Revealed during The Game Awards 2025, Highguard is a new first-person shooter from some of the developers behind Apex Legends. Unfortunately, through no real fault of its own, Highguard received a somewhat mixed reaction upon its reveal, due to being the final reveal of the night.
You can check out the reveal trailer yourself below:
Sure, on the face of it, Highguard appears to be just another hero shooter. So, how will it stand out in an already crowded genre? Well, for me, being a high-fantasy/medieval-inspired hero shooter immediately gives it a point of difference. I mean what other game in this genre can you remember where you can ride a bear or a horse while also shooting a gun? Not to mention the development pedigree behind this gives me confidence that the gameplay itself should be on point.
Just like any live-service title or free-to-play game, success or failure hinges on Highguard‘s ability to maintain a high player count and deliver consistent content updates. One thing that will help is that Highguard will support cross-play and cross-progression from day one, according to a report by Games Radar. (Although I wasn’t able to find absolute confirmation of that directly myself.)
Microtransactions will be a concern for some people, and we don’t have any details on them just yet, but if they remain purely cosmetic, I don’t think it will be a problem.
Time will tell if Highguard can pull in an audience and be a long-term success, just like Apex Legends. Thankfully, we don’t have too long to wait before we can get our hands on Highguard, which will release on January 26th, 2026, on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
Sources: The Game Awards 2025, GamesRadar Article and Highguard official website.
