Highguard Review – A Bold Raid-Shooter with Growing Pains
I spent hours in Highguard’s weird, ambitious 3v3 raid loop — mounts, Shieldbreaker sieges and messy technical issues. Is the idea strong enough to survive launch problems? I break down the highs, lows and who might still enjoy it.
I went into Highguard expecting a mess of borrowed ideas — and I largely found one, but also a heartbeat of something clever. The game pairs long open-world looting on mounts with frantic 3v3 sieges: find the Shieldbreaker, carry it, call a Siege Tower and blow up a base. It’s bold in scope and oddly nostalgic, like Apex mashed with Rainbow Six Siege and a dash of Battle Royale. Whether that mash-up becomes a live-service hit depends less on the idea and more on whether the studio can fix performance and pacing.
Riding the Raid Loop
Highguard’s basic loop is simple to describe but full of small hooks: reinforce your base, mount up, loot the map, contest the Shieldbreaker storm, then charge the enemy base and plant bombs. In play it alternates between slow, territorial exploration and sudden violent skirmishes. You spend a surprising amount of time gathering resources, opening chests and deciding whether to buy a turret or upgrade your saddle — decisions that can matter if your team coordinates. Combat toggles between on-foot firefights and chaotic mounted chases; the mounts are fun and give the game unique momentum. The raid phase — hammering the Shieldbreaker into a base and summoning a Siege Tower — feels cinematic when it works, and can turn a quiet match into a frantic finale.
When Sieges Meet Hero Tools
What distinguishes Highguard is how many genres it tries to knit together: hero abilities, looter progression, destructible bases and siege mechanics. Wardens bring one or two arcane tools and a gun, so builds feel hybrid: you’re balancing ability cooldowns with farming and shot placement. The Shieldbreaker mechanic provides a clear focal point and leads to memorable tug-of-war moments — I’ve had wild comebacks and equally brutal steamrolls. Unfortunately, some abilities feel under-explained in the UI and balance is shaky: a few guns and ultimates swing fights too hard, while other Wardens fade into background noise. Still, the way base reinforcement, resource harvesting and raid tools interact is an original attempt to reward both tactical thinking and moment-to-moment gun skill.
A Clunky Beauty: Presentation and Tech
Visually Highguard aims for a colorful, slightly stylized fantasy-Western look that I wanted to love, but the presentation often betrays the ambition: forced anti-aliasing, muddied textures and an overuse of motion blur make distances and hit clarity frustrating. Sound design is a mixed bag — mounts gallop satisfyingly but footsteps and voice positioning sometimes feel wrong, leading to “where did that shot come from?” moments. Performance is the largest complaint: poor optimization, server disconnects and occasional crash loops were common on launch. Accessibility and settings are currently sparse (no FSR/XeSS options, limited toggles), which hurts a competitive shooter’s feel. Still: the mounts, destructible bases and the Siege Tower sequence are inventive touches that give Highguard personality even when the tech doesn’t cooperate.
Highguard is a fascinating mess: a smart, high-concept raid shooter hamstrung by technical issues and questionable pacing. If you’re curious and have friends to play with, it’s worth a try — the game can produce thrilling moments. But if you’re sensitive to low FPS, blurry visuals or want a polished competitive shooter today, wait for patches.
Pros
- Ambitious hybrid loop mixing exploration, looting and siege PvP.
- Mounts and Siege mechanics create memorable moments.
- Free-to-play with frequent content promises and an accessible core idea.
- Some genuinely fun gunplay and tense Shieldbreaker skirmishes when balanced.
Cons
- Poor optimization, blurry visuals and inconsistent audio positioning.
- Maps feel too large for 3v3; pacing leads to long dead time.
- Server stability, matchmaking and anti-cheat requirements cause friction.
Player Opinion
Player feedback is loud and split. Many praise the core idea — mounts, the Shieldbreaker tug-of-war and the cinematic Siege Tower — and are happy it’s free-to-play without aggressive monetization so far. At the same time, a larger group complains about terrible optimization, blurry anti-aliasing, frequent disconnects and a lack of graphics/options like FSR/XeSS. The 3v3 player count is a recurring gripe: users think the maps are too empty for three players and suggest 5v5 or smaller maps. Servers, matchmaking quirks and the secure-boot anticheat requirement also keep cropping up. In short: concept fans find moments of joy; others are turned off by performance, balance and scope mismatches.