Highguard review: Apex Legends’ spiritual successor is a few tweaks from greatness
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For many, High Guard promised to be the expected spiritual successor to Battle Royale Apex Legends. After all, the developer, Wildcard Entertainment, is staffed by Respawn Entertainment veterans and offers links to Summit And Fall of the Titans were mentioned in the marketing for the new title.
Revised platform: PC
Available on: PS5, PC, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
Release date: January 26, 2026
On the surface, the comparison is valid: it’s a team-based 3v3 shooter with fantastic gunplay, a similar weapon progression system, a comparable art style, and, perhaps most importantly, the same shadow exit strategy (that is – until an early reveal from The Game Awards revealed the secret). But I spent 15 hours High Guard in its first week, and I’m not convinced it can hold people’s attention for as long as Summit has. There still appears to be some major and minor adjustments before being a Legendary hit – but a few months of waiting could see it transform into a gem.
High Guard takes place in a world of fantasy and guns and sees you looting and shooting in matches lasting between six and 30 minutes. Rounds take place on medium-sized maps, and they see each squad scavenging for supplies and equipment, before attempting to transport a Shieldbreaker artifact to the opponent’s base and, if successful, embarking on a raid in which they must plant and defend explosives to reduce a base’s health.
This is a completely truncated version of how rounds work. High Guard can be a bit complicated at times, and the game doesn’t do much to clarify what the various limited respawn rounds or overtime timers actually mean. I had played at least 10 games before it all became clear: it’s simply Capture the Flag and Search and Destroy, with added flourishes.
From launch, these Raid battles are the only ones available: no single-player mode, no other tower styles.
The heart of the action
Basically, High Guard is a fantastic shooter game. It’s lively, frenetic, responsive; shooting guns, traversing the environment and juggling the heroes’ powers, it’s all amazing. The tense and tactical squad combat transferred from Summit It’s even more thrilling when you have an objective to destroy or the enemy carrying a shield bearer falls. But this nourishing main course is surrounded by a few lukewarm starters.
Take Wardens: the game launched with eight, but they’re not all equal. You’ll hardly play a match without someone choosing Kai, whose instant ice walls dictate the movement of battles, or Una and their summonable wisps that throw grenades. But the other heroes are barely used, with powers too situational to be worth choosing.
Likewise, the guns are not balanced at launch. Assault rifles, revolver, and sniper rifles are all solid, but close combat weapons like shotguns and SMGs don’t justify the inventory space, whether due to their slow kill time, lack of ranged functionality, or simply being outclassed by a similar weapon. After all, you can only carry two weapons (plus a raid weapon, like a mace or rocket launcher), so it’s worth choosing wisely.
Perhaps the most damning part of the game, and what keeps it from matching up. Summitis that it can become repetitive. Matches feel the same: you always spawn in the same locations, choose the same guardians, use the same weapons, play on the same small maps, and open chests to find the same restricted pool of loot.
It is this last problem that most needs to be resolved. There is no health recovery, since it recharges on its own. There’s no ammo pickup, since you spawn with everything you’ll need. Attachments do not exist. There is no need to search for the perfect weapon, since you spawn with weapons of your choice. And since gear rarity is tied to progression, with better weapons and shields appearing each subsequent turn, there’s no need to keep opening chests in the hopes of a rare change until you’re at the last turn, when every chest has them.
I wanted the Battle Royale title, where the pace of the match would be dictated by chance: where the drop ship started, and what equipment and power-ups I found.
Repetitive gameplay may suit some shooters like Call of Dutywhere you’re always seconds away from a gunfight. But in High Guardyou have minutes of downtime spent mining resources or waiting for the Shieldbreaker to appear, during which you can think: “could I be doing something better with my time?”
At launch, there are five cards, chosen at random. They all consist of main zones: your enemy’s base and your team’s base, which you choose from a limited number before the match begins. The number of loot chests seems inconsistent between them, but generally predictable in each: red weapon chests and blue support chests are largely found in these three central spots.
Despite what some online reviewers say, I never found the cards too large; You’re always told where the Shieldbreaker will spawn next and where the air support crates will drop, so it’s easy to make an informed decision as to where the enemy will be – and they’re quick to traverse, with zip lines and a mount summoning system that seems straight out of Ancient Ring.
Take the road to the High Guard
It’s a little difficult to watch again High Guardgiven that the situation will change in the short and long term. Wildcard promised at least one year of season – sorry, Episodescoming every two months.
These promise new guardians, weapons, matches, bases, and cosmetics, and I see the game only getting better as the year goes on. They come with numerous fixes and adjustments, two of which will be available during the first week of release.
A 5v5 mode was released due to negative first impressions from players, but it plays much worse than 3v3, given that the game is clearly optimized for six players. And a few changes to raid rounds, including reduced attacker lifespan and a longer respawn timer, mean you spend more time twiddling your thumbs and less time fighting.
Both, in my eyes, make the game worse, but they show the developers’ willingness to experiment and make changes. I hope many of the issues other players and I have encountered High Guard can be fixed in the near future.
The in-game store updates every few days, also featuring daily and weekly challenges, so there’s still reason to return in the short term. And, luckily, there are plenty of cosmetics to purchase via currencies earned in-game (although you can spend money on premium products, if you want).
Another thing I hope to see more of in the future? A story, aside from a few brief lines that the heroes exchange at the start of matches, and what can be deduced from the cards, the world of fantasy meeting weapons is a total mystery. Something about a new continent? About some kind of academy? Factories? Your guess is as good as mine, but I can’t wait to find out more. Summit basically told its entire story through character introduction trailers, and I guess High Guard will be the same.
Should you play Highguard?
Play it if…
Don’t play it if…
Accessibility
High Guard has a small handful of accessibility features: subtitles and support for ten languages (including English, Spanish, and French).
It’s not the biggest list I’ve ever seen, but just like the game’s content, it’s possible Wildcard will improve it over time.
Visually, many of its features can be disabled to improve performance or address visual accessibility. You can remove chromatic aberration and motion blur, activate the FOV slider, and change the quality of effects, shading, foliage, and more.
How I rated Highguard
As of writing this review, my playtime for High Guard on Steam it’s 3 p.m. A small handful of these will come from opening day issues: failure to access the tutorial, game crashes, and loading issues. But I estimate at least 12 of them are playing various raid matches. I made sure to play several rounds with each character, although there are some that I prefer more.
I also briefly tested 5v5 when it released and came back for every patch during the first week.
I played on my custom PC, which uses an RTX 3060 Ti, an Asrock Z590 Phantom Gaming, and 16GB of RAM. I played over both Wi-Fi (22 Mbps average speed) and Ethernet (70 Mbps average speed). My monitor is the Eve Spectrum 4K 144Hz and I alternated audio between the Creative Pebble Nova speakers and AKG N9 headphones. For controls, I used the Clutch GM41 Lightweight mouse and the Logitech G213 Prodigy keyboard.
First revision in February 2026
