Highguard is out on PS5, Xbox, and PC and it’s been a bizarre day for the distinctive new hero shooter. There have been false claims it had labored with disgraced streamer DrDisrespect and a myriad of technical points plaguing its first hours on Steam. Now, because the mud settles, Highguard has racked up over 9,000 critiques on Valve’s storefront, however the overwhelming majority are unfavorable.
On January 26, after a interval of radio silence following its reveal at the 2025 Game Awards, Highguard launched without spending a dime, providing gamers a 3v3 PVP “raid shooter” expertise full with destructible environments and funky mounts to journey into battle on. Nevertheless, shortly after the sport’s launch, gamers started reporting issues. One of many first was that many, myself included, couldn’t even play Highguard because of the overwhelmed servers. Removed from the worst subject to have on launch day.
As soon as gamers received in, many reported efficiency points on PC, with rigs geared up with high-end {hardware} nonetheless struggling to play Highguard at a gradual framerate. And after getting by way of all that, some gamers have discovered matches in Highguard boring and gradual, complaining that the 3v3 format and huge map don’t combine effectively. Sprinkle in some bad-faith customers attacking the sport for trying “woke,” regardless of the hell which means, and you find yourself with a horrible Steam assessment score.
What’s Highguard’s Steam assessment score?
As of 5:10 p.m. EST, Highguard has 9,442 user reviews on Steam throughout all languages. Of these practically 10,000 critiques, SteamDB data shows 7,230 of them are negative. This provides as much as a “Mostly Negative” standing on Steam with fewer than 2,000 constructive critiques. Ouch. Over on the PlayStation Store, issues are higher, with Highguard sitting at practically 2,000 critiques and a 3.34 out of 5-star score.
It may be simple to imagine that is some nefarious assessment bombing, and I do suppose some of this may be blamed on bad actors and annoying chuds. However scrolling by way of the critiques does present quite a lot of gamers simply don’t appear to love the gradual tempo of the sport and the 3v3 format.
“The maps in this game are way too big for 3v3; the size would fit better for 5v5 or 6v6,” posted one Steam reviewer. “In the looting stage, the map is too big and empty considering it’s only 3v3, and the only things in it are red and blue chests (and the crystals i guess),” shared one other person. “The 3v3 format on such a huge map just doesn’t click for me, and the overall experience becomes chaotic without bringing anything new to the table,” stated another person.
In fact, it must be famous that not even 12 hours have handed since Highguard’s launch. So all of those critiques are primarily based on a dozen or so matches or much less. The actual query shall be what occurs within the subsequent few days, weeks, and months–assuming Highguard sticks round that lengthy–and if the devs can flip the ship round.
