Highguard has already been compared to the disastrous shooter Concord before its release. In fact, the launch on Steam and PS5 went anything but promising. A patch is supposed to change that, as it introduces a new mode to the game.
This is the current situation surrounding Highguard:
- The Free2Play shooter was released on January 26, 2026, for Steam and PS5. Previously, the developers had been silent for weeks after the surprising announcement at the Game Awards 2025 .
- However, at launch, Highguard was bombarded with negative reviews on Steam. In addition to legitimate criticism, the frustration of players dissatisfied with the gaming industry had been unleashed over the shooter, who had already labeled the game as “the next Concord”.
- But instead of pulling the plug, the developers of Highguard are staying on track and rolled out a patch along with a new mode in the first week.
Highguard brings new mode and performance fixes
This is new: With a patch, the developers addressed some of the criticisms of the shooter on January 29 – and surprisingly delivered a completely new game mode. There is now an experimental 5v5 mode, which is only playable for this weekend.
So those who only checked out Highguard at launch and were overwhelmed by the large maps might give the shooter another chance. However, the developers also warn: Adding 4 more players does not exactly help the other major criticism – the performance.
Additionally, the patch is said to deliver improvements in animation performance, projectiles, and other gameplay systems (Source: Steam).
1.0.4 Patch Notes in English (machine translated with Gemini)
Game Input Settings
- Crouch: On all platforms, “Crouch” can now be set to Hold or Toggle.
- Aim Down Sights (ADS): The ability to set aiming (ADS) to Hold or Toggle has been added (initially only for PC).
Note: Switching the aim is done by pressing the sprint button (Shift on PC, left stick on controller), while in ADS mode. This may feel disorienting on the controller. PC players are advised to remap the aim switch key if they use “ADS Toggle.” A solution for console players (who cannot yet freely assign buttons) is being worked on, but this will take time.
Video Settings
- Field of View (FoV): Console users can now adjust the field of view up to 110.
- Performance: The low scaling settings for shadows and reflections have been optimized for even more performance (at the expense of image quality).
- Shadows: The “Low” setting now also disables volumetric fog.
- Viewing Distance: A new setting for the “Quality of Viewing Distance” has been added. This controls the detail levels (LODs) of skeletal meshes and helps optimize GPU and CPU usage.
- Additional Options: Players can now toggle the following features on or off independently of other quality settings:
- Anisotropic Materials
- Chromatic Aberration
- Bloom
Note: Motion Blur and Depth of Field need further testing before they can be safely disabled. These options will follow shortly.
- DLSS: Users can now select DLSS presets. More presets and better descriptions will follow in the next patch.
- Global Illumination: Can now be completely set to “Off”.
- Laptop Fix: An engine bug was fixed that erroneously capped laptop users at 60 FPS, regardless of frame rate settings.
Crashes and Bug Fixes
This patch fixes crashes that could occur in the following situations:
Stability: The main causes of crashes have been eliminated, which has reduced the crash rate overall by 90% and greatly improved stability.
- Leaving a match on the PS5 under an unexpected input status.
- Loading matches on devices with slower storage media (HDDs).
- Various bugs related to online status and matchmaking have been fixed.
Friends: Will now be correctly displayed as online after accepting requests. The Xbox Presence status now updates correctly.
Players say: Great, but why not like this from the start?
This is how the changes are perceived: Actually surprisingly good. On the night of January 31, SteamDB recorded more players for the first time since release than at its peak the day before. Up to 15,147 players were simultaneously active in Highguard. Meanwhile, positive reviews now clearly outnumber the negative ones among the newly added reviews.
Also on social media platforms like X and Reddit, the first impressions are positive. For many players, the 5v5 mode feels like the “right” way to experience the game: The size of the maps suddenly makes sense, during the loot phase one now encounters other players and must engage in firefights.
All this makes the game more frantic but also more entertaining for many. Others realize that the developers did have some thought in mind with 3v3.
Yet even users who cannot get into Highguard express their respect for the developers. Because after such a disastrous release, continuing on, listening to the community, and suddenly pulling a new mode out of thin air shows real passion.
This has also convinced YouTuber Mightykeef. He wrote on X: “Okay, whoah, whoah, whoah. THIS is something other gaming companies should learn from. Highguard had a terrible start and immediately began implementing the things people want to see. I like that.”
Just the fact that the new mode is so good leads others to shake their heads. Gaming journalist Paul Tassi wrote: “Are you kidding, 5v5 is so much better. It doesn’t even feel balanced. Why didn’t you make this the main mode at launch?” (Source: X)
Whether Highguard will still manage a comeback remains to be seen. The current changes definitely raise hopes that the shooter can still find its player base and is at least not on the verge of being shut down. This should also please MeinMMO editor Benedict, who said: You are all playing Highguard wrong, but you can’t even do anything about it
