With Highguard, a new free-to-play shooter launched on Steam on January 26, 2026 – and has received terrible reviews right away. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus played it himself and believes that the criticism from many negative reviews stems from a wrong approach to the game.
Yes, Highguard had a pretty strange release: no marketing except for a brief shoutout at the Game Awards, no pre-release testing, and hardly any information before launch. Nobody really knew what Highguard was supposed to be.
It seemed somewhat like the developers were trying to copy the surprise success of Apex Legends, which also just appeared back then. No wonder: Highguard is developed by Wildlight Entertainment, a studio of veterans who have worked on Apex Legends and Titanfall.
That didn’t work out. Unlike Apex Legends, the launch of Highguard is a disaster. With less than 100,000 players on release night (according to SteamDB) and a rating of 30% positive reviews out of over 18,800 reviews on Steam, the signs are not good.
I found the first two rounds entertaining but then became annoyed with the balancing. It seemed like I never had a chance after respawning. It took several more rounds for me to understand how the game works. I have now invested nearly 6 hours on the first evening and think Highguard is really good.
Same developers, similar controls, but Highguard is NOT Apex Legends
My mistake was the same as many others make when looking at the reviews on Steam and elsewhere. Players compare Highguard to Overwatch, Apex Legends, and Valorant. And yes, I understand why:
- There are heroes with abilities.
- The map visually resembles Apex Legends in mechanics.
- The objective is to plant bombs – or defend the base.
- The gameplay can feel like a battle royale.
Colleague Cedric Holmeier also made this comparison after his first round and even says that Highguard does certain elements better than its predecessors.
That certain parallels exist cannot be denied, but that is exactly the fallacy that leads to the wrong approach. Because Highguard is definitely not Overwatch or Valorant and especially not Apex Legends.
The loot is a nasty trap you need to know about
While playing, I repeatedly noticed that my teammates were looting the map in complete peace while something important was happening. Of course: when I play Apex Legends or another battle royale, I’m constantly on the hunt for loot for an advantage.
But in Highguard, I must not do that, as the loot is already limited in quality. Each section of a round offers only a certain rarity:
- Blue in the first section,
- Purple in the second
- and orange (Legendary) from the third and upwards.
Each section is concluded by a siege. One team must attack the enemy base, and sooner or later, this situation will be enforced by the game. After the siege, it goes into the next loot phase unless one side has already won.
Maybe it’s possible to find better loot early on, but even if: it’s not worth leaving your team behind for that. The individual parts of a round of Highguard are exactly what matters, and here something comes into play that many overlook.
The shooter is much more tactical than you might think
Just as a round is divided into different sections, each of these sections has individual phases:
- Preparation: Here you run across the map and gather loot, especially currency. This phase lasts about two minutes.
- Objective: The shield breaker (or in later rounds the airdrop) appears and brings the teams to a point on the map. This is where the battle begins. Whoever arrives earlier can prepare traps.
- Attack and Defense: Once the shield breaker is taken, both teams continue to fight for dominance. Based on experience, this leads to a deathmatch after a certain time. The surviving team initiates the siege.
- Siege: The attackers try to place bombs and have limited lives. The defenders want to prevent this (and even have a chance to deal damage to the enemy base).
Each of these phases requires much more team coordination than one might think because there are only two teams. There can’t suddenly be a third party coming in to distract enemies while you revive your fallen mate. You must play as a team for victory.
With the right approach, you can easily overcome opponents and score victories. I had to lose several times to learn this – but that’s exactly what the developers have planned. Once you understand what approach is right for which situation, Highguard suddenly has much more depth.
Highguard is better than its reputation, but certainly not perfect
Nevertheless, I can’t simply dismiss a part of the criticism. Highguard has some problems that playtests would have definitely resolved, primarily the size of the map. The maps feel way too large for just two teams.
There’s hardly any friction outside of the planned confrontations at the map events. This became somewhat more pleasant with later understanding of the game, but more action would still be nice. A mode with four teams and perhaps more “Capture the Flag” instead of siege – inspired by Halo, which plays similarly – might have worked better.
Also, the obvious AI translation that was never checked seems questionable to me. The game refers to itself in German as Hohe Haltung
(the direct translation, but a term from sword fighting), and even weapon names like Langhorn
and Dynastie
are translated. But oh well… A for effort
, I suppose.
On top of that, there are performance issues and bad servers that are apparently already being worked on, and the terrible battle pass, which was copied from Helldivers 2. That’s a personal issue, but I find the system of having to buy cosmetics first to earn the next tier for cosmetics unappealing.
The biggest problem: No one knows how to play Highguard
What’s even worse is that Highguard does a poor job of explaining everything adequately. The tutorial takes forever, but the features that are truly relevant to the game are not addressed. So if you play Highguard wrong
, it’s not really your fault.
Although Highguard looks like a casual game, in my experience, it is only enjoyable if you really dive in and are willing to take a hard hit first to learn. That’s not for everyone.
How long Highguard will keep me can’t be said yet – for now, though, I think the shooter is great and will certainly put many more evenings into it. And I’m also looking forward to future expansions: Highguard: Roadmap shows plans until the end of 2026, aiming to bring new updates every month
