Highguard review

High Guardiancreated by Apex Legends and Titanfall developers from the new studio Wildlight Entertainment, came out of nowhere. Announced as “the last thing” at The Game Awards 2025, the game showcased an action-packed twist on the hero shooter genre that honestly raised more questions than it answered. As a fan of this genre, I was intrigued and excited by the game High Guardian me, especially when it was revealed that the game would be released in a few weeks. Unfortunately the introduction High Guardian at this point at The Game Awards, it did far more harm than good, with many outright dismissing the game before even getting a chance to play it.

High Guardian was ripped apart online, with many comparing it unfavorably to PlayStation's failed live action hero shooter experiment Concord. But while Concord had a $40 paywall that severely limited its reach, High Guardian was launched as a completely free game. After spending the last week playing High Guardian every night it's clear that Wildlight has created a wildly entertaining shooter that's a lot of fun at launch and should only get better as the months go by.

While it's a hero shooter at heart, High Guardian is truly a Frankenstein's monster of various online shooters. Its unique game mode at launch is called Raid, and players will experience a little bit of everything. The match begins with players strengthening their base (not dissimilar Rainbow Six Siege) and then the looting begins, with players free to explore the huge map for loot like in battle royale games like Fortnite and Apex Legends. Finally, the Shieldbreaker sword comes into play and High Guardian turns into a giant game of Capture the Flag where the goal is to deliver the sword to the enemy base.

Successfully planting a sword or destroying the enemy team in overtime will then transform High Guardian into something like that Counterstrike or many other FPS games with similar modes where players have to place bombs on specific points. It can all be a bit overwhelming at first, but High Guardian struck gold with this setup, offering an experience with parts from many other games that all manage to come together to create something that feels fresh.

Highguard always gets you right into the action

I have seen some complaints online High GuardianThe maps are too big and there is too much downtime between firefights, but that wasn't my experience at all. Yes, High GuardianThe maps are huge, but the game constantly thrusts the player into the action. The Shieldbreaker's spawn location is always marked on the map, so while players are free to avoid it and simply loot during the looting phase, a lot of the time enemies will converge on it, leading to several intense battles before the sword is even important.

The person holding the Shieldbreaker is always marked on the map, letting the opposing team know exactly where they need to go, and once again forcing everyone together for more battles. In the raid phase, players then fight in one team's base or the other, and it becomes an exciting back-and-forth battle to plant bombs, defuse bombs, and otherwise wipe out the enemy team by any means necessary.

High Guardianholders (ala Paladins) also play a large role in ensuring fast and frequent action. A simple double tap on the jump button will allow players to instantly take off on their chosen mount, be it a horse, bear, panther or anything else. The horses move quickly across High Guardian's maps and look amazing while doing it.

High Guardians have an incredible arsenal at their disposal

IN High Guardianthe playable characters are called Guardians and each comes with their own special abilities, just like any other hero shooter. The High Guardian Rangers have fairly straightforward abilities that make it easy to pick up and play a new hero, and literally everyone on the roster is fun to play.

My personal favorite is Scarlet, a defensive guardian who can turn invisible, turn walls into sand, and unleash a deadly Ult that hurls a high-damaging blade at nearby enemies. There's nothing more satisfying than turning invisible as Scarlet, sneaking up on an unsuspecting enemy and then blasting them with the Kraken Shotgun to deal ridiculous damage and start the fight with a huge advantage.

Playing other characters is also fun. Kai transforms into a giant ice demon with powers not dissimilar Overwatch's Reinhardt, while Redmane has a powerful roar that can completely level buildings. Condor has a bird that can effectively provide her team with super valuable wallhacks, and Atticus has an Ult that is very similar to Helina from Marvel Rivalsraining down powerful lightning spears on anyone unfortunate enough to be in his line of sight.

There is not an excessive amount of weapons High Guardianwith only a couple available in each category, but this keeps things simple and allows players to focus on the meat and potatoes of the action instead of wasting time on menus. All the weapons are great to use and pack a lot of kick, and combined with the characters' special abilities will make any fight exciting.

Highguard is a great game, but it needs more to reach the next level

Basic gameplay High Guardian it's fun enough that I can see myself playing it as my favorite multiplayer game for the rest of the year. And as the year goes by High Guardian should become an even better game. Currently, my biggest gripe with the game is the lack of content compared to its competitors, but that should be addressed in future updates.

at startup High Guardian it has five maps, eight guardians and one game mode. High GuardianThe flagship Raid mode is a lot of fun, but there's so much potential for expansion into other modes that might satisfy other gaming tastes. There is no reason why High GuardianThe action and characters can't really shine on smaller, more traditional multiplayer maps like those seen in Call of Duty and Halo. A mode that completely eliminates the looting and armoring aspect would be interesting.

The limitation of Raid mode to only 3v3 is also a big disappointment. High Guardian's maps are big enough to showcase large scale battles, even if it would be a lot more chaotic, I think at least 5v5, if not 6v6, will help the game reach new heights and a wider audience.

High Guardian currently testing a 5v5 playlist, but it has yet to become a permanent mode in the game.

The good news is that High Guardian has an ambitious plan for 2026 that confirms a lot of new content on the way, and I hope it has a chance to deliver. His revelation got High Guardian they got off on the wrong foot, but at worst it's a fun unique shooter that costs $0 to play.