game mode takes several matches to grasp, but it can be deeply enjoyable once you get the swing of things. Borrowing from the likes of Capture-the-Flag, Domination, and Search and Destroy modes in other games, raids emerge as a wholly distinct experience. Players fortify a home fort, set out across the map to scavenge resources, retrieve a relic that can break the enemy fort’s shields, and then infiltrate and detonate bombs to bring them down. The clever push and pull provides points for the shield break and detonations, but also for things like successful defense runs or full enemy team wipes during overtime sequences.

At its best, the whole raid loop can be intense and fast-paced. Matches can end quickly if one team gets lucky or is especially well-coordinated, but many matches can run 20 or 30 minutes, as multiple raids bounce back and forth for each team, and the power level of available guns and upgrades on the field continually escalates. I like many of the characters, but they don’t feel especially balanced at this stage, with a few of them essentially required to be on a team for a good shot at victory.

Highguard also suffers badly from a lack of variety. Even after the recent addition of a 5v5 option that gives matches a larger scope (but a lesser tactical feel), after a couple of dozen hours, I was definitely feeling the repetition. The early match loop, in particular, is tiresome to repeat. And while I sympathize with the desire to have familiar weapon archetypes that a player can recognize at sight as one scavenges, I’m already feeling like I want more nuance and uniqueness from the firearms. They feel good to use, but don’t inspire excitement.

Having given the game time to settle before offering a full critique, it’s clear that Wildlight has the chops to iterate quickly and respond thoughtfully to community feedback. Even in the scant weeks after launch, the arrival of a new season, a ranked mode, tweaks to match-end stats reporting, and a new playable Warden all speak to big things ahead. However, I have to review the game in front of me – not what it might be in the future – and at this stage, Highguard feels like it needs more variety in weapons and play experiences, increased fleshing out of its in-game world, and some ongoing efforts to find balanced matches. Even acknowledging all that, here in the launch window, Highguard already offers moments of satisfying competition; the best compliment I can give it is that in a time when there’s no shortage of great multiplayer fare to try out, I plan to continue to play in the weeks and months ahead, even long after I’m done sharing this review.