Highguard's already a failure (Pt. III)

2026-01-30 18:13:08

        Highguard has released by the time I'm writing Pt III here and it's very apparent that the game is, as predicted, a major disappointment. Since we know how the story is very likely going to end at this point, harping on the terrible trailer isn't going to provide much in the way of discourse. I'll wrap up my thoughts quickly and this time I'll mean it...unlike part II.

We're shown some action scenes in the next few seconds after the 1:00 mark that don't really mean anything since no one had played it at the time. There's a sword that shows up and a voice that yells out "Shieldbreaker forming!". We are left to assume that the sword is the shieldbreaker. All fine and good but since no one really knows the importance of the weapon yet, it's kind of a "cool story bro" situation.

In the next scene we see another bit of continuity error. The three players are coming over a hill on their mounts, jump off, then start shooting straight ahead at an enemy off screen. The scene cuts to the FPV of Highguard-kun and he's shooting off at an angle. Not a big deal in the grand scheme but as I stated in Part II, I'm already primed to nit-pick this trailer.

Highguard-kun runs up to a bit column type structure and shoves the sword into it, presumably this being the purpose of the shieldbreaker...to break a shield...huh...who knew? Highguard-kun says...something when he breaks the sword off in the key. After listening to it a few times I think he says "Siege tower coming in!" A great beam of light then appears behind the character and opens up to bring some massive vehicle through. This is the first time I was interested in the gameplay that I'm seeing so far. I was very interested in what things are you going to have to do to get the siege tower working. I was thinking having each player activate a lever or hold a point or something while the tower moves and attacks. We'll find out in a minute.

In the meantime, a small detour to another nit-pick. At the 1:40 mark we cut to a view behind a character inside the shield. And this, unsurprisingly, really bothered me. This animation that plays makes no sense. I think the character we're looking at is Sniper-chan from earlier in the video. She pulls out a small kunai type weapon but the animation plays like she's whipping around a much bigger weapon like a broadsword. It just doesn't *feel* like a good animation when it doesn't match what you are holding.

Anyways, back to the siege tower and all the puzzles and objectives that will be necessary to complete before it will break...oh...wait...no...it just seems to hit the shield once and now you're inside the enemy base. I dunno, maybe there is more to this aspect that they didn't show in the trailer but it certainly doesn't seem that way.

Moving right along we see some overhead view of the battle as the shield is breached. Could be a cool ability, just gotta make sure you're in a safe place before you PoV the bird. The camera zooms in one some cool looking ice minotaur dude saying "It's my turn!" all gravely like. I hate these sayings..."It's my turn!"? My dude...my brother in labyrinth, where have you been this entire match if you're turn is just starting now? You wait until the enemy is not only inside the gates, but destroyed them? You're a jerk for waiting this long for your "turn".

Next we see highguard-kun yelling up in the air launching rockets at walls and throwing lightning spear things. Kinda cool, no one reacts. We switch back to someone I think we saw earlier in Part I. He looks like a big beefy boy. Let's see what awesome thing he does.

He stomps his foot and screams! Big 'ol power burst from him seems like he's really powering up for something cool! The walls in front of him explode! His hands turn into these giant claw things! They're glowing red! He pulls out a sixshooter!! GruGivingADoubleTake.png. What...that's it? He...he pulls out a gun? And shoots with it...what was up with all the yelling and screaming? I shouldn't be surprised at this point. His gun wasn't even reloaded! The animation that plays right after that is to reload the gun.

To be fair...it's a pretty cool reload. It's a six shooter and he reloads two bullets at a time. Then proceeds to rapid fire...wait...how many shots was that? Nine...he shoots nine rounds from a six shooter...without reloading. Yes I slowed the trailer down to count. I guess we're back to the infinite bullet rules of the 80's action flicks. Which, don't get me wrong, would be amazing if the game leaned into that camp. But somehow I don't think that's what this game is going for. The scene cuts and we get what I assume to be a replay of the previous few seconds except different...our bear boy here only shoots four times this time before stopping. What in the continuity?!

Mercifully we're coming up to the end of the trailer. A big explosion happens, presumably at the enemy base we were just attacking. Now...I'm not sure...but our bear boy is making a motion with his hand that seems...not the best. I dunno, I don't watch to breach the topic because I have to assume they didn't intend for this but...it seems like he might be doing a majorly inappropriate hand motion if you grew up in the 90's. I'll just leave it super vague like that.

We wrap up with Highguard-kun saying "I am a Warden, and this is my oath." What is? What are you oath-ed to do? what the hell does a Warden do? You just blew up someone else's home. Presumably they are also Wardens because they are playable characters...so...Warden oaths are to blow up other Warden bases? That seems rather self-defeating doesn't it? What are you Warding against if not other Wardens? I literally didn't see any other moving objects aside from players in the match just now.

Overall...this game is going to fail. There's just nothing here. Having the benefit of writing this a few days after the game released, there's also a lot of reports of bugs, performance issues, the game straight up lying about the resolution it's being played at, and so, so much more. Is this possible that this could be a No Man's Sky recovery? Or even a Cyberpunk 2077? I don't personally think so. But to be fair, I honestly didn't think No Man's Sky was coming back either and look at that scrappy lad now so anything is possible I guess. This studio doesn't have a major publish like Microslop or EA behind it pushing nothing but line must go up so there's a chance.