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To many, Highguard promised to be the anticipated spiritual successor to hit battle royale Apex Legends. After all the developer, Wildcard Entertainment, is made up of Respawn Entertainment veterans, and links to Apex and Titanfall were mentioned in the new title’s marketing.
Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PS5, PC, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
Release date: January 26, 2026
At first glance, the comparison holds: it’s a squad-based 3v3 shooter with fantastic-feeling gunplay, a similar weapon progression system, a comparable art style, and, perhaps most importantly, the same shadow-drop release strategy (well – until an early The Game Awards reveal gave away the secret). But I’ve spent 15 hours in Highguard in its first week, and I’m not convinced that it can hold people’s attention as long as Apex has. It still feels a few major and minor tweaks away from being a Legendary hit – but a few months’ wait could see it transform into a gem.
Highguard is set in a fantasy-meets-guns world, and sees you loot and shoot in matches lasting between six and 30 minutes. Rounds take place in medium-sized maps, and they see each squad scavenging for supplies and gear, before trying to carry a spawning Shieldbreaker artifact to the opponents’ base and, if successful, embark on a raid wherein they must plant and defend explosives to lower a base’s health.
That’s a thoroughly truncated version of how the rounds work. Highguard can be a little complicated at times, and the game does little to clear up what various limited-respawn rounds or overtime timers actually mean. I’d played at least 10 matches before it all became clear: this is just Capture the Flag and Search and Destroy, with extra frills.
As of launch, these Raid battles are all that’s available: no single-player, no other round styles.
The heart of the action
At its core, Highguard is a fantastic shooter. It feels crisp, frenetic, responsive; firing guns, traversing the environment and juggling hero powers all feels amazing. The tense and tactical squad combat ported over from Apex feels even more heart-pounding when you’ve got an objective to destroy or enemy carrying a Shieldbearer to fell. But that nourishing main course is surrounded by a few lukewarm entrees.
Take Wardens: the game launched with eight, but they’re not all equal. You’ll scarcely play a match without someone picking Kai, whose instant ice walls dictate the movement of battles, or Una and their summonable grenade-lobbing wisps. But other heroes barely get used, with powers that are too situational to be worth picking.
Similarly, the guns aren’t balanced at launch. Assault rifles, the revolver, and sniper rifles are all solid, but close-quarters guns like shotguns and SMGs don’t justify inventory space, either for their slow time-to-kill, lack of function over distance, or simply being outclassed by a similar weapon. You can only carry two guns, after all (plus a raid weapon, like a sledgehammer or rocket launcher), so it pays to choose wisely.
Possibly the most damning part of the game, and the thing that stops it from matching Apex, is that it can grow repetitive. Matches feel similar: you’re always spawning in the same spots, picking the same wardens, using the same guns, playing on the same small maps, and opening chests to find the same restricted pool of loot.
This latter is the problem that needs fixing the most. There are no health pick-ups, since it refills on its own. There are no ammo pick-ups, since you spawn with all you’ll need. Attachments don’t exist. There’s little need to hunt for the perfect weapon, since you spawn with whichever guns you’d like. And since gear rarity is tied to progression, with better weapons and shields spawning in each subsequent round, there’s no need to keep opening chests in the hopes of a rare game-changer until you’re on the last round, when every chest has them.
I found myself longing for the battle royale title, where the rhythm of the match would be dictated by randomness: where the drop ship began, and what gear and power-ups I found.
Repetitive gameplay can suit some shooters like Call of Duty, where you’re always seconds from a gunfight. But in Highguard, you’ve got minutes of downtime spent mining for resources or waiting for the Shieldbreaker to spawn, in which to ponder “could I be doing something better with my time?”.
At launch, there are five maps, chosen at random. They all consist of some main areas: your enemy’s base and your team’s base, which you choose from a limited pool before the match begins. The number of loot chests feels inconsistent between them, but generally predictable in each: the red gun chests and blue support chests are largely in those three central points.
Despite what some online commenters say, I never found the maps were too big; you’re always told where the Shieldbreaker will spawn next, and where air support crates will drop, so it’s easy to make an informed decision as to where the enemy will be – and they’re quick to traverse, with ziplines and a mount-summoning system that feels ripped straight out of Elden Ring.
Taking the High(guard) road
It’s a little hard to review Highguard, given that the game will change in the short and long term. Wildcard has promised at least a year of season – sorry, Episodes, coming every other month.
These promise new wardens, weapons, matches, bases, and cosmetics, and I see the game only getting better as the year goes on. They come alongside numerous patches and tweaks, with two coming in the first week of release.
A 5v5 mode was released due to negative first-impression response from gamers, but it plays far worse than 3v3, given how the game is clearly optimized for six players. And a few changes to raid rounds, including reduced attacker lives and a longer respawn timer, mean you spend more time twiddling your thumbs and less time fighting.
Both, in my eyes, make the game worse, but they show the developers’ eagerness to experiment and make changes. I’m hopeful that many of the issues other players and I have had with Highguard can be fixed in the near future.
The in-game store updates every few days, with daily and weekly challenges too, so there are still reasons to come back in the short term. And, thankfully, there are plenty of cosmetics to buy via earned-in-game currencies (though you can spend money on premium ones, if you like).
One other thing I hope to see more of in the future? Some story, other than a few brief lines heroes exchange at the beginning of matches, and what can be inferred from the maps, the fantasy-meets-guns world is a total mystery. Something about a new continent? About some kind of academy? Factories? Your guess is as good as mine, but I’m eager to learn more. Apex basically told its entire story through character introduction trailers, and I suppose Highguard will be the same.
Should you play Highguard?
Play it if…
Don’t play it if…
Accessibility
Highguard has a small handful of accessibility features: subtitles and support for ten languages (including English, Spanish, and French).
That’s not the biggest list I’ve ever seen, but just like the in-game content, it’s possible that Wildcard will improve this over time.
Visually, many of its features can be turned off to improve performance or cater to visual accessibility. You can remove chromatic aberration and motion blur, toggle the FOV slider, and tweak the quality of effects, shading, foliage, and more.
How I reviewed Highguard
At the time of writing this review, my play time for Highguard on Steam stands at 15 hours. A small handful of those will be from opening day issues: failing to get into the tutorial, games crashing, and loading issues. But I’d estimate at least 12 of those are playing various raid matches. I made sure to play multiple rounds with each character, although there are some I found myself favoring more.
I also briefly tested 5v5 mode when it came out, and checked back in for each patch during the first week.
I played on my custom-built PC, which uses an RTX 3060 Ti, Asrock Z590 Phantom Gaming, and 16GB RAM. I played both on Wi-Fi (22Mbps average speed) and Ethernet (70Mbps average speed). My monitor is the Eve Spectrum 4K 144Hz, and I alternated audio between the Creative Pebble Nova speakers and AKG N9 headphones. For controls, I used the Clutch GM41 Lightweight mouse and the Logitech G213 Prodigy keyboard.
First reviewed February 2026
