Highguard reviews are starting to drop and they are not good

Highguard has had one of the most interesting video game launches in recent memory. It garnered a level of attention that its creators didn't seem to want, and was subject to a high level of criticism from people who probably wouldn't have played it otherwise. Highguard's only saving grace was the shadow drop, which meant it had no reviews at launch. A week later the reviews are here and they are not good.

Highguard currently has a 60 on OpenCritic

Highguard's OpenCritic score is currently 60, which is low enough for the latest live service game to be considered “weak”. The first piece of good news is that there is room for improvement, lots of it, as these are still early days. It's only been a week since Highguard launched, and at the time of writing, only six reviews have contributed to the OpenCritic's 60 average.

The bad news is that as more reviews continue to roll in, there's just as much, if not more, chance that Highguard's score will get worse than better. As it is, those of you enjoying your time with Wildlight's debut game can at least take solace in the fact that it's not the worst rated game of the year so far.

Poor optimization is largely to blame for Highguard's terrible Steam reviews

Highguard didn't get off to a good start, opening to overwhelmingly negative reviews with a 1/5 rating on Steam.

Highguard is not the worst reviewed game of 2026

Since it was launched so early in the year, there was a very real chance that the 60 would be enough to at least temporarily secure the coveted crown. Highguard owes this to Code Violet, a PS5 exclusive, which is the lowest rated game at 202.6, scoring just 40 points. This gives Code Violet the unwanted label of worst-rated PS5 exclusive ever, with some blaming its exclusivity on how difficult it is to get a replacement through the PlayStation Store.

Back to Highguard and here's what those who have reviewed the game so far are saying about it. Push Square gave the hybrid shooter a score of 6/10 and wrote, “This is a fun but bloated shooter that lacks the spark found in other games in the genre.” IGN Italy is a little less dismissive of what Highguard has to offer, giving it a 5.5/10 and noting, “The potential is there, but it suffers from balance, performance, and replayability issues at the moment.”

Highguard's Steam reviews, left by its players rather than critics, read pretty much the same. Its review score is currently Mixed on Steam, which I'd say equates to a 6/10. It has 3.1 stars out of five on the PlayStation Store, so again it sits right around that 6/10 mark. With that in mind, it seems very likely that even as more reviews are published, Highguard is destined to be a game with an average score hovering in the low 60s.