• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Highguard |OT| Mount up and raid with me (Is this the Apex of hero shooters?)

TwinB242 said:
I don't understand how gamers nowadays have such short attention spans and are so quickly willing to write off games like this one. If you look at a lot of the negative steam reviews, some of those people played it for less than half a hour. Thats just being completely unreasonable, you can't judge a relatively complex multiplayer game in such a short amount of time.
Click to expand...
If I went by my first couple hours impressions in most multiplayer games I'd have dropped a lot of them. As long as the utter basics aren't completely fucked, you need to be willing to give a game a little bit of time to click, especially when modern multiplayer shooters tend to have more depth and mechanics than in the past, making them very difficult to judge at first glance. That said, if the fundamentals like visuals, performance, input are immediately lacking (sounds like that might be the case judging by many comments here), decent sign the game might not be worth the effort. Even if the gameplay loop and mechanics are a lot to take in, it needs to feel fucking amazing to play right off the bat. Too much competition in the space to afford anything less.

For me, it's just the art style. The gameplay premise isn't entirely uninteresting, and I'd be checking out this garbage along with everyone else if it wasn't for the visuals. Genuinely shocking that these devs lived through the GAAS failures of the last few years and still kept this art style. That said, I have BF6, Arc Raiders, and soon Marathon to keep up with. What the hell is this game offering?

Varteras said:
I think, as @clarky kind of touched on, that they just didn't have enough critical pushback during the development process to conclude that it was a bad idea. Now, that's no excuse for them even trying that in the first place. I think most people here, with no game dev experience, would immediately recognize that as a problem. But they just didn't have enough outside feedback telling them they're being stupid. This game needed more time and legit testing.
Click to expand...
This is why you need people in your life who aren't afraid to call you a retard. Otherwise you end up doing dumb shit like this and thinking you're a genius for huffing your own farts. Only realizing you're a retard when it's too late.
 
Last edited:
Arsic said:
This is proof you can't just shadow drop a game anymore

Server tests, feedback, etc are critical.
Click to expand...
They got all the feedback they needed from Keighley himself.

"This is great guys, really great. If my best friend Hideo Kojima was here he'd say it's great too"
Geoff Keighley GIF by The Game Awards
 
Arsic said:
I rarely would say he deserves but for this he really does because he kept doubling and tripling down on it…
Click to expand...
Dude is a walking commercial / marketer. I'm not going to lose sleep over people harassing him but it's just such a waste of time some people legit get angry/upset over what exactly? That the final trailer for the game awards was for a game that didn't end up good? That a guy paid to market games is still marketing them?

It's all just so hilariously "Gamer" to me.
 
Last edited:
Huge maps. 3v3. Tons of downtime. Long matches. Terrible to watch. Strange mash up of art styles and genres. Yeah, doesn't look good at all.

Varteras said:
To be fair, Geoff poked the bear by effectively telling people who didn't like what they saw that they're wrong and that he was looking forward to them realizing that.
Click to expand...
Yeah, Cohh just called him out on that and said he would be side-eyeing any more recommendations from Geoff after this.

IntentionalPun said:
I just went through his Twitter posts/replies... and don't see him saying anything like that?

But again, who cares? lol
Click to expand...

You're right, it doesn't matter at the end of the day. It is funny, though, that Geoff being such a fan of this game is probably what ends up killing it. Apparently they were going to shadow drop and Geoff liked the game so much he decided to put it in that last spot at TGA, which put them in a terrible position because everyone expected something amazing as the final reveal. Then he did more PR work than the actual developers and then posted this tweet, which only made things worse.



Sufficed to say, he's not getting any apologies, he's just getting clowned on. In an alternate universes where Highguard shadow drops today, with no fanfare, who knows how it ends up being received, but it certainly would be better than the last month or so leading up to now.
 
Geoff is an asshat and a shill, but that doesn't stop me from thinking this game has potential. My biggest gripe is the size of the teams, but also that my aging reflexes aren't going to be able to keep up with the sweats.

I do believe they should've had a public/closed beta to iron out some of the jank/kinks though.

It reminds me of the Apex launch, that was an announcement/shadow drop on the same day, which I guess they were trying to replicate. I believe that team was a lot larger and probably did more playtesting than this fairly small team.
 
RafterXL said:
Huge maps. 3v3. Tons of downtime. Long matches. Terrible to watch. Strange mash up of art styles and genres. Yeah, doesn't look good at all.


Yeah, Cohh just called him out on that and said he would be side-eyeing any more recommendations from Geoff after this.



You're right, it doesn't matter at the end of the day. It is funny, though, that Geoff being such a fan of this game is probably what ends up killing it. Apparently they were going to shadow drop and Geoff liked the game so much he decided to put it in that last spot at TGA, which put them in a terrible position because everyone expected something amazing as the final reveal. Then he did more PR work than the actual developers and then posted this tweet, which only made things worse.



Sufficed to say, he's not getting any apologies, he's just getting clowned on. In an alternate universes where Highguard shadow drops today, with no fanfare, who knows how it ends up being received, but it certainly would be better than the last month or so leading up to now.
Click to expand...

 
I can see the merits of this game. The only thing I have a problem with is that the aiming is too floaty. But the idea of a raid seems novel enough, I'll put in more time.
 
Is this really out on PS5? I didn't see it on the Store anywhere, you'd think it would be plastered all over the place.
 
Last edited:
About 3.5 hours played.

Not that bad of a game at all, but I need to play it with 2 mates and try out ranked mode before I can say for certain if I want to try and climb. Playing normals will get boring fast, especially with randoms.

The game really need to be optimized though, hitting 70 FPS in fights at times really makes it harder to hit something. Turned everything to low still the FPS is all over the place.

Sure I don't have the beefiest PC but I should be able to handle 100+ FPS atleast, especially with everything on low with forced DLSS(12600k, 32GB RAM, RTX 4070, on 1440p).
 
Last edited:
I was one of many that shit on this game when revealed, but that reveal trailer was just incredibly bad.

They actually came up with a unique game design here. Unlike for instance Concord which was an empty shell of a game.

I don't know if I'll ever play it, but I'm now rooting for it.
 
About what I expected. Guns are crappy, the designated destructable walls don't impress. Got matched with 2 people who had zero idea and we had zero chance of winning. Match still took 20 minutes. Uninstalled.

Another "studio formed by industry veterans" dud.
 
Last edited:
mmm...it's fun but has a steep learning curve. I don't know if I can get good enough to play or not.
I was hoping it would be at least 3v3v3.
 
Hm, I changed my mind, I think the game will struggle quick. Played an hour and I don't see myself continuing.

There is also a negative wave going against it, the clickbait videos are already up.



They NEED the streamers to stick with this past the sponsorships.
 
I've been watching Lirik play the game for the whole evening, some takes:
  • Movement and gunplay very Apexy (duh)
  • Takes a decent while to get in the flow of the game, the tactics, what (items) to prioritize and such. There's a lot coming at you starting out. I noticed a lot of negative reviews are from ppl who played a few matches and decided it's trash already.
  • Takes a decent team willing to coordinate and cooperate to win or successfully defend.
  • 2 decent teams going at each other is quite intense, sweaty and can result in a lot of going back and forth raiding and defending, while your 'power levels' (better items) increase.
Lirik mentioned how this could very well be an expansion/season for Apex instead of a new game. I can see that.
I can appreciate what the devs were going for, at least they tried, but it doesn't seem like a success formula. The concept just doesn't translate to a mainstream hit.
Maybe I was a bit too optimistic with my prediction of 150-200K CCU debut peak on Steam, but I'm sure it did a lot better than most of us expected.
 
kpopSuperstar said:
Hm, I changed my mind, I think the game will struggle quick. Played an hour and I don't see myself continuing.

There is also a negative wave going against it, the clickbait videos are already up.



They NEED the streamers to stick with this past the sponsorships.
Click to expand...

I can't stand that youtuber, unfollowed him years ago BUT he is 100% right about this game. Its not clickbait. He told the truth.
 
kpopSuperstar said:
Hm, I changed my mind, I think the game will struggle quick. Played an hour and I don't see myself continuing.

There is also a negative wave going against it, the clickbait videos are already up.



They NEED the streamers to stick with this past the sponsorships.
Click to expand...

Rhythm based mining has to be the worst idea I've ever seen.
 
Managed to get a few games in with friends, and I enjoyed it for what it's worth. It's fun, and competitive, at least in the matches we had. The biggest issue with the game is performance on PC, needs a lot of work. Not sure if I'll get a lot of mileage out of it, but I'll keep playing it for now. A lot of interesting ideas being implemented here, and I can see how and why it would alienate a casual FPS player.
 
Just played about 5 matches there.

I'd say it's far too easy when attacking. Defending is pretty hard. They need to balance that a bit easier. You should get more fortifying walls at the start.

It really feels like whichever team gets the sword and first siege generally will win the match. I do think there is room for more players also. Definitely 4v4. Possibly .5v5. But things can get hectic during the siege and bases don't seem to be designed for much more players.

Some characters seem to be more useful than others also. The ice guy for example is pretty good. But then there's a dude who's ultimate is just basically the same as his regular ability but stronger.

I can see myself playing a bit more especially now I understand what the fuck is going on the game. Audio needs fixing though.
 
DeceptiveAlarm said:
Can I respawn in this or is it battle royal style?
Click to expand...
Respawns and revives. Depending on the phase, the respawn can be longer so quicker if you can be revived? Also, seems that the spawn point changes depending on the phase. I think I saw someone respawn closer to a teammate that was still alive.

From what I saw, if you get the sword and are raiding the base, your team gets a limited amount of respawns before the sword resets and you need to obtain it again to initiate another raid.

There's some really good ideas here, but I also think it's one of those games that you need to squad up with and not just go with randoms.
 
ok played for ~3 (2.6 hours) hours

- 3v3 ain't it
- wtf mining?
- optimization is not good
- slow respawn, revives lol gl no one does it
- blurry game?? (ok found out render resolution 100% is actually 80%, devs didn't fucking optimize)
- fantasy is all over the place, I don't get it, it's too much

Uninstalled.

eh, imo game is very EA but has some cool ideas, gunplay feels great, sounds are punchy. Hope devs cook it for 1+ year as this game will die very quickly given the negative shit it's getting. I want the game to succeed, it's easy to shit on a game, it's really hard to get it right, lot's of money, dev time and work just down the drain feels bad.
 
Last edited:
RafterXL said:
Huge maps. 3v3. Tons of downtime. Long matches. Terrible to watch. Strange mash up of art styles and genres. Yeah, doesn't look good at all.


Yeah, Cohh just called him out on that and said he would be side-eyeing any more recommendations from Geoff after this.



You're right, it doesn't matter at the end of the day. It is funny, though, that Geoff being such a fan of this game is probably what ends up killing it. Apparently they were going to shadow drop and Geoff liked the game so much he decided to put it in that last spot at TGA, which put them in a terrible position because everyone expected something amazing as the final reveal. Then he did more PR work than the actual developers and then posted this tweet, which only made things worse.



Sufficed to say, he's not getting any apologies, he's just getting clowned on. In an alternate universes where Highguard shadow drops today, with no fanfare, who knows how it ends up being received, but it certainly would be better than the last month or so leading up to now.
Click to expand...

 
On ps5 pro, this is almost a travesty to my eyeballs…like ps4 era stuff. I hate the tutorial. Not good first impression.
 
WoeIsMe said:
About 3.5 hours played.

Not that bad of a game at all, but I need to play it with 2 mates and try out ranked mode before I can say for certain if I want to try and climb. Playing normals will get boring fast, especially with randoms.

The game really need to be optimized though, hitting 70 FPS in fights at times really makes it harder to hit something. Turned everything to low still the FPS is all over the place.

Sure I don't have the beefiest PC but I should be able to handle 100+ FPS atleast, especially with everything on low with forced DLSS(12600k, 32GB RAM, RTX 4070, on 1440p).
Click to expand...
Failure to optimize is insane for this kind of game. It needs to run and run well on as wide a range of hardware as possible, and realistically devs should be targeting a higher baseline than 60 fps to begin with. It's not even an engine thing since games like The Finals have shown that skilled devs can get really good performance form UE5 (even with that crazy destruction) by not abusing the "next-gen" features, which is absolutely the right call for this kind of game. I hate to bring up Concord at this point but that game also had very poor performance for a competitive hero shooter. My rig was well over recommended spec but Concord barely maintained 60 fps regardless of settings.
 
NormalGamer said:
About what I expected. Guns are crappy, the designated destructable walls don't impress. Got matched with 2 people who had zero idea and we had zero chance of winning. Match still took 20 minutes. Uninstalled.

Another "studio formed by industry veterans" dud.
Click to expand...
I mean most people will skip the tutorial and have no clue what to do, to be expected for a free to play FPS day one. Don't think that gives you the full experience of what the games offering.

However I will say, it's fine not offensive, decent ttk and feels like a slower apex legends. Biggest issue is the map size for 3v3 feels like it would be a lot more fun with 4v4 or perhaps 5v5.

Performance was good for me but I'm on a 5090 and 9800x3d so big grain of salt for optimisation. The fact you can't even choose DLSS render is bizarre though, no performance or quality selection? No reflex option either with nvidia cards.
 
Last edited:
Played 2 matches. First one my team was clueless and we got destroyed which didn't leave the best first impression. Next one my teammates were more competant and I had a better idea of what to do which improved the general flow of the match. It was actually pretty fun. Im not big into MP shooters in general so I doubt ill play this long term, but I currently do want to play more which is a good sign. I do have some issues though

- Something about the aiming feels off, especially in close quarters gunfights. I always feel like im overshooting or undershooting my aim when trying to shoot people. Not sure if there's some kind of hidden mouse acceleration going on, the barebones options menu doesn't really give any indication of that
- Speaking of the options, there's definitely far too much thats missing. First thing I usually change in these shooters is setting the aim to toggle, but there being no option for that is a bit maddening. I hate holding down RMB to aim.
- No text chat on PC is another strange omission.
- UI needs some work. I just discovered the quests, which along the daily/weeklies seem to be the only real progression. But it doesn't seem possible to track and view those while within a match, so you can gauge your progress towards completing them.
- The persistence in general is lacking, and could end up being one of the things that cuts the game's potential lifespan short. I don't know why the devs thought that launching a multiplayer shooter in 2026 without any character or even account leveling system would be a good idea. As I already mentioned people nowadays have short attention spans, so these games need some kind of carrot on a stick design or else gamers will fall off of it even if the core game is fun.
- 3v3 does feel too small given the map size. Im all for meaningful downtime in shooters, its one of the things that appealed to me the most about old school BF games. When you're slowly flanking with your squad towards the objective while you can observe and hear other battles happening in the background, thats always been enjoyable to me. But in this game you can get into a quick skirmish one moment but then the next you're wandering around and there's nothing happening anywhere. Its just dead quiet with nothing going on which is a bit much.

So yeah, it has potential. But they should have had some kind of alpha or beta first as many people have already mentioned. The devs are in a tough situation now because eventhough they can and will certainly improve many parts of the game, this space is crowded enough that if you aren't able to make the best first impression, a lot of people who already made up their mind just won't return no matter how much better things get.
 
Last edited:
Tutorial doesn't really teach you much about the game anyway. I can't imagine solo queuing this, no comms, no coordination with team mates, and coming away from the experience satisfied. This game simply does not accommodate for the casual audience, which is not exactly a bad thing, but it means it will have to rely on a small hardcore audience.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Highguard - A new sci-fi / fantasy PVP shooter from Titanfall and Apex developers
6 7 8 9 10
451
3K
LegendOfKage replied
Dunkey : Highguard
33
355
falconhoof replied
  • Poll
Highguard Betting Thread
48
723
PeteBull replied
Highguard Debuts on Steam with a peak CCU of 97k and 21% positive reviews
Platform  16 17 18 19 20
984
1K
Faltherion replied
  • Locked
HIGHGUARD represents the end of an era. Please come forward and pay your respects...
48
203
ChorizoPicozo replied
Top Bottom