Highguard, the new free-to-play PvP “raid shooter” from Wildlight Entertainment, has barely been out for a day, but it’s already been a wild ride for the new FPS. Though critical reception is already glowing, player response runs the gamut. And arguably toughest of all: It’s become a meme.
Currently, its Steam user score is sitting at “mostly negative,” with 32% of nearly 15,000 player reviews giving the game a thumbs-up. Players have complained of long match queue times, getting kicked from the tutorial, and other server issues. More still said the game also performs poorly, with frame rate drops and other issues on Windows PC.
Of course, it’s impossible to have any discussion about Highguard‘s post-launch performance without acknowledging the review-bombing. From the moment it was unveiled as the final reveal of The 2025 Game Awards, Highguard was fighting an uphill battle: Not everyone was thrilled at the prospect of yet another live-service shooter enterting the space, and were peeved that the announcement trailer — which featured eye-catching visuals but offered little to explain the game — nabbed the coveted “one more thing” announcement. In fact, the backlash was ramping up on Reddit a month before Highguard‘s launch, with some comparing it to Sony’s notoriously failed 2024 shooter, Concord.
“High Guard is mainly suffering because Concord came first,” one Redditor commented on a post discussing all the hate for a game that wasn’t even out yet. “I don’t think people would be dunking on it as much if Concord didn’t just Concord last year, but if I had to guess I think people didn’t like the [Game Awards] closing out on this game.”
You can see this mixed reception plainly in Highguard’s recording player count. The shooter peaked at 97,249 concurrent players on Steam just one hour after its launch. By the evening on the east coast — when many players typically start to get off work and spend time playing games — those numbers had dropped by half. As of this writing, Highguard currently has fewer than 20,000 concurrent players on Steam, according to the database site SteamDB.
Reception among console players is similarly mixed. On the Xbox store, Highguard is sitting at 2.9 out of 5 stars, with 31% of its player reviews hitting the 5-star mark, while 39% of players rated it at 1-star. Meanwhile, on the PlayStation Store, things are going marginally better than they are on Steam and Xbox: Highguard players have rated the game a 3.1 out of 5, with 41% of reviewers giving it a 5-star review and 37% rating it 1-star.
“Titanfall 3 died for this,” one Xbox player wrote in their 1-star review. “And don’t you forget it.” “Can tell by the first siege who gunna win,” reads another 1-star review from an Xbox player. “The game also doesn’t run to well it seems. Kill screen will say 25 hits but theres no real feed back when shooting or being shot. Almost feels like the fire rate of guns out paces the game engine.”
“The game is pretty unique compared to your typical hero shooter,” reads a gentler 4-star review. “I sort of enjoy the running around looting up and mining before all hell lets loose. The raiding aspect is pretty dope, overall pretty fun game for a free to play. Only giving it 4 stars because the art style isn’t anything crazy.”
“Played around 15 matches, and well, the game is just boring,” reads one PlayStation store review. “The game starts with sabotage from CoD fighting over the sword (bomb), then turns into demolition once the sword (bomb) is planted to break their shields. Then add heroes with abilities & real royals looting, and you have Highguard.”
“Good game unique in its own way,” reads a 5-star comment. “Fun. No other game like this. Internet so quick to hate. Definitely somethings needed to be added.” Other PlayStation user reviews cited the lack of a custom button-mapping option and FOV slider as pain points.
Aside from server and performance issues, boredom does seem to be a recurring complaint among Highguard players. Shortly after launch, a post declaring the game “a borefest” was the top-rated post on the /r/HighguardGame subreddit. As of this morning, the top post is one titled, “This game is honestly fun and not half as bad as people make it out to be,” though that stoked some mixed reception. In response, some players responded calling it “fun,” a “blast,” and “one of the best releases in the F2P shooter scene for a while.” So, a bit of a mixed bag.
It’s still early days for Highguard, but critics largely seem to be enjoying the game. As of this writing, Highguard doesn’t have a Metacritic score yet (the platform requires four scored reviews from approved outlets for that) but critical reception has leaned positive. gamexplore’s own Austin Manchester called it “one of the best new shooters in years,” while IGN commended its “snappy gunplay” and GameSpot called it a “fresh” mix of shooter subgenres.
But however good or not-good Highguard is, it now has an albatross around its neck: It has been immortalized as a meme. On X, the YouTuber Snamwiches shared a meme claiming Highguard hit 5.3 million concurrent players at launch, mocking the game’s out-of-the-gate player base. (The population of New Zealand? 5.3 million. Also that number would be nearly double the record set for concurrent players of a game on Steam, an honor currently held by PUBG: Battlegrounds.) Other high-profile creators, like Dave Oshry, shared similar memes. Once a game is caught in the meme cycle riptide, it’s hard to escape — especially when that happens on day one.
Highguard developer Wildlight Studios unveiled the game’s first-year roadmap Monday, revealing the majority of the game’s forthcoming updates on the same day it launched. The roadmap includes plans to introduce a new playable Warden every two months, which roughly mirrors the pace of popular live-service games like Marvel Rivals, but isn’t introducing a new mode until July. Will new heroes be enough of a draw to capture and retain a wide audience? Ultimately, that will be the true test of Highguard‘s might: time.
