Highguard is ok when you do not have an web in your ear telling you it is nasty

Let’s put aside the noxious cloud of web surrounding Highguard for a second, ignore these overwhelmingly damaging Steam opinions full of parents who’ve performed it for lower than an hour, and fake Highguard is only a new free-to-play FPS that got here out right this moment.

Hey, Highguard is out. I performed round six hours between launch day and a preview occasion in Los Angeles final week. It is acquired slick gunplay, a neat 3v3 mode that I’ve by no means seen wherever else, and a enterprise mannequin that sounds much less scummy than most free shooters. It is fairly enjoyable. I do not suppose I find it irresistible.

I’ll commend Wildlight Leisure, the 100-person studio of principally ex-Respawn devs, for developing with a format so bizarre (but useful) which you can’t simply examine it. They name it a “raid shooter,” which is acceptable, as profitable comes all the way down to blowing the opposite workforce’s base to smithereens.

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Highgard matches happen on a big map shared by simply six whole gamers—two groups of three. Groups start of their fortress, fortify its breakable partitions, then mount up and set off to loot the map. This section performs out like an accelerated battle royale match—speeding to seek out higher weapons and armor, however often not instantly preventing the opposite workforce. Violence tends to interrupt out as soon as the Swordbreaker, a literal sword, spawns in the course of the map. First workforce to seize it and carry it to the enemy base triggers a siege.

Not like a battle royale circle that forces enemy squads to conflict by pushing them towards a middle, the Shieldbreaker naturally attracts the foyer to it. As soon as it seems, getting it’s the solely factor that issues. “Reverse seize the flag” was how Wildlight described this primary section of the match, and thus far it is my favourite.

There’s actual stress to preventing over the large glowy sword, particularly as a result of the gap between the Shieldbreaker spawn and every base is simply giant sufficient which you can die, respawn at your base, and arrange one final ambush earlier than they attain your partitions. Or, you let the opposite workforce seize the sword after which chase them down in your mounts.

As soon as a siege begins, Highguard slows down. Mounts are stowed, defenders take up overwatch positions, and the foundations change to a bomb format just like Rainbow Six Siege (however with respawns). That is proper all the way down to the mix of destructible and non-destructible partitions that make up every base. Blow up two turbines, or one harder-to-reach core, and also you win. Fail to do sufficient injury earlier than attackers run out of lives, and each groups reset to do one other Shieldbreaker spherical.

It sounds difficult. It’s difficult, particularly once you layer within the improve retailer, devices, and character talents I have never even lined. However I can not deny it really works. After just a few matches the place I barely understood what was taking place, the distinctive tug-of-war dynamic clicked, I discovered a Warden (hero) I preferred, and nice matches have been had.

Nonetheless, I am bouncing off Highguard for causes apart from its intelligent mode. I do not just like the “arcane punk” artwork model in any respect, it sucks to dump total magazines into enemies simply to interrupt their shields (identical to it does in Apex Legends), and the siege section is simply too chaotic to learn what is going on on.

Greater than something although, Highguard is ill-timed for me to get pleasure from it. For the higher a part of a yr, I have been glued to extra informal, multi-mode shooters each previous and new. Living proof: after a full day of Highguard in Los Angeles final week, I got here house and performed hours of recent indie area shooter Out of Motion (now that is a cool-ass recreation) earlier than queuing for Massive Workforce Battle in Halo: MCC with pals.

The success of Battlefield 6 and Arc Raiders counsel I am not alone: We’re in the course of a vibe shift towards much less sweaty, extra social shooters. Name it hero shooter burnout or tastes naturally shifting on earlier than they sometime swing again within the different path, however Highguard is swiping at my matchbook and lighting no hearth. I will hold taking part in as a result of I am reviewing it (keep tuned for that), however I do not see Highguard turning into a behavior.