Highguard Xbox Review

A fun idea held back by half-baked systems and rough optimization

Highguard is a free-to-play, Xbox-exclusive multiplayer shooter that arrived with very little warning and immediately sparked debate online. After spending a significant amount of time with it beyond the tutorial phase, it’s clear this isn’t the disaster some hoped for—but it’s also not an easy recommendation.

At its best, Highguard delivers exciting chases, tense base raids, and moments where its core ideas finally click. Unfortunately, those moments are weighed down by bland characters, messy progression systems, and disappointing technical performance.

What Is Highguard?

At its core, Highguard is a 3v3 hero-based raid shooter. Two teams race across large maps to secure a key item that allows them to breach the enemy base. Once a breach happens, the defending team must scramble to rebuild and reinforce their defenses while attackers push to finish the job.

It’s essentially a hybrid of capture-the-flag and bomb-style modes, and this central structure is easily the strongest part of the game. When it works, it creates genuine tension and exciting back-and-forth matches.

Gameplay & Modes

There is one primary mode, and that’s where all the fun lives. While pacing can feel inconsistent and the loot system causes balance issues, the mode itself kept me playing longer than expected.

This is why Highguard doesn’t feel like a completely soulless live-service shooter—you can clearly see the foundation of something interesting. The issue is that nearly everything surrounding that foundation feels unfinished or underdeveloped.

Maps, Movement & Mounts

Despite being a 3v3 experience, the maps are surprisingly large. While some players have criticized them for feeling empty, I generally didn’t struggle to find fights. That said, there are definitely stretches of downtime where you’re just looting or reinforcing defenses with little happening.

What elevates traversal is the movement system. Highguard is fast and flexible, offering slides, zip lines, teleports, and most importantly mounts.

Mounts are the standout feature of the entire game. Chasing enemies across the map on horseback or atop a panther while dodging shots and cutting them off before they reach your base is genuinely thrilling. These moments are when Highguard finally feels special.

Base Fortification

Base building and fortification feel more mixed. Before a breach, teams can rebuild and reinforce walls, which often feels like a mechanic added because it had to be there rather than because it was essential.

Some heroes are better suited for defense or destruction, which helps, but overall the system never feels truly necessary. It’s serviceable, not terrible just not impactful.

Heroes & Combat

This is where the experience starts to fall apart.

Each hero has abilities and an ultimate, but very few feel powerful or satisfying. Invisibility, enemy marking, wall-breaking, and large ultimates are all present, yet almost none of them deliver the punch you’d expect from a hero shooter. Even after learning the systems, ultimates rarely feel game-changing.

Gunplay itself is solid on a mechanical level. Shooting, sliding, jumping, melee attacks, and grenades all feel fine. There’s even a throwable weapon recall mechanic that sounds cool on paper but rarely feels useful in practice.

The real issue is weapon variety or lack thereof. Assault rifles, SMGs, shotguns, and snipers all feel painfully generic. They function, but they’re forgettable, and early-match weapons can feel downright bad until you find better loot.

Loot & Progression

The loot and progression systems actively drag the game down.

You’re constantly juggling weapon tiers, armor ratings, crystals, and upgrades, which quickly becomes exhausting. The crystal system in particular feels like unnecessary busywork something added purely to slow progression rather than enhance gameplay.

Gear disparities can make matches feel brutal. You’ll sometimes unload into an enemy only to barely scratch them, then get instantly dropped by a single headshot. That’s intentional design, but it often feels unfair instead of intense. Combined with visually similar character designs, it can be hard to read fights clearly.

Teamplay & Match Experience

Teamwork is absolutely critical. Solo play with random teammates can be rough, while coordinated play with friends completely changes the experience.

The most enjoyable moments come from synchronized pushes, clutch last-second defenses, and chaotic mount chases across the map. When Highguard shines, it’s because of these situations—not because the shooting or characters are carrying the experience.

Free-to-Play Model

Highguard includes all the expected free-to-play elements: multiple currencies, battle-pass-style progression, rotating shops, and premium cosmetics.

The good news? Everything is cosmetic.The bad news? Almost none of it is appealing.

Skins, emotes, and unlockables lack personality and aren’t exciting enough to chase, even for players who normally enjoy cosmetic progression.

Performance & Visuals

Performance is playable but underwhelming.

Xbox Series X

• Targets ~1440p with heavy upscaling

• Native resolution appears closer to 1080p–1108p

• Visuals are noticeably blurry

• Frame rate is mostly stable but drops during raids and high-action moments

• Poor draw distance hurts overall presentation

  
  

Xbox Series S

• Base resolution around 720p with aggressive upscaling

• Struggles to maintain consistency

• Visual clarity and performance are disappointing

At this point, the Series S version is hard to recommend until further optimization arrives.

To make matters worse, there are no video settings at all. No performance modes, no resolution options and no FOV slider. For a competitive shooter, shipping without an FOV option is baffling and makes the default view feel narrow and claustrophobic.

Final Verdict

Highguard is underwhelming but not hopeless.

There are genuinely fun moments here—mount chases, base raids, and tense coordinated matches—but they’re weighed down by bland heroes, weak progression, generic weapons, and poor optimization. The technical issues, especially on Series S, are hard to ignore.

If the developers commit to improving optimization, refining progression, and expanding content, this could be worth revisiting a year from now. As it stands, though, it’s difficult to recommend over the many stronger multiplayer options available today.

Score: 50 / 100