Why are gamers hoping Highguard will be dead on arrival?

Closing out this yr’s ceremony, The Game Awards gave us our first take a look at Highguard, an upcoming PvP shooter launching early subsequent yr. 

Nonetheless, within the time since its large reveal, on-line discourse surrounding Highguard has shortly turned bitter, with the announcement trailer receiving a ten:1 dislike ratio and plastered with disparaging feedback. However why has the backlash been so robust and is it in any respect justified? 

So far as ultimate reveals go at The Recreation Awards, Highguard’s debut wasn’t the mic drop second it was hyped as much as be. The quick two-and-a-half teaser, whereas flashy, did little to help the claims being made that it is a actually new breed of on-line shooter. At the same time as somebody who is happy to get some hands-on time with Highguard – and one of the few people who enjoyed Concord – we had already seen extra eye-popping reveals earlier within the present. Highguard didn’t match the traditional template we’ve turn into accustomed to. Fate of the Old Republic might need been a greater nearer, dropping a imprecise cinematic announcement regardless of being years off from launch. 

Highguard could have acquired an almighty sign increase because of The Recreation Awards however what number of will tune in to play a brand new hero shooter with MOBA components in 2026? The largest drawback for brand new developer Wildlight Leisure is the continuing fatigue surrounding the subgenre which, at its peak, unceremoniously eradicated Sony’s large finances contender, Concord. 

It’s not all doom and gloom for on-line shooters, after all. Arc Raiders managed to tug it out of the bag for Embark Studios regardless of the PvP extraction subgenre additionally displaying its age. So long as a sport can meaningfully iterate on an current system – or seem completely different sufficient from its opponents – it has a combating likelihood.

That’s why a number of the knee-jerk negativity surrounding Highguard appears untimely. The presence of mounts suggests there shall be giant maps, with Wildlight labelling the sport as a “raid shooter”, that means that it gained’t ascribe to conventional sport modes as seen in Overwatch. As for the visuals, which have been referred to as generic and uninspired by on-line commenters, we are able to’t assist however really feel sorry for the artwork group. Something significantly toonish or stylised would instantly get referred to as out as by-product and, whereas a number of the character designs don’t scream out to me, I like Highguard’s gunslinging/fantasy vibe.

Finally, we’ve but to see the sport in motion, and we’re all the time prepared to see what a brand new studio can give you, particularly one helmed by Titanfall and Apex legends veterans. The detrimental response to Highguard hints at a rising drawback within the trade, the place commentators are fast to type narratives a few sport’s success with out ever taking part in it for themselves. These are the identical individuals who shall be desperately watching Steam stats when Highguard launches, salivating at an opportunity to publish a “useless on arrival” takedown of the sport they’ve already bought saved of their drafts.

Even when Highguard doesn’t reside as much as the scorching hype ranges stoked by The Recreation Awards, we have to give builders an opportunity, even when they’re iterating on ideas and concepts that really feel achieved to demise.