Video Gamers Podcast - Highguard - The Game the Internet Hated - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: February 2, 2026

Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan, and Ace are locking in for a deep dive on Highguard, the bold new Hero Shooter everyone in gaming is suddenly arguing about. We break down what Highguard actually is, how its combat systems and progression feel in practice. But the conversation doesn’t stop at mechanics. We dig into the ongoing review bombing surrounding Highguard—where it started, what complaints are legitimate, and where bad-faith outrage muddies the conversation. How much should players trust aggregate scores, and how does this kind of backlash shape the way video games are received at launch? From art direction and difficulty spikes to long-term replayability and post-launch support, this episode separates signal from noise. If you care about thoughtful criticism, modern gaming culture, and how video games live or die in the court of public opinion, this is a must-listen episode of the Video Gamers Podcast.   Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps and NorwegianGreaser, and Dettmarp   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: HypnoticPyro, PeopleWonder, Bobby S.   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/videogamerspod⁠ Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/h2cHKAvSmu Follow us on Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/⁠  Follow us on X:⁠ https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod⁠  Subscribe to us on YouTube:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1⁠    Visit us on the web:⁠https://videogamerspod.com/⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, fellow gamers and welcome to the video gamers podcast. Few games have seen the hate that Highguard got before its release. That continued on during its launch, but as we've seen time and time again, the internet is not always to be believed. Is Highguard the flop the internet masses wanted you to think it was, or is there something more here than just another generic hero shooter? Well, we've been playing it, and we've been playing it, and we've got some real insight now into what this game is all about.

Before we get to that, some introductions are in order. I am your host, Josh, and joining me, he locked in condor. Nope, nope, no wait, now he's slayed. Nope, nope, okay, he went with Atticus. Oh, and now he's whining we don't have a condor on the team? It's Ryan. Listen, eat it, Ryan. No, I was like, you guys are like, oh, we need this guy, that guy.

So then I was like, I'll be it. And then you're like, oh, no, we already have one. So then I clicked off of it. And then I looked at, I'm like, oh, he was talking about me. And then it was too late. So that was just, you know, it just happened. It just happened. It just happened.

Oh, man. I love that that was like literally happened earlier today. It was like two hours ago. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And joining us. Well, there is no support class in High Guard. Well, okay, maybe there is. But without healing and reviving, what's a guy to do?

It's Ace. I'll tell you what a guy's to do. Just spam shields and hope everyone kills everything for you. That's all I can do. That's it. You know, there is a semi kind of support class in High Guard. But I don't think it's like Ace is kind of what he was expecting or hoping. No, it was not.

Support player. Yeah. So, I'm trying to tell those shields like Luna. I'm trying. I'm trying. The cool. I got a couple shields thrown at me where I was like,

ooh, that's nice, you know. Heck yeah. Ace was doing work there. All right. Well, listen, welcome in everybody.

We are covering high guard today. You know, we're going to get to all of the, this is like a crazy story for a game, dude. Like, honestly, I don't know that I,

have seen a reaction to a game like we have seen with High Guard. So we're going to get into that. We're going to talk about the game. We're actually going to discuss whether we think it's good, whether we think it has a future, whether the internet was right, you know, and all that stuff. But before we get into the drama and the nitty-gritty of the episode, we have a couple amazing reviews to read that the listeners have left for us. So, Brian, why don't you start us off with the first one, and then I'll take the second one here.

All righty. We got another five-star review from a name. It's a name. And this one is titled Genuine, Honest, Fun, Give These Men Their Flowers. Hello, fellow gamers. This group has honestly restored my faith in the gaming community. They have an honest, they have honest takes, great banter, fun and engaging episodes. and have an amazing Discord

where you can chat and game with some of the coolest, most chill people. This is the only review I've ever written on Apple Podcasts, literally downloaded the app just to come here and show some love. Please check them out, Josh, Ryan, and Ace. If you all see this, you guys are a blessing in the gaming world.

Thank you. Oh, thank you. So good. So good. That's a good review, man. That's a good review. And he's not wrong at all on any of this stuff. No, no.

And they downloaded Apple just to leave the review so you can do it too. You know, if we have people that are downloading Apple podcast to leave review and we have seven-year-olds that are leaving review. And we just saw, I'm not going to read the review officially, but we just had somebody that was like, bro, I'm eight. I ain't getting beat by a seven-year-old. And they left this review. And we were just like, yes. And just to point out, we see every single review. So, you know, you say, did you see this?

We see every single one. We see every review that is left for the pod. We see every comment that is left on every Spotify episode. You know, we are with you guys. I think a lot of people think that, you know, because we're just some voices in the void, that we don't, you know, care or pay attention to that stuff, but we absolutely do. We are gamers like you, which is what I think makes this podcast special. we always will be, no matter how much we grow or where we wind up with this podcast in the future.

But yes, we will always be gamers. We will always see the reviews in the comments. And we try to answer those and things like that as well. So all right, I've got a great review coming in from Reservoir Dog 6. And it's titled The Best Podcast I found in years to five-star review. And it says, hello, I'm a relatively new gamer. and I've been searching for a while for a good podcast that tells me the latest in gaming news

and good recommendations. When I stumbled across this podcast, not only did I get exactly what I need, but I was surprised to find that this was the best podcast I've come across in a long time. These guys are hilarious, heartwarming, honest, and extremely knowledgeable. You'll keep off the good work

because you make my day with every new episode drop and I've become more aware of some of the best games out there because of you guys. Dude, what a way to start a show, boys. Well, now I'm hyped up. We're awesome. We don't suck. Oh, no, we suck again. That's my favorite chance of ours.

If you haven't left this show review, you can do that on Apple Podcast, write us a review on Spotify. We're getting close to 2,000 ratings on Spotify. So if you haven't rated this on Spotify yet, please take a second to do so. We are making that climb to 2K ratings there as well. All right, boys. Let's get in to High Guard. All right. I don't want to do all the talking on this because, you know, I have made my opinion on the stupidity of the internet and their response to High Guard kind of known.

So I want to kind of toss this to you guys because we, you know, the, reason there's three of us is we generally have different opinions. We like different kinds of games. We have different takes on things. And that's indicative of the gaming world. We have always said, not every game is for everybody. We see people in our Discord server all the time that say, hey, guys, everybody loves this game, you know, and I don't, I don't enjoy it. And we go, dude, that's okay. You know, everybody has an opinion. Everybody is entitled to their opinion. We don't opinion shame people for their gaming takes and stuff like that. So what was y'all kind of thoughts or response to how the internet went about, you know, prior to the release of

High Guard with a lot of the internet hate. And then on launch day was something I'll be honest, I don't know that we've ever seen in the gaming industry. So what did you guys think about kind of the drama leading up to this? It's disappointing is what I would like to say about it. It's a good word. Yeah. I want gamers to be better and not to just be so locked in on the backed in their mind that this game sucks even before they've even tried it, that they're just going to immediately go review-bom it. Because if you look at High Guard's reviews, it was mostly negative from within like hours of release.

And all those reviews didn't even have an hour in game yet. Like how can you say a game is sucks until you've played the game? Yes, no, exactly. You haven't played it long enough to build an opinion of it. Yeah, it's a, it's a big issue. It is, it is disappointing. word for it because there is uh i i played the second um you could you could download it i downloaded it and i hopped on within 45 minutes to an hour um i had played a couple matches it it is by no

means a perfect game it has its quirks and it has it it's issues but i looked at the steam page and within an hour dude there was like six thousand five or six thousand reviews and it was mostly negative within like an hour. There's no way that within that time frame you can even just barely get past a tutorial and have enough playtime to where you can leave a quality review based on your experience with the game. Unless it just didn't work overall. Like that's one thing. But this game worked. Again, it's not perfect. It has its quirks and its issues. But for them to just bomb it like this was it was very frustrating for me because I just don't get it. It's just the sheet. like mentality of just everybody hate this and everybody follow along and then they're part of

something and they feel like you know they're they're in the group and they're with everybody else you know that hates it as well so I don't know it's it's a bummer man because because it's not it's not a bad game it's not fair to the game that people have already decided what they think of it yes and it's like why are you doing this why have you already decided you hate this game before you put any time into it why do you want to put people down who are trying to give you a quality game for free, mind you. One of the freaking reviews I saw just said I had to wait in a queue. Every game has a cue.

Yeah, especially on launch day, man. Yeah. Hell divers too had a queue that we waited hours to get into a game with. Like that didn't make me hate hell divers too. Yeah. So I don't get why people want to see things fail just so they, can be right. I actually, I kind of bought into the trolls a little bit, which I know better, but sometimes

you just, sometimes you have to question people. You know what I mean? And I, we may have listeners that are saying, guys, the game's trash. Like, I'm sitting here going the game is trash. Like, it's not good. It's, you know, they didn't advertise it. It's, it's another generic hero shooter. The game's trash. I played it. I hated it. I uninstalled it. And I feel just like all these people do. Here's the different. difference. What, what occurred with High Guard was people rooting for failure. You know what I mean? That's, that's the difference. Um, so this is where I have a problem. I don't have a problem if people don't like the game. I don't like a lot of games. Ryan doesn't like a lot of games. Ace doesn't like a lot of

games. It's not about not liking something. It is about actively rooting for the failure of a game. So here's the issue. Anytime we don't like a game, we say so. And that's okay because, again, everybody's entitled to their opinion, right? And it's just our opinion. Our opinion does not carry more weight than somebody else's just because we talk into a microphone. You know what I mean? You know what I mean. We know your opinions, Ryan.

You say things are overrated and you don't like turn-based combat. I'm a paid streamer, okay? Oh, yeah, definitely. That's my favorite thing. Whenever we do defend something, the Internet doesn't like, it's immediately, oh, you were paid to say this. It's like, no, we just have our own opinions. Don't I've root for failure people. That is the thing I take the most issue with.

And there were people that were rooting for Higar to fail before it ever even released. And then they actively sabotaged its success. When 5,000 people go to Steam within an hour of the game releasing and review bomb it, you are actively trying to sabotage a game and a developer and a studio at that point. And these guys did nothing to deserve that, man, other than making a hero shooter. You're actively trying to hurt other people for no reason at all other than your own ego. And it's sick. Their crime to the internet was making a hero shooter.

That's what people were upset about. Like legitimately. Like, you know what I mean? And so this is where we take issue. We even say, look, you know, marathon's coming up, right? I have every concern in the world with how marathon is going to be received. We have said this time and time again with upcoming game releases. The one thing we always say is we don't want to see it fail.

If Marathon winds up being a good game, that's awesome, right? Like, then people have a good game and it might surprise everybody. But we're not out there cheering and rooting for failure. We can say, I think it's going to fail, right? But like, that's different than I am actively cheering and rooting and then celebrating failure at the same time. There is a difference. Let's be better gamers. Again, this is not about your opinion on the game.

If you played it and you played more than like three matches, you know, you're entitled to your opinion and that's fine. And if your opinion is this game is hot garbage, that's okay. But at least you tried it. At least you gave it a shot. And then you left a review based on your actual knowledge of the game. You weren't rooting for the failure. And that's what we are saying, stop it.

Stop rooting for failure. And I've seen the excuses from people that say, well, if we support everything, then we get slop and we don't get good games because people just keep making trash. No, that's a dumb argument because they will fail instantly. You know what I mean? Like we don't need to make that happen. It will happen. A good game comes out. People will respond.

They will tell their friends. It will get good ratings. It will get hype. We've seen it time and time again. A bad game comes out. A few people play it. It gets negative reviews. And then people go, eh, I don't think I'm going to spend my money on this game.

That's fine. that's the circle of gaming life. But stop trying to sabotage a game simply for the fact that you don't like it. You know, all right. I'm off my soapbox, boys. No, stay on it. We need to tell these people.

I just, I got so aggravated at people for this one because they wanted to then defend and say, well, I don't like the game. And it's like, but this isn't about you not liking the game. This is you trying to sabotage and celebrate, and actively make it be a failure so that you could then claim some kind of righteousness about it all, you know?

I told you. I told you. Yeah, that game sucks, man. Look at the ratings. You're allowed to not like the game. Like, no one's saying you cannot like the game. Like, you could not like the game, you could like the game, but

don't actively decide you hate something before you actually bother to try it, honestly. I was, in real time, I was so, I was so frustrated because I played it the second it was released. And to see the reviews, like I said, it had its issues. But to see what was happening in real time and see how many reviews there were and see how negative it was immediately while I'm playing and having a decent time. Like it was just, it was mind boggling.

So yeah, you think for yourself, people. Don't don't follow. Don't follow the crowd. Yeah. All right. Okay. Well, there we go. There's your public service.

Stop being terrible gamers, you know, and trying to ruin things and stuff like that. especially for a free-to-play game, guys. That's the crazy part to me. This wasn't a game that you paid $60 for and then got mad about. The price is good. Yeah, so let's talk about High Guard. And here's the thing, guys. I want to just start with what we think about this game

because there's going to be a lot of people that listen to this episode for this take, and I don't want to make people wait until the very end to kind of, we'll rate it at the end. But I want to start off with, do you enjoy it? Would you recommend it? Ace, let's start with you. I enjoy Highguard to a degree. It's obviously a game I can say

is not my particular taste and I'm not good at, even slightly. I wouldn't have recommended it at the 3V3 mode. But now that they've added the 5V5, bro, 5V5 is just chaotic fun. Even if you can't hit the broad side of the barn, I would recommend Highguard with the 5V5 mode.

Yeah. And I think that's fair. Ryan, what about you? That's a good point. Yeah. And shout out to the devs. And we'll get into this a lot more. The game has been out for, for what, a few days, like four days, five days, something like that.

It came out Friday, didn't it? Yeah, it's been out four or five days, maybe. Yeah. So for it to be out that long, they already dropped a patch with upgrading, like, the amount of players in a match and a bunch of other things, like movement, all these things. We'll get into it. but that shows they're listening. They're there to be active and help develop a good game and be there and give the people what they want. I had a lot of fun with this game.

It is not amazing. It's not rivals. It's nothing like that's going to take over the world and be a big storm like Arc Raiders or anything else like that. But it is a solid, fun game. I genuinely did not have too many matches that I did not just enjoy myself. It was fun. I laughed. Once we had the 5V5, which is what we said in day one, like, man, if we had a couple more guys,

it would make it nice. And they did that. And then it did. It was fun. It was chaotic. There's a time for the gear, like the section where you can loot up and get all your stuff. And then you just have a genuinely good time. You're playing with your friends.

I will say it is not as fun with Randos or just in a lobby, like just trying to kind of get other, you know, people to play with you. but if you have a group and you can, like, get a squad going, like it is, it is genuinely a good game and the price is right, man. It's freaking free. Like, you can't go wrong there. Yeah. So, like, it's overall, I would absolutely recommend it.

It is a fun, enjoyable game that you can hop on. It's cross-platform, cross-play, you know. So, yeah, it's a good time. I will follow up on saying, it is not a good time with Randos. They will absolutely just destroy you and throw your games. I will say this is a different take on the hero shooter genre. We'll get into how the game actually works for people that haven't played it yet. So for me, I find High Guard to be a lot of fun when I am playing it with friends.

I do think that if you are solo queuing into a match and you are not familiar with the flow of the game, it can be a little jarring. People are going off in three different directions. They don't know what's going on. You have to play a few rounds. And I'll even say so much as like probably four or five matches before you really start to say, okay, I get this gameplay. I get the flow of it. I get the pacing.

I get the different stages of this. I get the attacking when you're sieging the enemy base and defending. And all of that is a little confusing at first. So an initial impression of High Guard, I could see being like, yeah, I don't know if this is for me, man. Like there's a lot going on here. But just like any game, when you start to learn it, you start to understand and appreciate some of what is going on in there. I think that High Guard is a very fun game. I do not think it is an amazing game. Okay. So let's just be clear because we're always honest on things. I do not think High Guard is

going to come around and kill rivals and kill Overwatch and things like that. It is a lesser game than they are, but it is still to me a very good, enjoyable time with friends. Like, we just played 5V5 earlier where we had a full squad of five, dude. And that was a freaking blast, dude. We were playing 3V3s. And honestly, like the 3V3 was still quite enjoyable. But I think they did right by introducing this 5V5 mode. I think that's what everybody expected when the game launched. And so that was one of the things that might have detracted from it a little bit.

Everybody that I have talked to that has played the 5V5 mode went, this is it. This is what the game should have been. This is what it needed. this is way better and I agree with them on that. They did that within a few days. A few days. Dude, they came out with 5E5 within a few days. You can tell they didn't intend this game to be 5V5.

And I understand why. Like I understand the design decisions that went into making this a 3V3. I'm not saying I agree with those decisions, but I can at least understand the thinking behind it. So if you are looking for should I play high guard, the answer is yes from me. It sounds like it's a yes from Ryan and it sounds like it's a yes from Ace.

try it out. It is free. You know, you have nothing to risk other than some time, but it's probably going to be a good time, man, unless you're just solo queuing and you play one match and then you go, yeah, this isn't it. In which case, that's okay too, but at least you tried it, you know? And then you made your own decision in that case instead of just listening to the internet masses on what this game is.

So, all right, guys, look, we're going to take a quick break. We'll talk a little bit about the gameplay and what you actually do in High Guard. and then that way people have a little bit better idea about what this game actually is. We'll be right back after this break. With Amex Platinum, you have access to over 1,400 airport lounges worldwide. So your experience before takeoff is a taste of what's to come. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply.

Welcome aboard via rail. Please sit and enjoy. Please sit and stretch. Steep. flip or that and enjoy via rail love the way all right we're back guys let's get into the nitty gritty a little bit for people that haven't played it maybe people that played one round and they said you know what i don't understand what's going on here um Ryan how would you describe the like the flow of a match right you know you're in a 3v3 or the new 5 v5 which

listen if you're going to jump in just play the 5v5 people honestly it's the better mode at this point. I can't imagine the devs taking this away. They're calling it experimental because again, I don't think they intended this, but I do not see them removing this mode at this point either. So, Ryan, how would you describe the flow of a match? Oh, okay. So basically you, it's like this kind of arena, picture, Blood Gulch, Halo, like this big kind of beautiful world. You each have your own base, and it's a PVP raid hero shooter. It's a big mix of all these things, but you start out, you want to reinforce your area, and then you have a gear up mode.

So it's like two minutes. You get to go out in the world where you can still interact with the other team. You can, you know, if you guys both go to the same spot, you can fight and battle and shoot and stuff like that. But ideally you go, you have some time to gear up, and then you prepare for the shield breaker. I kept calling it, what was it?

Stormbreaker. Stormbreaker. I kept on a stormbreaker. And I'm like, oh, well, that's Stormbreaker. I called the Stormbreaker. I called the Stormbreaker over like a hundred times. The shield breaker, it spawns after it has to populate and then it spawns. And then that is how you are able to raid the other team's base.

Once you have that and you're able to make it to their shield, if you're able to get it installed there, it's like a sword. It's pretty cool like animations as well as you like jamming in there and turn it and like a key. Then you start your raid. Once you have your raid, you get the defending team has unlimited lives. They can just defend their base. and then the attacking team has six lives. And if you die, you know, each one ticks off and you only have so many and you have to,

you have to blow up basically you have an A and a B and then the main hub. You have to blow up as much as you can to damage their base. At the end of the day, whoever base gets damaged the most until they run out of HP loses. So the name of the game is just blow up the other team's base. So it's a very, once you get this flow of get the materials, get the stuff you need, get money so you can buy your armor, and then go and try to raid. Then, you know, and there's a lot of other factors that go into it too. But, like, that's kind of the main game.

Just raid the other base and then try to destroy the, the, plant the bombs and destroy it. Yeah. This game combines a lot of aspects that we've seen previously. You know, plan on A, plan on B, plan on the main key. I think they call it the keystone. You know, that's okay. Which takes longer, I think. You know, we're planning it A, boys.

You know, we've all seen this the. thousand times. The out the the, the, the, the open kind of map that you're on is apex, right? Like, I mean, the, these are the devs that made apex legends. So you're out there, you're looting chess, you're finding gear, you're finding gun upgrades. I mean, you can absolutely see the apex DNA in running around this world and finding loot and gear and armor and stuff like that. Uh, you know, I think you get about two minutes to do that. And, and then like you said, Ryan, the shield breaker spawns. This is where you were forced into combat, right? Like, both, teams need to try to obtain the shield breaker. There's only one. And so this creates that kind of

chaos or that control point type map like you see in Overwatch where both teams are fighting over one point because you're fighting over the shield breaker. So this is chaos. People are dying. You can res your teammates. When somebody on the enemy team goes down, they leave behind an orb. I'd like this part of the game, dude. I think this is actually really cool because the orb, as long as there is an enemy orb down, their teammate can revive them. And it only takes like two seconds to revive somebody. Maybe three. It's very quick. It's four seconds. And it's an agonizingly long four seconds. Maybe two to destroy the orb then, because it's a lot faster to destroy the orb is really fast. So you have this risk reward situation of their orb is down. You don't want them to get

resed. So you have to take two seconds to try to destroy their orb. If you do, you get shields back. So it is a risk reward so that you then get two shield bars. So that's like, hey, it's risky, but this would get me back in the fight if I can do this, and it takes the enemy out of the fight. Resing a teammate is super important, especially in a gunfight because they're back in it, you know, and that changes the tide of combat. So this is where the chaos and the communication and the screaming and like,

Res me, res me, you know, like, get it. Josh's favorite words. Yeah. Put it on a t-shirt. And when you respond, if you're not res, you respond back at your base. Yeah. So they may be, you know, a 15, 20 second ride on your horse or your mount, whatever it is, like to get back into the fight. So it's crucial that if you can get res, like it's a big deal.

Right. It's a big deal. And somebody pulling that off in a fight or destroying the enemy's orb in the fight and getting their shields back. Like these are all things that come into play in the flow of this game. You know, if you get the shield breaker, you have to take it to the enemy base. Like you said, Ryan, you plan it. And then it moves the game into like its other form. format, which is the siege, like you talked about. You then spawn at their base in a siege tower

with limited lives. So you can't just go filing in solo because you're just going to run out of lives. And then the siege is over. And if you fail the siege, your base takes damage. So again, risk reward. 30, 30 damage. Right. Exactly. And so, and then this siege part of the game is Counterstrike. This is where you plant on A or B. And if you plant, it's very obvious to the enemy team. You know they're coming running to try to disarm. arm the bomb. And again, this forces that combat situation. The flow of this is chaotic. It's fast-paced. It's fun, man. Like, I very much enjoy this kind of hodgepodge mix of all these other games that it's borrowed from. And, you know, we talk about innovation all the time, right? Is this game innovative to you guys? Not particularly that innovative. No. It's not innovative at all. It's just everything you already know smashed into one game. Right. Do you guys like sugar?

Oh, I mean, we all know what I ate before this. Do you guys like butter? I like butter. Everyone like butter. Do you like flour? Yeah, I guess. Do you know what happens when you put sugar and butter and flour together? You get cookies.

You get cookies, guys. Who doesn't freaking love cookies? Highguard is a cookie. Yes, it's like it's not unique. It's not like reinventing anything. But when you take, you know, the bomb planting from Counterstrike and you take the control point map from Overwatch, you know, and you take the looting and running around an open world aspect of Apex. Like, it just works, man. You get a delicious cookie at the end of it.

Or like a pretty tasty cookie. We won't say it's delicious, but it's like, it's still a cookie, you know? And that's the thing with High Guard, man. Yes, it's not innovative. Yes, none of this is brand new. but when you take components and you put them together in a way that's cohesive and it works, you wind up with something that is greater than its individual parts. And I think that is where High Guard shines.

I think that is where they have nailed it with this pacing where it's like, hey, we're chill. We're out in the world looting. And maybe we hear a guy coming, you know. Okay, but now it's go time and we know some crazy fight is going to break out. And we don't know what's going to happen. And then that's the fun of it. Okay, well, we lost that fight. They got the shield breaker.

time to defend our base, boys, and then it's chaos again. You know? So I think it does work. I will be the first to admit that I do not think that there's anything really original here that hasn't been done in some form or another. But the way that they paste this and the way that they put it together really makes me enjoy that flow of the game. I almost feel like I'm playing like two to three games in one with the different phases on

this one. I want to say too There is some strategic aspects to them like some fine details that they've also put in because once they you know once they get the shield breaker

you can teleport back to your base so you don't have to run back or you can try to battle them and try to get this shield breaker back you know in the moment or you can try to go back to your base and then defend and post up and be ready for them

so it's kind of like a risk reward like what are you going to do what are you going to choose So there's there's so many sections, I think, in there where you can make these strategic decisions to kind of determine the outcome of your match. And so that is kind of something that's a little bit unique. But I also think, yeah, this is this is like a billion games. It's like an everything bagel. Yeah.

It's just like all matched up into one. Yeah. Basically. Well, you've said a lot of really nice things about high guard, Josh. So where is it? I was going to say we're getting to that. Where does it miss for you? Don't worry.

That's the exact next thing. Great segue is because I was like. Because that's what I want to know. But we're fair and we're honest. And there is a good bit that doesn't work in this game for me. You know, I don't think it's, I don't think it's like a huge distraction or a negative to the overall feel of the game. But let's be honest, this game ain't perfect, boys. I will say that I think that the beginning stage where you start off in your base and it's like, reinforce your base.

Re enforce the walls. Right. Reinforce your walls. Like that is the dumbest. Absolutely. It's so pointless. It's most pointless. I don't even know why they came up with this.

Other than somebody went, guys, we should have like something from Rainbow Sixth Siege in here. And that's what we're going to borrow is like the fortification, you know, time. Like that part. It doesn't work. I'll be honest. It's completely pointless to me. I don't know why they put it in there. You either have to.

So just for people that don't understand. When you start off in your base, you have like five wall reinforcements. And you basically like upgrade a wall so that it's harder. to get through, except it's really not. It's like, you know, most characters, like, you either have a base breaking weapon. A lot of characters have an ability to, like, break a wall and things like that. You have an axe where if you really just want to rough it, you can smack it with your axe like five or six times to break through the wall.

This is dumb. It doesn't make it harder to get into a room. It's really pointless. You either have to make it to where it is very hard to get into the room when it's reinforced, or you have to make it where the generators spawn randomly and people have to, search for them because then you can get Trixie and say, I'm going to reinforce this room that has nothing in it and I'm going to fake them out, you know, or something like that. But yeah, this part of the game just does not work for me at all. Like it's one, there's like, there's like 15

like walls that to reinforce on every section anyways. So you wouldn't get that whole base. Yeah, it would make sense if there was like a couple ways to get in and you can reinforce it so was strategically advantageous for you to back that up so that it does take them that little half second extra. But anywhere you want to go to plant the bomb, like there's a wall that nobody touched every single time, every match. I probably played 30 matches. And there's always a wall that you can just get in and you can smash it in three hits

with your axe and get right in because they can only do so much. You know, you can only, if you have a three man, you know, it's 15. If it's five, it's 25. But still, they never get everything. so there's always more areas to get in. So it doesn't make sense and it just feels like a waste of time as part of the match.

Yeah. All right. Yeah, I agree. Another thing for me, I like some of the weapons, but there's a lot of the weapons that feel underwhelming to me or maybe I'm just not good with them.

So I would like to see a wider variety of weapons. It feels like by the end of the match, everybody's running around with either, you know, legendary shotguns and legendary ARs, and that's about it. You know, there are sniper rifles in the game. I've seen people be very effective with them, but most of the time,

especially in like a base siege, you don't want a sniper rifle. Like, that's the worst thing you want, you know? So I would really like some more weapon variety or maybe just rarity to it, you know? To where if you do get a legendary weapon, it really feels like, hey, guys, I found one

versus like everybody by the end of the game is just running around with a legendary weapon. I will personally also say that there was a big issue with aiming in this game, there was mouse smoothing or mouse acceleration or something that was plaguing the aiming in this game for me and for a lot of other people. The devs even came out and they said, guys, we are hearing thousands of reports of people that thinks that there's mouse acceleration. There's none, but there's enough people that are saying something feels off. And even shroud said this.

I mean, you know, that dude is an FPS god. And he's like, guys, there's something off with the aiming in this game. I can't put my finger on it. I will say that today, as of the patch, today, that felt way better to me. But that was infuriating for the first few days. I know there's people that complained about there's no field of view slider on console. There's no aim down sites toggle. Like, I don't know why you would ever want to toggle aim down sites.

That's a hold and release to me. You know, that's like aim down sites is always just hold right click. And when you're done, you let go. And then that way you're back to hipfire. But people were really upset that this didn't have a crouch toggle. name down site toggle. The internet lost its mind over that. It's not a big deal to me, but I do understand that like,

the field of view sliders is kind of an important thing. That's an accessibility thing. Yeah. It really is. I get it, you know, especially in a shooter and where you need to be aware of stuff. That's it, guys. Like, honestly, those are my complaints with the game. I like the pacing of the game.

I like the heroes in the game. I like the game mode. I would like to see another mode eventually, but this one works for now. No 5V5 was the biggest. like, wait, what? You say, say what now? There's no 5-5? So what about you guys?

What didn't work for you guys on this? Let me know, hate on it. Hate on it. I'm not going to hate on it. Okay. I like hero shooters where everyone feels unique to play and control. I don't get that with High Guard. I feel like it does not, it does not matter who you pick.

They all have the same health pool. They all have the same guns and weapons to choose from. All you get is a different tactical ability and ultimate, which I find the ultimate's completely underwhelming, by the way. Yeah, I hate the ultimates in this game. And again, there was no support class that I could play like a support. So I was very, I was very much a fish out of water ducking the same. Two out of ten can't support.

But that's obviously, that's a me issue. Like, I love the over-the-top, like differences of characters in rivals and Overwatch. Like, that's what makes it a hero shooter to me. That's what makes this feel hero shooter light to me. I agree with that 100% I like I like some of the abilities with some of the heroes but I think that they're

I actually think that their utility ability that you get to fire off every 15 seconds or whatever the timer for that hero is is infinitely more important than what their ultimate is and that seems a little bit terrible except for like two characters two characters have really good ultimates

and the others do not. Yep yeah I agree with that you need different health pools you need different hit boxes like you said you really need to bring the flavor to the hero I would like to see them do that. You know, that is another way that they can improve the game.

I don't know that it detracts from it for me, but I definitely get the like, this could be so much better if. Yeah, like there's no reason to label things as like tanks and, you know, DPS and things like that. If there's no difference in health or damage done and things like that, it's just very odd to me to call it a hero shooter and not have those things. Yeah, there's not the difference in the variation between the heroes. Like in rivals, you mentioned, like, you know, Thor and then, uh, and then, you know, like Hela or, or Spider-Man. Like, they're all vastly different characters and how they play and the gameplay and then, like, your attacks and your ultimates and everything. And then with the ultimates, like, it just, ultimate is supposed to be ultimate, you know, like, you get it. You're like, oh, oh, baby, here we go.

I got my ultimate now and I, I just never, most of the time I'd even forget it because it, you never really, it doesn't do much, you know. I set down a spawn point. A spawn point was my ultimate. That can be handy, though, if you're in the enemy base. That was actually pretty handy most times. It's not exciting. You get your old like once a match, dude. Like once an entire match.

Like that's, and then it's underwhelming. So yeah, that part I don't think is, you know, balanced or where it needs to be. And I think there's definitely room for improvement there. Is there anything else for you, Ryan, that doesn't work for you on this? I mean, the few issues, obviously the 5V5, which they feel, fixed within a few days, which is kudos again to them for listening to the people and at least putting it out there. Hey, we may not keep this. It's experimental, but we're going to try. Fixing the aiming stuff was good. I think overall it was just, there's nothing substantially unique about

this game that really draws you in. It was, it's a good game. It's fun. But I never had that like, oh man, I can't wait to check out this character. Oh, man, I can't wait to check out this character. or oh man i can't wait to check out that you know like there was not there's not that big other draw to it other than just like when i play i have fun i have good time i enjoy time with you guys but there's not that other like arc raiders whether you guys are on or not i'm going to go hop in and i'm going to go play like i want to play you know and i'll fill in with randos or i'll play solo or whatever but like this i didn't i didn't really have that draw as much um as you would with other games that that's a really good way to put it i really enjoy high guard

when I'm playing it with you guys, but when I'm not playing it, I'm not craving it, if that makes sense. Like, art graders, I'm at work thinking about art graders. You know what I mean? Like craving it.

I can't wait till I get home to play this. High guard, I don't have that. Is it fun when I'm playing and, like, yes, I'm having a blast and I just want to do match after match. Like, legitimately, it's like one more, guys, one more. Bro, you want to play Highguard? Heck yeah, dude, let's go.

Yeah, exactly. But if nobody's not doing that, I'm not going like, oh, man, I'm really missing Highguard right now. Like that is the difference. And it's a weird, it's a weird difference, but it matters to gamers a lot of times. And I think that is that that is something to be said is that I don't find myself drawn and thinking about the game all the time. But you're right, Ryan.

I can see a world where they get it there, you know. Well, they're listening to us. So, yeah. So who knows? Maybe they'll, maybe they'll tweak it enough to where it'll get there. You know, they're active. They're actively patching things like instantly on the spot. So good on them.

last question for you guys and then we'll get out of here do you think there is a future for high guard do you think it will was it too little not enough at launch and it will fade into obscurity and it will die or do you think that there is a future if the devs continue to respond like they've responded add some stuff i've seen the roadmap they're releasing a new character every month they're releasing a new map like every other month a new base which the different bases don't really do anything for me either to be honest um but it's you know it's whatever it adds a little bit of variety. Some of them are easier to defend, you know, like better, better post up in areas, you know, to defend. But do you think there's a future for Highguard? I think it fully will depend on how well these devs keep communicating with the player base and implementing what is asked of them. But I just don't know if Highgard has a future with how poor the first reception's been and how people just look at Steam reviews, don't bother actually looking at the review themselves to see mostly negative and move on. Like, it's, unless they have a really big

turn around at like in the next few months i don't see high guard being around as long as like rivals or overwatch anytime soon unfortunately yeah what about you ryan um man uh as much as i hate to say it i think i think the the the trolls one yeah i think that they i think that they nuke this thing so hard and we saw it firsthand we saw people and and we've had people ask us like hey man i'm seen these reviews like, you know, is it worth it? Is it going to, you know, and if they don't have somebody else to ask or somebody else that hasn't played it, they're not going to check it out. And so right now on a Saturday night, we're recording this Saturday night. It's, it's a 630 Arizona time. There's 11,000 people in the game for a game that released, you know, four or five

days ago. That's not a lot of people. And it says sitting at 40, almost 42%. That's very unfortunate for a game that does not deserve that hate. It does not deserve that score. I just, I think it's a good game. I think it should succeed. I think it should carry on. I just don't know if it'll be able to see through this kind of turmoil that it got put in, like, off the bat, which is unfortunate, man. I think it's a genuinely good game that just, you know, got got eaten up by the people. Yeah. I sadly am going to agree with you. And that, that really does make me sad. because I don't know why gamers decided that they hated this game so much before they ever even got a chance to play it, dude. Did the devs make some mistakes? Should it have released with 5E5? Yes. You know, like they, you know, hopefully they learned some lessons from this. But honestly, I would say that I would much more, I would much stronger believe that this game has a future if people hadn't sabotaged it from the very beginning. And to me, that's sad. I hope it has a future. I hope that as they can, to develop it, that they continue to add and kind of, you know, draw people in and get people

to check it out. I will say the one caveat is, is like, I think that a lot of people that tried this game tried it for one match, quit and then, and then left it. So a month from now, if people start hyping it up, people will likely come back and give it a try. And I see a world where it could slowly kind of gain a common player base. I just, it breaks my heart because I'm not, I'm not hopeful that that's going to happen because, like I said, the world made up its mind on this game before they ever even played it, man. You know, and, you know, yes, it's not, it's not Ark Raiders. It's not going to take over the world, but there's a good, fun video game here that you

can play with your friends that is free people. That's the biggest, like, that's the thing to remember. This isn't a $40 game, man. This is a free to play game. They gave it to the world and said, here you go, guys. And then the world was like, yeah, we don't want free stuff, you know. And then they, you know, they, you know, they, you know, they, they, you know, they, reacted the way that they reacted.

Would you pay for High Guard? What's that? Yeah. Would you pay for High Guard? I would. I would pay for High Guard. Yeah, I would. Like, legit, that's a great question.

It's like, like, honestly, at this point, in its current state of development, I feel like $20. I would not even feel bad in the, in the slides. That's what I thought. 20, 30 bucks. If they charge 40, 40 is what I would go. I would go. I feel like this game's a little undercooked. Like, I feel like it needed of like three to.

six months more of development and polish and stuff like that before like $40 felt like legit and okay I'm good with this kind of thing much as we hated I think high guard should have gone into early access I think it's in early access is the issue it's just not that's where I kind of feel with it right now is there there is there is a good foundation here they need to build on it and if they can do that and not give up and the gaming world doesn't give up on them I think there could actually be a really good game here. Yeah. But it does feel like it's not fully complete yet.

And I worry that people are going to try it, have a little bit of fun, and then never look at it ever again. And that 11,000 Steam player base, that's not counting console. And I know that there's probably just as many people on console, but you've got to, you can't lose that, you know, and that's the scary part because if that dwindles, then it's just death at that point. So all right, well, listen, this episode went on way too long.

Way too long. Way too long. Biggest takeaway is try it for yourself. We'll play. I will absolutely be playing it over the next week or two. You know, right? What's your rating? I'm going to give it a seven and a half, dude.

Like, it's, okay. It's not fantastic. It's an enjoyable game. What did you say, Ryan? He's the IGN score. Yeah. I mean, there's parts I like in its current state, seven and a half for me.

What about you guys? When it was just 3Vee, it was 3V3, it was about 6.9 for me. I'd say now with the 5v, it's at 7.5. I do want to say, I love Jeff Keely. He absolutely dug this game's grave by putting it up there. I know he intended well, but I do think that backfired. Yeah, no, he dug this game's grave for them, unfortunately. Yeah.

Ryan, what about you? I'm up there. I'm probably 7.5, 7, 7, 7, something like that. It's right up there. and I think if they do a couple tweaks, tighten it up and make you, you know, a little bit of a change on a few things.

Like, I think it could be in the eights, no problem. Yeah, I agree. It's a really solid base. It's like a good food thing. You know, you got, what, there's something off, you know, this is really good meal, but like something's off, you know, it just needs a little tweak.

And then it could be like top, top tier. But, yeah, I think seven and a half is a very fair core. Yeah, exactly. All right. Well, there you go, people. go try high guard yourself it's free to download it's also only like i think it's like 20 30 gigabytes this is very small for a hero shoes yeah it's not it's not difficult very very small we we will be playing it at the 5v 5 mode come play with us you know we we we play with the listener today

yeah exactly so this is true yep um shout out to bill so give it a shrying if you like it if you like it i would say at this point if you don't like it they don't need any more negative reviews people let's not let's not you know no more on the pile no more on the pile stop he's already dead. I know. Thanks for hanging out with us. Thanks for joining us. Remember to rate the show on Spotify.

We're trying to get to that 2K rating. So if you haven't left us a five-star rating on Spotify, please remember to do that. On Apple, you can rate us and write us a review, like the ones we read at the beginning of the show. Come join our Discord community. If you'd like to play High Guard with us or other people or any other game out there, come join our gaming community.

It is family friendly. It is awesome. It is super active. I think we're almost at 1,300 games. are strong at this point. So it's a very active community as well. So come join the party and play games with us. That's going to do it for this episode, everybody. Until next time, happy gaming. Ryan, Ryan, Res me. Res me, resume. No, don't get shot, Ryan. See ya. Peace out.