With Highguard, the Internet Has Already Made Up Its Mind – So Now What?

Wildlight Entertainment have officially launched Highguard, detailing their launch plans and future roadmap. Things kicked off well enough yesterday following the showcase, and initial player counts looked great. Player sentiment however – at least according to the internet at large is pretty low. So what’s going on?

If ever there was a prime case of the internet doing what it does best (being the worst), then here it is. I played Highguard last night for the first time, and while I’m not convinced it’s a top contender for the best game ever™ or as overwhelmingly loving towards it as our writer Aarsal, I found its gameplay loop to feel pretty unique, even if it’s a curious mish-mash of modes into one moistly cohesive whole. All in all, good fun with a group of friends, which believe it or not, is my primary goal when playing video games online.

The big issue in today’s video game market however, is that being fun just isn’t enough.

Following the reveal, and the ensuing silence from Wildlight Entertainment, the internet had found its next video game victim to dogpile, and dogpile it did. It continues, despite the information coming to light that the entire trailer and appearance at The Game Awards was due to Geoff Keighley liking their game and offering them a slot – even though the team had planned a shadow-drop for this month anyway.

What studio or team would say no to that sort of marketing?

Despite the noise, Wildlight are following through with their plans, and it seems pretty thought out, with a series of episode drops coming throughout the year that bring new player characters, weapons and maps right through to December. It’s important to note that all of this is free, though I have to wonder – how much will these plans change now that the game is out in the wild?

Player sentiment right now is focused on several issues – PC players are not entirely happy with the game’s aggressive mouse acceleration, which is on by default and will need a patch to adjust. While the game ran great on my PC and also a mostly 60FPS on my ROG Xbox Ally X, plenty of PC users are complaining of general optimisation issues in addition to server wobbles, though the latter is expected during a high impact launch period.

Console users complain of various issues, from frame rate hitches to a generally fuzzy appearance. A client update and more patches are on the way, says Wildlight, but there are deeper issues at play here – and most of them centre around overall sentiment towards the game.

I hope Wildlight is prepared to adapt and adjust their content plans, and to focus on what players are asking for – I think there’s some genuinely good criticism in amongst the less disingenuous reviews and feedback seen on Steam. I agree that 3v3 occasionally feels a little quiet for a game who’s environments are so large, but I also assume the developers have tested the hell out of it and feel this is the right call. Who am I to say otherwise after only 4 or so hours of play?

I think more than anything, Highguard needs some time to figure itself out. I genuinely love the more objective-based style of play, and working with your squad to pull a victory from disaster through a successfully deployed defensive play feels very rewarding.

But in this industry, time is one luxury few developers can truly afford. Let’s hope Wildlight Entertainment are up to the task. I wish them the best of luck.