Highguard is already a strong contender for the title of worst game of 2026. It's a mistake by Wildlight studio that's 10 years too late

Highguard is a very interesting case of a game that faced challenges right from its announcement. This free title, created by veterans of Apex and Titanfall, was revealed at the very end of TGA 2025, which greatly disappointed players. This spot is usually reserved for big surprises, but instead, we got a trailer for another online shooter.

As a result, Highguard faced a wave of dissatisfaction, with people starting to call the game "Concord 2." It's worth mentioning that after the announcement, the folks at Wildlight Studio went totally silent until January 23rd. This just added to the confusion but also made people even more curious.

Nevertheless, it couldn't be assumed right away that Highguard would be a bad game. First, we had to wait for its release, which took place last night. The title got a lot of attention, but the reviews suggest the creators have quite a bit to fix if they want to keep players hooked.

Highguard's terrible reception

An hour after its release, Highguard reached its player peak, which, according to SteamDB was just over 97,000. Right now, this number is much lower – at the time of writing, less than 16,000 people are playing the game.

SteamDB

However, it's hard to ignore the reviews on Steam, which are currently "mostly negative"—only 28% of players have given Highguard a positive rating. The score should improve a bit over time since a lot of reviews are about typical launch day issues like unstable servers. Some are also typical trolls who wrote reviews out of sheer dislike for the game or the situation around it.

Nevertheless, there are also many more substantive reviews, but they aren't very positive either. Many people point out that the maps in Highguard are too large for 3v3 matches, making the game feel empty and disrupting the pace of gameplay. It doesn't help that players reportedly often leave matches, which only adds to the frustration.

The reviews also include complaints about the technical aspects. Players note poor optimization and blurry graphics. Moreover, Highguard requires TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot to be enabled on PC, and it uses kernel-level anti-cheat software. It's no surprise that players generally dislike such solutions.

The developers have already announced an update, set to launch this evening, which aims to resolve "various stability issues."

Just another online shooter

The biggest issue with Highguard seems to be that, just like players expected, it's another run-of-the-mill online shooter that takes bits and pieces from popular games and mashes them together. The final effect is simply mediocre. No one really noticed any cool new features, and more people are saying the game is boring, unoriginal, and feels like it's at least 10 years behind.

This is particularly unfortunate because many people emphasize that the developers' hard work is evident in the production, such as the nice environmental graphics and animations. It's no surprise that many people quickly removed it from their drives and started mocking Geoff Keighley, who, two days before the game's release, shared a gif saying, "In 48 hours, I'll be accepting your apologies." Looking at Highguard's reviews, players expect him to apologize for hyping it up.

Finally, it's worth noting that these are just first-day impressions. It's possible that in the long run, Highguard will find a fan base and manage to sustain itself in the already crowded online shooter market.

If you're interested, Highguard is available for free on PC, PS5, and XSX/S.

Highguard – Minimum PC requirements

1. Operating system: Windows 10 (64-bit)
2. Processor: Intel Core i5-6600K / AMD Ryzen R5 1600
3. RAM: 8 GB
4. Graphics: Nvidia GTX 1060 (6 GB VRAM) / AMD RX 580 (8 GB VRAM)
5. DirectX version: 12
6. Storage: 25 GB (SSD)

Highguard – Recommended PC requirements

1. Operating system: Windows 11 (64-bit)
2. Processor: Intel Core i5-9600K / AMD Ryzen 5 3600
3. RAM: 12 GB
4. Graphics: Nvidia RTX 2080 (8 GB VRAM) / AMD RX 6650 (8 GB VRAM)
5. DirectX version: 12
6. Storage: 25 GB (NVMe SSD)

Highguard

January 26, 2026

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