We've Played Highguard's First Free Update, It's Not Enough to Bring Me Back

Highguard is finally out in the open but it hasn’t been coping very well. Shortly after launch it was review-bombed by players on Steam putting it immediately in the red.

Now it should be pretty clear that most of those negative reviews came from trolls but many players have genuine concerns and problems with the game.

For whatever reason it just doesn’t have the same grip on players like Titanfall and Apex Legends did, which is strange because the devs who worked on those games worked on Highguard too.

Even stranger is that Highguard removed all mention of Titanfall and Apex Legends from its description, very odd indeed.

The latest update for the game hasn’t done much to change people’s perspectives either.

In short a lot of fixes have gone out to improve the overall stability of the game, but while a smoother experience is now offered that’s not the core problem.

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At the time of writing Highguard just doesn’t seem to have much going for it aside from its history with beloved first-person shooters. The memes surrounding the game comparing it to Concord haven’t helped either.

It’s a shame too because aesthetically speaking I really dig Highguard, but a game can look as pretty as it likes, it’s the gameplay that keeps players coming back.

Wildlight Entertainment

Taking a look at the Steam Charts, Highguard is currently pulling in around 8,000 players, and apparently peaked at 12,000 come launch day.

It feels like there are two reasons for this. The first is obviously the memes. Highguard was the final reveal at The Game Awards 2025 which was reportedly a deviation from the original plan. Initially the devs just wanted to shadowdrop the game when it was ready to go.

The second reason is it’s just a first-person shooter. Capturing and defending strongholds is cool but it doesn’t feel new.

I’d rather just load up Halo: The Master Chief Collection and play Halo: Reach Invasion or a King of the Hill gamemode.

Compare it to Arc Raiders which had a stronger hook and in-game proximity chat for viral clips online and you can see why Highguard doesn’t measure up to the competition.

Perhaps if the game had been shadowdropped as intended there’d be more hype around it, but it feels like the silence between the Game Awards reveal and launch day hurt the game’s chances significantly.