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

Jesus. This game hasn't even been out for an 8-hour shift and it already lost damn near 2/3rds of its concurrent players on Steam.
 
They really do need to announce that it wasn't ready for prime time and say they will use the initial period as a beta to garner feedback.
Leave it up for a week, pull it and go back to the drawing board.

It's not a complete wash and they can comeback from this especially if they re-release with a higher player count and add some QoL features that should already be there.
 
This will suffice between Mewgenics and Marathon, the two main games of my year.

I only played 3 matches, but I had a good time. Once you get the rhythm of the round down it just kinda flows. I tried Kai, Mara, and the fire guy, and they all seem pretty good. I just gotta stop trying to save my ult for the perfect time and use it more.

It would be fantastic with a coordinated team, but if you're playing random and just stick with one other person at least you'll probably have a leg up on the other team. Had a few stragglers that held us back (I was one of them in the first match) but it is Day 1.

Once we start learning maps, the size won't matter (twss). You don't have to go all over the place.
 
They really do need to announce that it wasn't ready for prime time and say they will use the initial period as a beta to garner feedback.
Leave it up for a week, pull it and go back to the drawing board.

It's not a complete wash and they can comeback from this especially if they re-release with a higher player count and add some QoL features that should already be there.
I haven't tried it yet, but it really seems like it needs either 6 v 6, other traditional shooter modes (TDM), PVE enemies (like Titanfall's attrition mode), or all of the above.
 
They really do need to announce that it wasn't ready for prime time and say they will use the initial period as a beta to garner feedback.
Leave it up for a week, pull it and go back to the drawing board.

It's not a complete wash and they can comeback from this especially if they re-release with a higher player count and add some QoL features that should already be there.
That worked great for Splitgate.

Lmao.😂
 
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That worked great for Splitgate.

Lmao.😂
At this point, it's either die a quick death or at least have a chance to recover.

It's bleeding fast so all options should be on the table unless it somehow has a miracle comeback....not likely in it's current state.

Splitgate overpromised and underdelivered...it also didn't help that game to have an arrogant ass of a CEO
 
Guys, the player drop is mainly because half the planet, including europe, went to bed. It's 3 am here now. It's always like this, you gotta wait a few days go get proper metrics.
 
Guys, the player drop is mainly because half the planet, including europe, went to bed. It's 3 am here now. It's always like this, you gotta wait a few days go get proper metrics.
What? That just means it's normal time on the other half of the planet. It's 6pm here on the west coast.

You should see how Arc Raiders did despite half the planet needing to sleep
 
Man, I gave this an honest shit and it feels so close to being a good and interesting game but there's just some weird decisions here. I'm awful at it so that's going to cloud my judgment for sure, but this should not be a 3 player game. It feels like it should have many more players, at least 5 v 5 but maybe much more. There's so many mechanics, it feels like several games smashed together. I guess I don't really "get it". I don't dislike it at all but it is not an amazing first impression
 
Guys, the player drop is mainly because half the planet, including europe, went to bed. It's 3 am here now. It's always like this, you gotta wait a few days go get proper metrics.

Very true. The prime audience for multiplayer shooters is Europe, so it makes sense for the player numbers to go up when Europe is off work and North America is asleep.
 
Very true. The prime audience for multiplayer shooters is Europe, so it makes sense for the player numbers to go up when Europe is off work and North America is asleep.
Arc Raiders has ~300k on steam rn

This game has ~30k and it came out today lol. And this game is free.

This game is doing so much worse than I think even the biggest cynics expected

We are watching it die in real time
 
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Man, I gave this an honest shit and it feels so close to being a good and interesting game but there's just some weird decisions here. I'm awful at it so that's going to cloud my judgment for sure, but this should not be a 3 player game. It feels like it should have many more players, at least 5 v 5 but maybe much more. There's so many mechanics, it feels like several games smashed together. I guess I don't really "get it". I don't dislike it at all but it is not an amazing first impression
I watched Dr disrespect play a coupe of matches. His crew said the same thing about the amount of players

For some reason the map desing gives me MOBA vibes, I even think if down the line they are planing to integrate minions/tower defense mechanics... The game indeed looks like a bunch of games poorly mixed together.
 
Very briefly watching Dr D's stream, it looks like the game isnt a high tempo shooter a all. Just a few things I got from the brief footage i watched:

- Big maps with lots of empty space

- Aside from chests to find gear, you also mine blue crystals strewn across the maps. Googling it, its so you can buy items from merchants

- The horse you can get (you can see a bunch at a stable) can be turn on and off when you get one.

- You can do this gold coloured dimension door ability to instantly warp back to base

- When they were playing, I think one guy said..... "I'd rather be in a jet in BF". lol
 
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The game slaps on PC but the PS5 port is a bad experience. Looks like some 720p blurry shit on PS5 Pro and players kept disconnecting from the match.

I'll keep playing on PC but occasionally login on PS5 since it syncs trophies with steam achievements.
 
it's a cut down MOBA without mobs and without towers. just 2 bases.
and it has semi-random loot on the map.
I think this hits home.

It feels like they planned to have mobs, maps are large enough and have "lanes", maybe they didn't get the mobs to work in networked game or something. Alternatively they wanted to have more heroes but didn't have time to develop/balance them to have 5v5 game.

They have the blue/red lootchests and gems but both give the same basic items. Neither feels achievement in any sense. It feels like it was just slapped in there to allow there be some level of customization.

Thematically it feels off, you have high fantasy setting (knight armor, chests, castles, gems, horses..) but everyone has guns not axes, bows, magic. Heroes are more like superheroes from Marvel games. It feels like they were planning to have different game and that didn't end up working.

Even the timing is off, they rush the game to be in Game Awards, then have sudden launch without longer marketing push.

All crumbs lead me to think their studio was running out of money and needed to launch the game in Q1, tidied the game best they could, bought ad on GA and rushed the release. Game dev is hard and when you do have free to play live service game, you are against the biggest teams and most money, odds of success aren't high.
 
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I think this hits home.

It feels like they planned to have mobs, maps are large enough and have "lanes", maybe they didn't get the mobs to work in networked game or something.

Even thematically it feels off, you have high fantasy setting (knight armor, chests, castles, gems, horses..) but everyone has guns not axes, bows, magic. Heroes are more like superheroes from Marvel games. It feels like they were planning to have different game and that didn't end up working.

Even the timing is off, they rush the game to be in Game Awards, then have sudden launch without longer marketing push.

All crumbs lead me to think their studio was running out of money and needed to launch the game in Q1, tidied the game best they could, bought ad on GA and rushed the release.

the game feels wrong yeah.
I don't fully understand the concept behind it.

it's also hilarious coming from supposedly former Titanfall devs, given that one of the unique elements about Titanfall's main game mode was that there were mobs in the battle, to make the combat feel more intense.

you could even hack the mobs to make them fight for you and stuff like that.


and now they make a MOBA without mobs... like... weird.
 
Even the timing is off, they rush the game to be in Game Awards, then have sudden launch without longer marketing push.

All crumbs lead me to think their studio was running out of money and needed to launch the game in Q1, tidied the game best they could, bought ad on GA and rushed the release.
This part might had been planned though.

The studio is based on a bunch of people from Apex which was a hugely successful stealth launch. So no marketing needed aside from it being announced that night at a game show available to download.

So they probably did the same thing here assuming catching lightning in a bottle twice with the same kind of launch except it was a month out from launch instead of that night. Zero info or beta test either, so I think they purposely went into a blind launch like Apex. And whatever happens happens.
 
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Played several matches and honestly I don't think it's bad. I can't see myself playing it long term but I'm having some fun at least while it's new. The characters are generic randos but the gunplay feels decent. I like the whole gear up then raid thing, just think they need more stuff to do in and around the maps. I also think the player count is too low, needs to be upped to 5v5 perhaps. It doesn't perform all that great either which is weird because it doesn't look amazing even on max settings.
 
This part might had been planned though.

The studio is based on a bunch of people from Apex which was a hugely successful stealth launch. So no marketing needed aside from it being announced that night at a game show available to download.

So they probably did the same thing here assuming catching lightning in a bottle twice with the same kind of launch except it was a month out from launch instead of that night. Zero info or beta test either, so I think they purposely went into a blind launch like Apex. And whatever happens happens.

it worked with Apex because it is based on an existing IP and takes a lot of elements (and guns/abilities) from said IP.

It's less of a good idea to do this with a weird ass MOBA... especially when they are missing core settings any competitive shooter should have, like FOV sliders on console or a hold to crouch and toggle aim setting.


edit: also broken FOV settings on PC apparently 🤣

 
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it worked with Apex because it is based on an existing IP and takes a lot of elements (and guns/abilities) from said IP.

It's less of a good idea to do this with a weird ass MOBA... especially when they are missing core settings any competitive shooter should have, like FOV sliders on console or a hold to crouch and toggle aim setting.


edit: also broken FOV settings on PC apparently 🤣


Ah good points.

As for FOV, maybe they are giving all gamepad gamers a view boost hoping nobody would notice since most gamers are probably hardcore kb/mouse or gamepad so they'd never know there's a difference. lol
 
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My steam is downloading an 18gb update?

The game is missing so many fundamentals when it comes to multiplayer shooters. Where's the text chat? Can't select server region? Settings are barebones.
 
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Guys, the player drop is mainly because half the planet, including europe, went to bed. It's 3 am here now. It's always like this, you gotta wait a few days go get proper metrics.
Is this a transcript from the emergency investor call that was likely scheduled a few hours after launch?
 
Guys, the player drop is mainly because half the planet, including europe, went to bed. It's 3 am here now. It's always like this, you gotta wait a few days go get proper metrics.
The game went up at 11am Pacific, and continued to drop as people were getting off work in the US, which is supposed to be the primary market. C'mon now...

On the subject I watched 1-2 games on Twitch - apart from being bland as fuck there is absolutely no way this was not designed as a 5v5 MOBA, absolutely no way given map layout, lanes and lots of empty space.
 
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Very briefly watching Dr D's stream, it looks like the game isnt a high tempo shooter a all. Just a few things I got from the brief footage i watched:

- Big maps with lots of empty space

- Aside from chests to find gear, you also mine blue crystals strewn across the maps. Googling it, its so you can buy items from merchants

- The horse you can get (you can see a bunch at a stable) can be turn on and off when you get one.

- You can do this gold coloured dimension door ability to instantly warp back to base

- When they were playing, I think one guy said..... "I'd rather be in a jet in BF". lol
This post is so odd. Like why post this if you haven't played? Weird man. Like here's some tips for a game I haven't played lol
 
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