It Wasn’t Worth It, Geoff... High Guard Impressions

(Intro)

For anyone that watched the Game Awards in December, you know it ended on a very controversial trailer, from a development team we’ve never seen before. Highguard, a new first-person team-based hero shooter released on January 26th, and the lead up to this game was quite bizarre. After the reveal trailer wasn’t received well by the masses across the internet, the team was radio silent until three days before launch. And even now, on the release day we are now just getting some more media going over the gameplay heroes and much else. And while I personally wished a few other games at the award show were given the final trailer spot, the host Geoff hyped this game up quite a bit before showing the trailer; talking about how he played it himself and was very impressed, setting an expectation the likes of which Highguard had absolutely no chance of meeting. Which is a shame, but after playing the Highguard for a couple of days, while there are a few things about the game, I personally find interesting, in the end it doesn’t feel worth trying to slog through other elements of it just to enjoy those small moments. Sorry Geoff, but I don’t think putting Highguard last was worth it. But we’ll see in the long run.

(General gameplay loop)

Being a hero shooter, there are some similarities to other games in the same genre, while also trying to carve out its own little niche by taking pages from genres like MOBAs for some of the main objectives you will need to complete in order to win. Two teams of three (which is something we will touch on later) begin by collecting resources to purchase weapons armor and other supplies from vendors across the rather large maps. And right off the bat we have a problem; the first phase of this game, collecting stuff, feels like it lasts way too long. It’s about two minutes of riding around on your mount, which I will admit feels really solid. It’s instant, the mount feels fast, and it negates any fall damage you otherwise might receive. But still, two minutes is absurdly long to potentially not run into an enemy. It’s very much the opposite of what League of Legends did with their newest season; they actually made games start faster than they did last year. Even after a handful of games, it still gets me that I need to get to lane or start the jungle way earlier than I had to previously, but it feels like a good change. Whereas here, the amount of time it takes for the game “start” feels like forever. And that’s something else that bothers me; there is no just unified clock in matches telling you how long they have been going on for. The timer at the top of the screen is only for whatever objective or part of the game you are currently in, so your sense of time kind of falls apart. What makes it worse is that the game has defined... I don’t know what to call it; rounds? Moments? Objectives?

The game is segmented into different parts which are distinct from one another. First you fortify your base, then you go around and loot whatever you can, then you begin fighting for the sword to siege the enemy base, then if you are successful you try and destroy two generators in order to attack the heart of the base in order to win. See how much that is? So many specific gameplay moments. It isn’t just a push and pull between two teams; if one team completes a certain objective, they’re essentially on offense until they either win or can’t complete the next objective, and then it starts all over again. Which makes the games feel like they take forever. On top of all of that, each objective only gives you so much time to be completed before you go into overtime, and the game essentially forces something to happen. Which feels awful; when any game artificially tries to create something by having a time limit or respawn limit, it essentially says hey, as the game I don’t trust my own mechanics and pacing to let the players just naturally come to a conclusion, so I’m going to force something to happen. And that’s no good, no matter what the circumstances are.

(Characters, abilities, movement and gunplay)

The next important part of a hero shooter is, of course, the characters. And in Highguard, there is a mixed bag. Some of them have some interesting visual designs that made me initially want to try this game in the first place, but most of them, for lack of a better term, are simply generic. And safe; that seems to be a theme with the roster. Not only in how they look but their abilities too. There isn’t anything here that screams innovation or tries to turn heads. A lot of it feels like you’d see these kinds of abilities directly from other games. The only three characters that visually stood out to me personally were, Mara, Scarlet, and Una. Again, this could be me, but I kind of like these designs. Something about them stands out compared to the rest that are either John Highguard, or just straight up bad. In general, movement in the game feels slow and sluggish albeit there is some form of bunny slide hop cancel you can perform to get some extra distance, which I’m sure will get abused by those that this game resonates with. There are certain spots where the mount is restricted, and those moments you go from fast and fluid to walking in mud or sand. And when you’re not moving, you’re most likely shooting. And here is another sticking point for the game; the gunplay feels about as flat and boring as it could be. Most guns have little to no recoil, large magazine sizes, and because players have both health and armor, gunfights can last quite a while unless you get ganged up by multiple enemies. So, this game will quickly turn into who has either the better position or aim instead of having to wrangle different weapons with different recoil patterns. You also get a launcher to break walls and get through the enemies' defenses, but it feels kind of moot because you can just use your melee weapon to break most walls. Which is also used to farm resources to buy things from the vendor in a Fortnite style minigame where you need to time your swings to get all the resources the fastest. Upgrading weapons doesn’t feel like there is a massive difference between a starting weapon and even a purple one. You get more ammo and some other benefits, but that’s about it. Gunplay generally is disappointing in Highguard.

(My biggest gripes)

Of all the problems this game has, the general lack of standing out in the crowd from other games in the genre, to the flat and boring designs of most characters and the world, the thing that really frustrates me the most is the pacing of a match. It feels like there is way too much down time in between objectives and a general lack of knowing exactly what to do. Games drag on for a ridiculous amount of time if neither team can start an offense, and even then, the game will step in and force an offense whether a team can feasibly do it or not. Which feels counter intuitive to the whole point of the game. Also, another major complaint is why is Highguard only three players versus three? This feels like one of the worst decisions and could easily be rectified with at least one more player on each team if not two. It also restricts being able to play with a bunch of friends, which is never ideal. I’ve always had a sour spot for three player games because why couldn’t you do four? It’s a better number and just allows more fun with more people. But in the context of Highguard, only having three people on a team, combined with how large some of the maps are, there is a ton of downtime. I swear if this game added just one more player to each team, the gameplay would drastically improve. And like I said earlier, there are very small moments where the combat can feel snappy and fights can be competitive, but it isn’t worth putting up with the prolonged games and general flat shooting mechanics to warrant searching for those moments.

(Will this game last?)

Jokes about Geoff sending this game to its death aside, I sadly don’t see this game lasting very long. It doesn’t do anything that stands out compared to other games in this space. It also kind of missed the bus of hero shooters by about five years, at least. It's a shame that games take so long to make, because I guarantee you if they had a crystal ball and could see into the future with how many games in this genre released; they would’ve just made something different. This was truly a series of unfortunate events. Geoff saw something in this team, which is commendable, but to put a brand-new title from a team I don’t think anyone has heard of as the final game of your own show, was an incredibly bold move that I don’t think is going to pay off. I mean, we’ve seen the fallout of just the first trailer, and now only time will tell if it’s going to be around for any length of time. Some people are hating on it without playing, which you know, is the internet. But after playing Highguard and at least getting to experience the game and what it’s trying to do, my feelings are that it doesn’t excel in enough areas to warrant continued support. If you are morbidly curious, the game is free, so it’ll only cost you twenty-five gigs of a hard drive. So, take that for what it’s worth.

(Outro)

Highguard is a sad tale of people wanting to make their own game but not reflecting on what made their previous titles so beloved and successful. From the people that made Titanfall and Apex Legends; there was so much they could’ve pulled from just those two games alone to create something brand-new and unique that people would’ve been instantly interested in. But just saying you made this game before, at this point, doesn’t bode any confidence from viewers because in the past, people have put their trust in new teams comprised of old guards from legendary studios and it has backfired. So just because you made a popular game in the past doesn’t mean you’ll make something new that people will take your word on. At the end of the day, Geoff’s placement of the trailer did not help Highguard at all, but even if it was shown off earlier in the show, people would’ve just caught onto the problems the game had just as early as they are now. Although there would be a significantly smaller number of people staring at this game down, waiting to see what happens. Instead of potentially fading into nothing, this game might combust while the world watches it crash and burn. And while I never want a game or studio to fail, this is a cautious tale of making something with conviction and grace instead of just chasing trends. But I wouldn’t even say Highguard is chasing trends, because the bus left years ago, and they are just realizing this now. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to watch this video. Let me know down in the comment section below your thoughts on Highguard if you played it, what you liked or disliked about it and be sure to subscribe for more videos about games that were unfortunately sent to their death before it even released. I hope to see you in future ones.