Highguard hands-on: New ‘PvP raid shooter’ FPS is many things, but ‘dead on arrival’ is not one of them

The awkward month-long silence for Highguard is finally over. After debuting at The Game Awards to tepid reactions, I played it at a special event in Los Angeles last week.

Personally, I think many players and social media users will be eating crow about how they judged the title before it launched. But at the same time, I fully understand it, because the debut trailer was not a great one and not at all indicative of how fun and unique Highguard really is.

Even before playing Highguard, I thought the talk about the game being “dead on arrival” due to a lack of communication was overblown. The trailer was bad, yes, and placing it as the “one more thing” at TGA was a mistake (the game studio’s co-founders told me they had nothing to do with that placement), but judging the game before seeing any gameplay or real details felt like overkill. That’s social media in a nutshell these days, I suppose.

Highguard is the first title from self-publishing independent studio Wildlight Entertainment, which is comprised mainly of ex-Apex Legends developers. The staff list is a veritable all-star team of devs who worked on not just Apex, but games like Titanfall 2, Call of Duty 4, Overwatch, and more. These people have made some of the most influential FPS games of all time, and it appears they have another representative title to add on to their resumes.

Wildlight describes Highguard as a “raid shooter” because nothing else really seemed to fit the description. And after playing it for several hours, I have to concur. There are a number of facets to Highguard that make it feel like something new and ambitious, but most importantly, quite enjoyable to squad up with friends in. To me, the pacing is what makes it fun, including several different phases throughout the match: fortification, looting, grabbing the Shieldbreaker, and the raid phase.

I’ll say this: since playing Highguard last Wednesday, it’s the only game I have craved playing since. And after playing it for a day, it’s the most excited I’ve been for a strictly PvP game in quite some time. I think is has a genuine chance for true FPS greatness.

Pace yourself

From the outset, the game looks and feels incredible. Wildlight is an independent studio that’s self-publishing the new title, but the game exudes AAA vibes throughout, from the menu screens and UI to the visual style to the store setup and character customization.

Apex players will feel right at home with Highguard’s gunplay, and many elements of EA’s battle royale have also carried over into the new game from the indie studio, including how satisfying it feels to “crack” an enemy’s shields and have them just a few shots away from being downed. But don’t worry about hunting down attachments, because every gun can instantly and easily equip or unequip a scope with the press of a couple of buttons on-the-fly.

Highguard is three-vs-three, but it feels way larger than that. The theme of the game is “escalation,” and it’s felt throughout the general pacing of every match. Each team has a home base that they must protect, and games start out with choosing one of several layouts for that base and then fortifying the walls within it à la Rainbow Six Siege (the game will help select which pre-made base you should pick based on your team composition, but the choice comes down to a team vote).

Each base has three targets to defend, and destroying them will whittle down the 100 HP that each team must protect. But I’ll touch back on that later, because each match of Highguard has several phases, and the second one, after placing wall fortifications, is the looting phase.

Once you reinforce some walls (or not, you can save up the fortifications for any time in the match, as they can also be found as loot on the map), you head out into the gorgeously crafted world to begin the looting phase. This feels most similar to the early stages of a battle royale game, as you hop on your mount (three kinds available at launch) to equip yourself with better gear.

During the beginning phase, you choose three weapons to start with: two guns (close range, mid-range, or long-range options to choose from) and a raid tool (rocket launcher, hammer, zipline gun) to destroy structures or help with your assault on the enemy base. But as you head out into the map and open red loot chests along the way, you can equip yourself with anything else you find, and improvements are denoted with colored rarity: white, blue, purple, gold, and the supply drop-specific red. The better quality gun, the better it will perform, with bigger magazines, less recoil, and other similar buffs.

Blue loot chests contain shields, which you can pick up to stow in your inventory. If you take damage, the shields will regenerate over time and pull from your reserves if you stay out of combat, so it’s always quite important to find more. But an added wrinkle in Highguard is a merchant (voiced by JB Blanc, who many will recognize as Apex’s Caustic and Titanfall’s Blisk) who appears all over the map. Using your combat axe to mine a shiny teal material called Vesper that you can trade at the merchant for all sorts of important upgrades is also part of this process, in addition to finding loot in the field.

While you’re looting and exploring in this phase, which lasts around five minutes, you can also run into the enemy team at any time, so you must keep your guard high (heh) and be ready to brawl.

Break the walls down

The third phase of a Highguard match is when the Shieldbreaker spawns. The map will showcase where this crucial item will appear, along with a countdown, so it’s time to head there and be ready to fight the enemy for it.

The Shieldbreaker is a massive, magical sword, and is used like a key to begin the fourth and final phase of a match’s cadence. Winning the fight around the Shieldbreaker is key to progression (if you die, you can be revived by allies or finished off by the enemy, but after a short timer, you will be forced to respawn back at your base), and arguably the most important part of any match in the game.

This is where mounts heavily come into play. As you approach the Shieldbreaker, anyone on a mount will be easily heard from a distance. The horse, bear, or panther you ride on is important to get back into the fight quickly, but it will also give away your position quite easily, as they are very loud. You can shoot your weapons while on the back of a mount, too, but it will take some gunskill to manage.

Mounts are also quite fun to use in combat as a way to re-position or disengage entirely. If you find yourself at a disadvantage and need to peel back to your team, you can hop on your mount, but be careful, because the mounts can take damage and be destroyed to go on a cooldown. It adds a unique way to maneuver around the map.

Character abilities are useful in combat, but it all comes down to who has the better loot, and more importantly, the better aim. Whoever wins that first fight and captures the Shieldbreaker controls the tide for the next phase.

Raid night

Winning the battle for the Shieldbreaker means it’s time to head directly to the enemy base to begin the raid phase, which is where Highguard truly shines. The first step in winning any match in the game is breaking the shield, which will drain 30 HP from the enemy’s base and bring a battering ram siege tower that will break the shield and allow you to enter it.

If either team fails to bring the Shieldbreaker to the enemy base, whoever controls it at the time of the end of an overtime period will have it done for them (killing the Shieldbreaker-carrier will drop the item and allow anyone else to pick it up). Respawning at your base and hopping on your mount will allow the defending team to try and fight it out again in the open field if they choose to do so, and they should, because you do not want the Shieldbreaker to get to your base either way, since losing 30 HP is never advised.

Once the attackers are inside the enemy base, the mayhem begins, as does Highguard’s most exciting and high-potential gameplay. Within each base is a main generator and two other separate generators (marked A and B), where you must plant a bomb to take down further base HP. Destroying A or B will deal 35 damage, and destroying the main generator will end the game, although that bomb’s timer is way longer.

Attacking teams will have limited lives during the raid period, so defenders can survive by slaying, rebuilding walls with an item found as loot throughout the map, and picking the right ones to reinforce. Defenders will also be able to enter and exit doors freely, but attackers will need to use their raid tools and abilities to break walls.

The devs themselves told me that they were playing a lot of Rust when Highguard was in early stages, and it really shines through in this raid segment of the match, which also feels inspired by Fortnite when it comes to breaking fortifications strategically to put yourself in a spot to win a gunfight.

Planting and defusing bombs, weaving in and out of broken or fortified walls while fighting, and isolating enemies with your team is genuinely fun. If the defenders can withstand the assault and deplete the enemy’s respawn count, then they will deal damage to the attacker’s base, so a failed raid is almost the same as being raided. Defending is just as fun as attacking, because winning a clutch one-vs-one in the overtime period of a raid phase and getting a last-second defusal is an excellent adrenaline rush.

Once the raid phase ends, if the defending base isn’t completely destroyed, both teams will respawn at their own bases and begin the cycle again: loot, grab the Shieldbreaker, and attack. Matches can last up to 30 minutes or more if there’s a back-and-forth, but you can also win it in just a few minutes if you are successful with your Shieldbreaker assault and can take down both A and B or the main generator.

Find your style

There are eight playable characters (called Wardens) at launch, and I naturally found myself gravitating to Redmane, who is the game’s only Destruction class character so far. There are Recon characters to get intel or loot (like Condor, seen above), Support characters to provide shields, and basic Assault characters if you’re looking to just run and gun, but Redmane’s ability to wreck the enemy base felt the most fun to me.

Redmane’s main ability is a leap that will break walls and deal damage at the end of its arc (if you hold down the button you can see its trajectory), but it’s also incredibly useful for relocating or flanking the enemy team. Multiple times throughout the day, I used Redmane’s leap to land on top of or behind an enemy who was engaged with a teammate, and it was incredibly satisfying.

What truly makes Redmane fun, to me, is his ultimate, which is a charged-up attack that will utterly decimate any walls of the base (enemy or friendly) in his vicinity, taking down full rooms and towers in the process while also completely disorienting anyone nearby. When it comes to raids, this ability feels incredible, turning you into a force of nature that can turn the tide at any time.

Condor has a Bloodhound-like ping ability to see enemies through walls for a short duration, and another’s ultimate will create a spawnpoint you can use nearby. There’s a character who can deploy a line of fire on the ground to deal damage over time, and a character who can throw a lightning bolt that will stick on a wall to also deal DOT and supply area denial. There’s also a character who can build an ice wall that you can approach, punch a hole in, and shoot through. He also transforms into a big ice monster with his ultimate. There’s a lot of room for fun and expression in this world of Highguard, which will have its lore built on over time.

But while each character’s abilities are fun and set them apart from one another, in the end, Highguard is about using your high-tier weapons and gunskill to take down the enemy. whether it’s in the open field or in either base during the raid. And that’s where I had the most of my enjoyment, and I wager many others will, too.

I think that there is ample potential in Highguard, whether it’s from a game standpoint (different strategies throughout the multiple phases of each match will be fun to figure out with friends) or Wildlight’s perspective (a full year of post-launch content is already at the ready, including new characters, maps, weapons, and more), so I find it very easy to get excited for.

Each of the distinct phases of Highguard’s matches are seamless, telegraphed, and fun in their own way, with a fair amount of strategy involved. Should you leave spawn and push the enemy base to engage right away, or should you keep your distance and loot up for better shields and guns before fighting? Will you bring a sniper rifle and deal damage from a distance, or run up with your rocket launcher and a shotgun to destroy the base to allow for a more open attack? Do you let the opponent pick up the Shieldbreaker first, then ambush them to launch a counter-attack? Maybe you save up your wall fortifications just in case the enemy attacks yours, and you can put them up as they advance. Or maybe you take down your own walls to force them into chokepoints where you control the fight.

The pacing of every match is Highguard’s biggest strength. It feels familiar at times, but the different aspects of every game combine to make something that feels innovative and genuinely fresh. There’s a lot of fun to be had with each individual match that may never feel the same from game-to-game.

I don’t know if this will be the next big multiplayer title, but I know that its first month since its reveal was a massive misstep that I hope (and think) the game will recover from. Because once players get to play it as I did, many will see the appeal.

Highguard is free-to-play and out now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, so get out there and try it for yourself. I think a lot of you will be pleasantly surprised.

For more on Highguard, check out Destructoid’s coverage here:

• What is Highguard? ‘PvP raid shooter’ from ex-Apex Legends devs, explained
• All playable characters in Highguard – All Wardens and their abilities
• All weapons in Highguard – Full list of guns
• How to use mounts in Highguard – List of mount types

Wildlight Entertainment provided travel and lodging for the hands-on gameplay event in Los Angeles.