Highguard Is Out Now – and We’ve Performed a Lot of It

Numerous video games provide intense, aggressive, squad-based motion, however I can’t consider any apart from Highguard the place I can sling spells and bullets from the again of an imposing, galloping bear as I cost in to destroy an enemy fortress.

Highguard turned a whole lot of heads with its flashy reveal on the finish of the Recreation Awards final month, however many have been left eager to know extra about this mysterious debut from Wildlight Leisure, a brand new studio of Apex Legends, Titanfall, and Name of Obligation veterans. The builders are first to confess that the intervening month has been quiet, however are assured that the sport they’ve toiled over in secret for 4 years will communicate for itself on launch immediately.

I spent a complete day taking part in the sport and interviewing its lead builders and studio founders final week, and I’m right here to let you know precisely what we’re all about to play with Highguard.

Able to Raid

As a “PvP raid shooter,” Highguard is constructed round a brand new and attention-grabbing gameplay loop wherein two groups of three gamers fortify bases, journey out on mounts to assemble assets and achieve energy, and provoke a collection of raids to attempt to destroy the opposing workforce’s base first. It’s a bit bit MOBA, a bit bit survival shooter, and a bit bit Seize the Flag, amongst different influences.

Recreation Director and studio Co-Founder Chad Grenier tells me that the mode’s genesis got here from workforce members having fun with the fun of raiding an enemy base in multiplayer survival traditional Rust, and eager to distill that right into a refined, aggressive, repeatable expertise. “Each match is about escalation: fortifying, venturing out, clashing, then mounting coordinated raids and defenses till just one base is left standing.”

Every spherical begins with a minute locked in your base to selectively fortify partitions, earlier than being lower unfastened to search out higher gear and harvest crystals that may be turned in at outlets everywhere in the map to additionally change and improve your package. The maps are huge open, and I very hardly ever bumped into members of the opposite workforce till after a number of minutes right into a match, when a storm would kind over one in all a number of predetermined places, the place the Shieldbreaker quickly materialized. This magical sword is your key to victory—groups battle to seize it first and run it to the enemy base (“like reverse Seize the Flag,” in accordance with Grenier) and insert it into one in all a number of slots round their magical perimeter defend, initiating a raid.

A siege tower instantly materializes from a portal, which cracks a section of the bottom’s defend for the invaders to enter, additionally serving as their ahead base for respawns through the raid. The invading workforce’s goal is then to breach the bottom (which is stuffed with breakable partitions), plant bombs on one in all three key spots, and defend them till they go off. Two of the factors will do substantial injury to the bottom’s life whole, whereas efficiently destroying the principle, centrally fortified level will take it out completely. The match ends when just one base stays standing.

If each bases are nonetheless there when the raid ends, the match resets and one other Shieldbreaker begins to kind, however with new and improved gear discovered scattered across the map and in outlets. Every of those phases is on a good timer, on which respawns for each groups will probably be capped till the following section begins, which retains issues shifting. My matches ran wherever from 10 to half-hour, with a number of the longer ones being fairly dramatically swingy.

The tempo variation between the phases and escalating energy over the course of the match gave it a definite and nice rhythmic cycle of rising anticipation in preparation main into tense raids with larger and better stakes. Lead Designer Mohammad Alavi says that this was intentionally tuned to make it enjoyably sustainable, the place the identical variety of hours of nonstop PvP deathmatch can be extra exhausting for many gamers.

Want for Steed

Most of Wildlight’s inventive management and design workforce labored on Apex Legends, and it reveals in how buttery easy the motion feels.

There are 10 weapons accessible at launch, all of which is able to really feel acquainted to a seasoned FPS participant. With slots for 2 at a time, I tended to make use of the Ranger sniper rifle and Paladin automated shotgun to cowl long- and close-range engagements, as matches would inevitably embody each. You even have one in all three raid instruments (a rocket launcher, an explosive sledgehammer, or a zipline gun), which offer limited-use tactical utility or base destruction. The whole lot seems to be and sounds nearly as good as you’d anticipate from so many style veterans, and the distinction in strategy between every bit of the arsenal is straight away noticeable.

Respawn video games are additionally well-known for his or her motion tech, and Highguard carries that legacy confidently. Along with the anticipated working, leaping, sliding, and mantling, the massive new mobility addition is mounts, which you’ll be able to summon and dismiss at will in most components of the map. There have been horses, bears, panthers, and gryphons accessible to select from, although the variations are beauty. I rode a big, brown bear clad in bone armor, and I liked my chonky, lovely son.

Mounts are a necessity for protecting the maps’ large distances effectively, and likewise lend themselves to enjoyable gameplay moments that I’ve by no means skilled in a shooter earlier than, like having the ability to mount up and dramatically gallop off to move the enemy off on the move as I see the Shieldbreaker icon on the minimap shifting up in direction of our base.

Selections, Selections

Including to the sense of flexibility and selection, gamers additionally select to play as one in all eight Wardens accessible at launch, with extra coming later. They’re distinctive characters, restricted to 1 per workforce, every with a passive potential, a tactical potential on cooldown, and an final that slowly costs up. The 2 I ended up spending probably the most time with each had highly effective space denial talents.

Atticus is a proud, armored warrior that throws lightning spears as his tactical potential, which spark injury to close by enemies like a Tesla coil till destroyed. When protecting an imminently forming Shieldbreaker or a ticking-down bomb, I preferred throwing these in corners or above doorways at strategic choke factors, peppering the enemy workforce with further injury as they tried to come back in.

Una, alternatively, is a masked shaman who summons lovely little nature spirit buddies (not not like like Zelda’s Koroks), which throw gorgeous grenades to pester passing enemies in addition to sometimes popping as much as give her loot. Her final summons an enormous tree spirit that may actually lock down an vital spot in an important second. Each characters jogged my memory of how a lot I get pleasure from taking part in as Symmetra and Torbjörn in Overwatch, discovering the trickiest and most obnoxious spots attainable to stay their turrets. Kai was maybe the character I noticed probably the most in my matches, a monk fused with a frost demon that summons a giant wall of ice as his tactical potential, which proved clutch repeatedly for controlling house.

The bases themselves are additionally a kind of character alternative, as gamers on every workforce will vote for one the six whole within the sport at launch, which is able to then slot into any of the maps. The bases have distinct benefits and vulnerabilities that work together with the Wardens’ talents in all types of attention-grabbing methods. As an example, Hellmouth is a fortress suspended over a lava chasm with slender bridges which might be excellent for shutting down with Kai’s wall.

The Wardens, bases, weapons, and gadgets within the sport at launch already present a enjoyable and wide selection of potentialities to discover in how they’ll remix to synergize or counter each other, giving a whole lot of dimensions round which the gameplay meta can evolve. Furthermore, Wildlight already has a strong plan in place for infusing the sport with a beneficiant, regular drip of recent content material in all of these areas and extra.

Eyes on the Horizon

Highguard’s dwell service additions will come within the type of two-month chapters, divided into two halves. That implies that each single month they intend to launch some mixture of recent Wardens, bases, maps, weapons, raid instruments, and extra. The primary replace, coming in just some weeks, will introduce ranked play, and Grenier tells me they’ve numerous alternate gameplay modes within the works that may cycle out and in – similar to Mario Kart-inspired mounted racing. All gameplay content material will probably be added free of charge, with monetized components strictly beauty.

That’s an bold plan, however one for which this workforce is extraordinarily nicely ready. Wildlight CEO and Co-Founder Dusty Welch tells me that, whereas the Respawn workforce have been very pleased with the preliminary launch of Apex Legends (which arrived as a complete shock), they hadn’t began to plot out any post-release content material till after it had come out, leaving months of lag time earlier than they may launch something new. Wildlight and Highguard have been conceived with this hard-earned expertise in thoughts to be oriented round live-service manufacturing from the very starting.

“Beginning this firm, Chad [Grenier] and I knew now we have to consider constructing it in another way,” Welch informed me, “and the individuals we rent, the mindset that now we have, the pipelines that we arrange, the instruments, the applied sciences, the exterior partnerships and relationships, in order that we’re pondering from day one how one can efficiently function a dwell service and have an ongoing, significant dialog with our participant base, and consistently be delighting and stunning them with content material. We didn’t do this nicely with Apex at launch, and we’re extraordinarily well-prepared as we sit right here immediately.”

That complete 12 months of recent content material for Highguard is already deep into improvement. Each Welch and Alavi gave the identical sly look and non-answer when requested about their favourite Wardens to play, since they’re not within the sport but at launch (Welch confirmed it’s the identical one). The requirements and expectations for live-service video games are larger than ever, however this workforce contains individuals who have been doing it for a really very long time already, they usually’ve come about as appropriate as any studio I’ve but seen chase this mannequin.

Highguard shocked and impressed me. I’m not nice at quick, aggressive shooters as a baseline, however its vibrant aesthetics and considerate design have completely piqued my curiosity. The marketplace for live-service shooters is crowded, however Highguard has the benefit of providing an attention-grabbing new gameplay mode that doesn’t map onto any of the present genres like battle royale or extraction. This can be Wildlight’s first sport, however that belies a deeply assured and passionate workforce on the high of their kind, excited to make the most effective sport they’ll with out the constraints of a significant writer.

You don’t must take my phrase for it: strive Highguard immediately free of charge, accessible on Xbox Collection X|S.

Highguard

Wildlight Leisure, Inc.

☆☆☆☆☆
247

★★★★★

An All-New PvP Raid Shooter
Highguard is a PvP raid shooter the place gamers will journey, battle, and raid as Wardens, arcane gunslingers despatched to battle for management of a legendary continent.

Group up, safe your base, then journey out throughout huge uncharted lands to loot, harvest assets, and improve your arsenal as you face off towards a rival Warden crew trying to declare your territory as their very own. Battle for possession of the legendary Shieldbreaker within the open discipline; battle to hold it to the enemy base to deliver down their shields—then raid to destroy their base earlier than they’ll destroy yours.

Assemble Your Crew
Decide from an ever-growing roster of Wardens, and kind up in groups of three. Wardens wield weapons and raid instruments, together with uncommon magical talents leftover from a dwindling age of magic, now returned. Each Warden potential is designed so as to add depth to the sport’s distinctive loop and mechanics, like raid fight and destruction; siege stealth and infiltration; base restore and protection; harvesting and loot gathering; open-world fight, and far, way more.

Safe Your Stronghold
Select from an array of distinctive strongholds to name in as your base of operations in massive, open maps. Every base has completely different layouts, benefits, and vulnerabilities. Decide the bottom best-suited to your workforce composition, play fashion, and map kind. When you’ve referred to as in a base, take a while to bolster partitions and customise your loadout earlier than heading out into the sector.

Mount Up, Trip Out
Mount up along with your workforce and journey throughout the huge legendary landscapes of Highguard in the hunt for loot, assets, and kit to strengthen your arsenal. Yow will discover upgraded weapons, armor, and different tools, like higher saddles and magical amulets imbued with perks. Be looking out, because the enemy workforce will probably be doing the identical. Struggle them off to safe the most effective loot to your workforce.

Battle For the Shieldbreaker
Unusual magical storms periodically ravage the continent of Highguard. Everytime one seems, an historical magical sword, referred to as the Shieldbreaker, types at its coronary heart. This sword is the essential key for breaking by the outer shields of the enemy base so as to raid. When one in all these storms types within the sky, journey along with your workforce to its location and battle the enemy workforce for possession of the Shieldbreaker forming beneath it.

Intercept within the Open Subject
After getting the Shieldbreaker, battle throughout the open discipline, on mount or on foot, as you try to hold the sword to the enemy base. However keep vigilant—if the enemy workforce eliminates you whereas carrying the Shieldbreaker, they’ll decide it up and journey to raid your base as an alternative.

Summon a Siege Tower
When you’ve efficiently reached the enemy base with the Shieldbreaker, plunge the blade into the bottom’s outer superstructure to weaken its shields, then summon in a Siege Tower to complete the job. When these shields go down, it’s time to raid.

The Raid
With the bottom shields gone, you’ll must push in to destroy the bottom by planting bombs on the bottom’s turbines. However to be able to get inside a well-fortified base, you’ll want to make use of each weapon, raid device, and arcane potential at your disposal to shoot, sneak, or smash your means inside. As soon as inside, plant bombs and maintain the target whereas defenders attempt to flush you out. Chip away at a base’s energy by taking out a number of turbines, or go straight for his or her anchor stone to destroy the bottom in a single fell swoop. And if you happen to’re defending, defend your turbines and repel attackers till the vitality of the Siege Tower is depleted and your outer shields restore.

Struggle For Management
If a number of turbines or the anchor stone is destroyed, the enemy base is destroyed and the attackers safe the territory. However more often than not, victory doesn’t include a single raid. When that occurs, the enemy base shields restore, the siege tower dissipates, and the battle escalates as loot, gear, and weapons all improve within the discipline, and a brand new Shieldbreaker types in a special location on this planet.

From there the battle for management continues—till just one base is left standing.

An Ever-Evolving Fantasy Universe
Every new Episode will deliver an array of recent core content material each month, together with new maps, bases, modes, wardens, weapons, mounts, raid instruments, loot gadgets, and lots of extra surprises we will’t wait to share. And all of this core content material is totally free for all gamers.