Highguard is now “Mixed” on Steam after recent patch and fast implementation of 5v5

After weeks of silence, Highguard was review-bombed on Steam the day of its launch. Now, the reviews have turned to “Mixed” following a major patch released in response to player complaints.

While a lot of the negative reviews appeared to be quite harsh, considering they were left by people who played for less than 10 minutes, some of the more reasonable complaints revolved around Highguard’s early performance. This was the focus of the quickly implemented patch, which included improvements to game input and video settings.

Highguard then took it a step further and added 5v5 just days after the game’s launch.

Highguard sees changing reception on Steam and social media

In response to Wildlight Entertainment’s rapidly implemented patch, gamers seem a lot happier with the raid shooter’s performance. A lot of replies on X (formerly Twitter) applaud the developers for listening to feedback – and changing stuff so fast based on community sentiment.

However, this is exactly the focus of Highguard’s development team from the very beginning. Carlos Pineda, Lead Game Designer, told Escapist: “As I’ve worked on other live service games, you realize that when the people come to play your live service game, they’re putting their trust in you to make sure it’s an enjoyable experience every week, every year.

“We want to keep that trust and earn it. Apex Legends was an interesting one, where one time we changed the shield ratios because we thought it would be more fun that way. The community was like NO. That was a very difficult pill to swallow as a designer.

“We went, ‘Oh wow, I was wrong.’ And we turned it back. That was a good moment for me. I realized when you put a game out there, it’s no longer your game. It’s your game now. We’re all working on it together.”

The team has been very adamant that they are shaping Highguard as they go, taking feedback and reception into consideration. For this reason, it’s no surprise to see developers react so quickly to all the negativity surrounding the game’s launch. And honestly, it shows they can work through the negative backlash and hate with a lot of grace (not that the game is amazing, but I do commend it).

Back when the game was review-bombed, it had over 6,500 reviews that were largely negative. Now, after the recent update, Highguard has over 26,300 reviews, sitting at a “Mixed” sentiment on Steam.

Recent reviews from January 30th read:

“I don’t know why people are so negative about a game they’ve barely played. The game has been fun and competitive so far. I hope they continue to develop the game despite the unfounded negativity.”

“Really fun so far! Needs some polish, but the product they have is very promising. It’s just fun to ride around on a horse, summon giant battering ram,s and demolish team bases.”

“5v5 and new map within a week of release despite the hate; they deserve an upvote for their efforts.”

Wait, what!?

5v5 is now in Highguard

A 5v5 mode or update was not mentioned in Highguard’s patch notes, but players started to notice some interesting in-game changes. Highguard has also left some cheeky comments on X when players asked about the possibility of a 5v5 mode.

Earlier today, just hours after the speculation, Highguard announced 5v5. It’s limited-time for now, but this is likely due to the developers’ fast addition of the mode and a need for some refinement. It’s unclear if it will become a permanent mode, but it’s definitely possible depending on player feedback.

While Wildlight Entertainment’s developers have been developing the game for over 4 years as a 3-player experience, they seem to have been willing to forgo this plan to pursue 5v5 after receiving tons of gamer feedback. Many players have been mentioning that the map feels entirely too large for a 3v3 game, leading to calls for 5v5.

Will a limited-time 5v5 mode save the game? I think it’s tough to say at this stage. But developers’ determination to work with the community, despite how rude and toxic they’ve been, shows serious grit. Players responded with applause on X, likely because they had felt unheard by other games in the past. An update this huge after a week is most definitely promising, and even once-skeptical players have started thanking Highguard on X.

Again, it’s not the best game to ever be created. But I think it does deserve a fair chance.

Highguard 1.0.4 patch notes

Hey Wardens! We’ve just pushed out a patch with a number of improvements, including FoV sliders for consoles, toggle options for ADS and Crouch, many video settings, and more. The team is also working on optimization improvements; they just need a few more days to cook.

See below to see the nitty-gritty details, and we’ll see you in Highguard

Settings Improvements

Note: in an effort to release these changes to our players as quickly as possible, a number of menu options are not yet localized in languages other than English. Properly localized settings will be prepared for a future patch.

Game Input Settings

• Added the ability to set Crouch to Hold or Toggle for all platforms.
• Added the ability to set Aim Down Sights to Hold or Toggle for PC only (for now).

Toggling into ADS then tapping Sprint (shift on PC, left stick on controller) will swap your scope. This is disorienting on controller. PC players are recommended to rebind scope swap if using Toggle ADS. We will continue to look into adding this for console players who can’t rebind buttons yet, but we will need more time.

Video Settings

• Console users can now adjust FoV to 110.
• Low scalability settings for shadows and reflections are tuned for even more performance at the cost of some image quality.
• Low shadow setting now also disables volumetric fog.
• Added a new “View Distance Quality” setting that controls skeletal mesh LODs, which can be another useful control to tune GPU and CPU usage.

Players now have the ability to toggle the following features on or off, irrespective of other quality options:

• Anisotropic Materials
• Chromatic Aberration
• Bloom

Motion Blur and Depth of Field need more testing to disable safely. Look for these options very soon.

• DLSS users now have the ability to select a DLSS preset. More presets and better descriptions are coming in the next patch.
• Players can now select Off to disable Global Illumination entirely.
• Resolved an engine bug which could inadvertently throttled laptop users to 60 FPS regardless of frame rate settings.

Crash and Bug Fixes

This patch resolves crashes that could occur in the following scenarios

• Leaving a match on PS5 with an unexpected input state.
• Loading into matches on machines with slower storage devices.

A number of other bugs related to online user presence and matchmaking were also resolved.

• Friends now appear online correctly after accepting requests, and Xbox presence updates properly. Major crash fixes have reduced crashes by 90%, significantly improving stability.
• Friend status is fixed – players now appear online correctly and Xbox presence updates reliably. Our top crash issues are gone resulting in a 90% crash reduction.