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Highguard Debuts on Steam with a peak CCU of 97k and 21% positive reviews

Eesha said:
Credit were is due, the redhead is cute.
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Put me in the camp that's shocked at 3v3. What is it with these out-of-touch developers and their obsession with having the smallest, sweatiest player counts? First Overwatch dropping its match size, now this. Casuals don't want that shit.

It also reminds me of Stormgate launching (and crashing and burning) with little more than ultra sweaty 1v1, while the most stunning new RTS in decades is Beyond All Reason, which has regular 8v8 matches and mindblowing exhibition matches with 100+ players. The average casual player doesn't want to feel like everything is riding on him in every competitive match.
 
I thought today was a preview embargo. Had no idea it was releasing. Has all the signs of being a dud, as was obvious to anyone with above room temp IQ.
 
I played a few more matches and that was it for me.

I had fun on the first 2 matches, but I guess I got lucky and played with good players, the other matches were either too easy or I was basically playing alone.

Also, when the enemy team tries to avoid combat during the looting phase, the game feels like a waste of time. I would rather just play Valorant, since the combat during the raid phase is kinda similar.

Then I tried to play one more match and after the matchmaking failed to find players 5 times in a row I gave up and unninstaled.

If a game can't find enough players at launch... That game is dead.

Lee Byung-Hun Youre Done GIF by NETFLIX




Well... Back to Arc Raiders.
 
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The way Geoff Keighley was talking about this game, you would think this game was made by Kojima.



And wasn't paid to promote this game on his show?

It's fucking weird.
 
icecold1983 said:
Valorant fits that profile and does very well. A game not catering every mechanic to absolute retards doesn't prevent it from being successful. Thats not why this game is a dud.
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5v5 is very different from 3v3, it distils the toxicity down and makes it even less casual friendly since you have 2 less players to blame your lack of skill on. Or has Valorent got some 3v3 mode im unaware of? I have literally never played.
 
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STARSBarry said:
5v5 is very different from 3v3, it distils the toxicity down and makes it even less casual friendly since you have 2 less players to blame your lack of skill on. Or has Valorent got some 3v3 mode im unaware of? I have literally never played.
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Its 5v5 but its very esports focused in terms of mechanics and game design/balance. Its basically CS with a hero ability here and there. CS was also very unfriendly to casuals by the standards of todays trash games. Also super successful. Theres 2 avenues for a live service PVP shooter game to be successful with casuals. The skin/battlepass grind or a successful esports/high skill streamer playerbase. Ideally you have both. Everything else is of far less importance.
 
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icecold1983 said:
Its 5v5 but its very esports focused in terms of mechanics and game design/balance. Its basically CS with a hero ability here and there. CS was also very unfriendly to casuals by the standards of todays trash games. Also super successful.
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Yeah 3v3 is very different from 5v5. Like 2v2 or 1v1.


The less players you have the more hardcore it gets, I find it funny that companies chase esports over the casual audience every time these days. My days of 6 v 6 TFC league play are long behind me. I just want a fun casual shooter, valorent can never be that, not really and Highguard sure as hell can never be as a 3v3. Thats my point.

Games like Hell Let Loose give me the break I need.
 
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STARSBarry said:
Yeah 3v3 is very different from 5v5. Like 2v2 or 1v1.


The less players you have the more hardcore it gets, I find it funny that companies chase esports over the casual audience every time these days. My days of 6 v 6 TFC league play are long behind me. I just want a fun casual shooter, valorent can never be that, not really and Highguard sure as hell can never be as a 3v3. Thats my point.

Games like Hell Let Loose give me the break I need.
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Mechanics and design/balance affect how hardcore a game is much more than the difference between 3v3 and 5v5. If Marvel Rivals for example had a 3v3 mode it wouldnt be anywhere near as sweaty as Valorant due to how utterly anti skill the game design of the former is.
 
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Holy shit I thought it would be at least 6v6 with the moba elements, but 3v3 is stupid low. Even splatoon has 4v4 but at least those maps are tiny.
 
Down to 36k in game players now.

Doesnt sound like a hit despite F2P too.

I guess the hope is that it's Monday night and gamers will pick up a lot over the next couple weeks and weekends when there's more time to play.
 
STARSBarry said:
Yeah 3v3 is very different from 5v5. Like 2v2 or 1v1.


The less players you have the more hardcore it gets, I find it funny that companies chase esports over the casual audience every time these days. My days of 6 v 6 TFC league play are long behind me. I just want a fun casual shooter, valorent can never be that, not really and Highguard sure as hell can never be as a 3v3. Thats my point.

Games like Hell Let Loose give me the break I need.
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When it comes to shooters, I prefer COD 6 vs 6 or the occasional bigger team match modes. Never cared for BF giant matches since it's too many players scrambling around a huge map.

3 vs 3 is a tough call for many people. Success heavily depends on at least 1 of the other 2 teammates to be good. At that point, might as well be pure DM where it's every man for himself.
 
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SJRB said:
Geoff Keighley threw away his reputation for this.

What a doofus.
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When it comes to salesmen, they got a huge tolerance when it comes to shameful promoting.

As long as they can make a buck selling products, they have no problem going from plug to plug till they retire.

And one thing always holds true. If the product tanks, it's never their fault. It's always the product team making a bad product, marketing team for not glitzing it up enough or have enough ads, or category team not giving good enough data insights.

You'll never see a sales guy admit he screwed it up too.
 
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StreetsofBeige said:
When it comes to salesmen, they got a huge tolerance when it comes to shameful promoting.

As long as they can make a buck selling products, they have no problem going from plug to plug till they retire.

And one thing always holds true. If the product tanks, it's never their fault. It's always the product team making a bad product, marketing team for not glitzing it up enough or have enough ads, or category team not giving good enough data insights.

You'll never see a sales guy admit he screwed it up too.
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While true, I don't think this game would have done well regardless. People who tried it out are leaving quickly. Not to mention, the real gameplay videos look boring as hell.
 
icecold1983 said:
Its 5v5 but its very esports focused in terms of mechanics and game design/balance. Its basically CS with a hero ability here and there. CS was also very unfriendly to casuals by the standards of todays trash games. Also super successful. Theres 2 avenues for a live service PVP shooter game to be successful with casuals. The skin/battlepass grind or a successful esports/high skill streamer playerbase. Ideally you have both. Everything else is of far less importance.
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I went through a phase where I was addicted to Valorant despite always sucking at it. However even though a lot of times I tended to lose gun fights I could still feel like im contributing and supporting my team thanks to the characters that had support abilities like the chick who could heal and revive others. I think that type of hero design could have benefitted this game a lot, thats one avenue they should explore to make it more approachable for casual players.
 
I don't see this surviving. It doesn't seem very appealing, even to those who weren't outright against it.

That's a massive drop already. I feel it is going to continue a downward trend. Other games are coming out with bigger updates(looks like Helldivers has some big stuff coming for their anniversary), so it'll struggle to retain relevancy.
 
Big-G said:
While true, I don't think this game would have done well regardless. People who tried it out are leaving quickly. Not to mention, the real gameplay videos look boring as hell.
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Highguard would never be the kind of shooter I play since I prefer WWII or MW/BO kind of settings, but many popular shooters are more vibrant in colours and characters. I can totally understand that.

I'm going to assume(?) the game has more modes, but given the trailers showing the main mode being some kind of objective based run where you kill enemies and find a sword to use it to unlock behemoth god creature to win doesnt sound too appealing. Not sure if thats the actual objective plot, but close enough.

With such small teams trying to win the objective where you got to pray your two other teammates are good, sounds like a game that might be more like work than fun. in other games with bigger teams, you can always just blend in as a support player or doing your own thing not really knowing how to play and still win if the other players are good to carry the load. This game sounds like if even just 1 gamer on a team is bad, it might be lights out already.
 
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I'm liking this a lot more tonight. Once you start understanding all the little systems it's more enjoyable. I may be able to get a week or two out of this yet.
 
Kacho said:
I've never seen Geoff glaze a live service shooter. I wonder if he or someone he knows invested in the game. His enthusiasm on X doesn't seem genuine.
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Hopefully so, a big lesson about where to invest money will be learned here.

Every minute at TGA costs a fortune, and Highguard got a long closing trailer on the event's main stage, supposedly "for free" according to some news sites. Just that alone is already a huge loss.
 
The falling CCU is what speaks to me the most. I don't really count all the "i played for 20 minutes, it's the worst game ever" reviews. But the CCU plummeting speaks for itself.
 
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I legitimately think if the game went from 3v3 to 12v12 and you changed basically nothing else it'd instantly become a much better game.

The resource collection is a cool concept, but I feel like I should have three people on my team dedicated to mining and occasionally fighting the other team's miners for resources. I stead you mine for 15 seconds tops, scramble to buy an upgrade or two and then leave to either attack or defend for the rest of the match
 
Game getting trashed, and it's not just quick trollers. Just sort the Steam reviews by minimum hours played like 2 or more hours.

A lot of common issues.... empty maps that are too big, performance issues, 3 vs 3 is too few gamers
 
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I'm more shocked that it is a 3 vs 3. For a game that involves flying, horse riding, you expect that the maps would be huge and epic.
 
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