Highguard Faces Troubling Launch After Initial Player Drop
Highguard, the new multiplayer shooter developed by former Titanfall and Apex Legends developers, made a big splash during its reveal at The Game Awards 2025, building high expectations among gamers. On launch day, the game saw nearly 100,000 concurrent players, but the excitement quickly faded. Within a single day, the active player counts plummeted to just over 10,000, and the Steam review score sank to roughly 30% positive, signaling widespread disappointment.
Oversized Maps, Undersized Matches
One of the most common complaints revolves around the game’s maps, which are large and expansive, yet the game only supports 3v3 matches. Many players feel that such map designs could easily accommodate 5v5, 6v6, or even 10v10 matches, making the current setup feel empty and underutilized.
Performance Issues Across Platforms
Players also reported significant performance issues across all platforms. Frame drops, stuttering, and crashes occur frequently, sometimes forcing players out of the game entirely. This leaves surviving players stuck in 2v3 situations, negatively affecting the overall gameplay experience and contributing to the flood of negative reviews.
A Jack-of-All-Trades, Master of None
Highguard’s gameplay systems appear ambitious but unrefined. Each match involves multiple mechanics: resource farming for weapons and armor, competing for swords to attack, and planting explosives in enemy bases. While potentially engaging, the complexity feels overloaded for a 3v3 setup, creating an experience that many find frustrating rather than fun.
The author notes that the 3v3 scale feels sparse and less engaging, and increasing the player count to 5v5 or 10v10, along with streamlining early resource farming, could drastically improve the experience.
Potential Despite a Rough Start
Despite these setbacks, the underlying gameplay systems—including shooting mechanics and character skills—show promise. With careful adjustments and responsiveness to player feedback, Highguard could recover some positive reception over time.
Highguard is currently free-to-play and available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, with full cross-platform support. For those wondering whether the game’s negative reviews are justified, the best way to judge is to try it themselves and see firsthand.
If you want, I can also make a visual “What Went Wrong vs. Potential” table highlighting the main issues players reported and areas where Highguard still shines. It could make the article more digestible for readers.
