Highguard: A Comprehensive Review

When you need a tool, you typically don’t reach for a Swiss Army Knife. It’s a last resort when you have no other options. Ever tried to actually cut wood with the flimsy saw blade on one of those multitools? I have, and it was a frustrating experience that led me to buy a proper saw to finish the job. It turns out that cramming too many functions into one package doesn’t always yield quality results.

So, have you checked out Highguard?

Launched on January 26, Highguard is a free-to-play fantasy-sci-fi MOBA-like 3v3 PvP hero shooter that incorporates base defense and raid mechanics. It was first revealed during a major gaming awards event and received a mixed reception online. Since then, the discussions surrounding Highguard have been bizarrely intense, with players taking sides and firing off opinions like mortars across social media. It’s one of the strangest reactions to a game I’ve witnessed in years.

But I’m not here to dive into the online drama surrounding Highguard; I want to focus on the actual game. The version you can play right now is far less captivating than the surrounding chatter.

That’s perhaps the biggest hurdle Highguard faces as it enters its second week, losing players like a toddler spills juice from their first big-kid cup. The reality is, Highguard just isn’t that engaging.

Visually, Highguard is quite dull. The developers at Wildlight Entertainment seem unsure about the game’s identity, mixing fantasy, sci-fi, magic, and modern weaponry in a way that lacks cohesion. This genre mashup could work, but in Highguard, every asset feels stripped of character and grit, resulting in a bland experience.

Everything blends together too seamlessly. There’s no standout feature, no charm, no quirks—nothing to spark conversation or share online. It’s the kind of game that fades from memory the moment you stop playing.

After logging over 14 hours across various matches, I can barely recall any character names aside from Slade, an obnoxious blonde who’s the closest Highguard comes to having a personality. The rest are generic tough guys or stealthy women, dressed in starter RPG gear that you’d quickly replace.

It’s unfortunate that Highguard is so forgettable because the concept of a raid shooter is intriguing.

In a match, you start at your base, select a hero, and set up defensive walls. Then, you and your two teammates venture out to scavenge for loot, mostly involving zipping around on mounts and opening chests. The opposing team is doing the same, and you might cross paths.

Eventually, a massive sword materializes in the world, and both teams must race to grab it and take it to the enemy base to breach their shield dome and raid the area. Execute a successful raid, and the match concludes. If you fail, the cycle repeats, but the loot quality improves. Once a team successfully raids, they claim victory.

This might sound complex compared to many shooters out there, and it does take some time to grasp the mechanics. However, once I got the hang of it, I found myself enjoying Highguard. There was always a sense that my team could turn the tide with one great raid.

Highguard

Back-of-the-box quote:

“I think one of them is named… Val? Vai? Violet? Something like that.”

Developer

Wildlight Entertainment

Type of game

First-person sci-fi/fantasy MOBA-like PvP-only online raid shooter.

Like

Great gunplay, cool mounts, exciting raids.

Disliked

Performance issues, overly large maps, bland visuals, too many ideas.

Platforms

PC, Xbox Series X/S, PS5 (Played on PS5 Pro)

Played

About 12 hours on PS5 Pro and around 3 hours on PC with friends and solo.

Release Date

January 26, 2026

In the moment-to-moment gameplay, Highguard feels great, reminiscent of the smooth and responsive gunplay found in Titanfall 2. This makes sense, given that the studio behind Highguard includes developers from that game. Breaking large gems in the world between raids is also satisfying. I enjoyed fortifying my base before heading out for upgrades, and chasing down opponents on a mount is thrilling—an experience not commonly found in other online shooters. Each character’s unique powers and abilities can dramatically shift the tide of battle, whether you’re unleashing a fire blast or conjuring a wall of ice. Plus, there’s a loot economy that requires balancing the purchase of better weapons with ensuring you have enough shields for future skirmishes.

However, we’ve hit the other major issue with Highguard: it’s trying to do too much.

Much like its uninspired art style, which suggests a lack of commitment to a single vision, Highguard’s gameplay is a hodgepodge of mechanics borrowed from other popular titles. While it would be great if we could blend ice cream, pizza, wine, and meatloaf into something amazing, that’s not how it works in reality.

The fast-paced, Call of Duty-like gunplay means you die quickly, making it tedious to engage in fights before raids. The upgrade and crystal economy requires time spent hunting and smashing blue rocks, which, while satisfying, doesn’t create compelling gameplay. Sure, you earn some currency from defeating opponents, but late-game gear is so expensive and rewards from kills are minimal that during lengthy matches, I often felt compelled to stop fighting and go mining instead. The raids, which are the highlight of Highguard, also render mounts mostly useless, diminishing one of the game’s coolest features. Additionally, having only three players on each side makes raids feel less epic, and the bases feel too large. (Though the developers are experimenting with a 5v5 mode, which could help.)

In essence, the various elements of Highguard often clash, detracting from the overall experience.

Perhaps Highguard will receive updates over the coming weeks and months to address some of these issues. Maybe it will introduce a 4v4 mode to make the maps feel less sparse. Perhaps the time-to-kill, especially in the early stages of matches, will be adjusted to allow for longer engagements.

But none of that will truly fix Highguard. It would require significant effort to achieve that. Highguard is a forgettable shooter that crams too much into one game, resulting in a sometimes enjoyable but uneven experience. At least it’s a mess that most players won’t remember long after logging off.