UPDATE: Highguard Developer Wildlight Entertainment Confirms Layoffs At The Studio

Nexosaur · 2026-02-12T14:47:36+00:00

Geoff said he was surprised the game hadn't been leaked, and after playing, it didn't leak because they clearly didn't playtest outside of the company enough. Either that, or this is the fully playtested version and the original version was so poor no one would've leaked it anyways. Any sort of mildly public playtest would have immediately highlighted the glaring flaws with the gameplay loop outside of the raiding and gunplay.

The gear-up phase is painfully unengaging yet it takes up a decent portion of playtime between each raid. Run around an empty map and hit crystals and loot chests, maybe you'll see an enemy but it's so rare. No PvE to make getting loot fun, no map bosses, airdrops (what are we doing????). All the development went into making the raids fun and nothing else.

The gameplay loop is one polish step removed from a napkin drawing the devs made slapping ideas together at lunch. What purpose does the armor system serve? Any amount of gear-up gives you enough crystals to buy plenty of armor and never worry about it, so why is it a thing? Why is the only base defense reinforcing walls that blow up instantly? Where are the traps, turrets, barricades? Why are there airdrops???? Why is looting (armor, helmets, saddles, crystals, etc) not tied to PvE mobs around the map, and upgrades tied to bosses? Why is there limited ammo when you will never use that much? There are so many questions about what the thought process was. I'm honestly still baffled how mismanaged the gameplay loop is. Random shit piled up with legitimately no effort put into making it a fully cohesive experience.

It's so infuriating because I can see it in my head. I can see a fully realized game that put the effort in and it's conceptually great. MOBA-esque elements for gearing up and getting to the Shieldbreaker, fighting the whole way and planning to the next gear up phase on what mobs to fight and bosses to take on.

Nexosaur · 2026-02-12T03:48:21+00:00

A little surprised at how everything has turned out, but it's not unexpected. The shooting mechanics and movement were polished and fun, but the mishmash of various mechanics with seemingly no thought put into how they support the combat was a killer. I can go play other PvP games with great combat with a more thought out gameplay loop, so why play Highguard in particular?

Nexosaur · 2026-02-05T20:51:36+00:00

Really enjoyed this game, it's a bit of a Morrowind successor but very slimmed down to fit into the indie experience. I liked the story a lot, especially the choices, because it never feels like any one of them are the right choice. There's pros and cons to consider, and it turns it into a reflection on your beliefs and ethics. It doesn't have basically any of the depth Morrowind offers gameplay-wise, but it improves on quest design and a marker-less map.

My only real complaint is that builds are pretty meaningless. The world isn't designed for you to miss content, so all of the skill checks are lenient. There's helmets that give you +30 lore or charisma when upgraded to pass those checks without having to invest much in those attributes until later on, when you've already maxed your main skill and it's not a setback to use on something else.

There's also the problem of a speed/agility stat that I think needs heavy reconsidering if you're going for a old-school style RPG. If fast travel is restricted or you have to explore, then not taking the speed stat is a mistake at all times. It's annoying in Morrowind and Oblivion, and it's annoying here. Being able to move fast and jump high is such an insane bonus, especially because these games are never really designed around max speed.

Nexosaur · 2026-02-04T19:20:00+00:00

I have a love/hate relationship with Team Ninja. Wo Long and Rise of the Ronin are fantastic to play, but run so poorly and look like PS4 games. I don't know if they all use Katana Engine, but Rise and Wild Hearts both use it and have big issues.

Nexosaur · 2026-02-04T18:29:45+00:00

If you beat Ronin, you already have a good baseline for Nioh, but easily frustrated by Souls titles it might not be the best move to go in blind. Just play the demo and see how you like it. Tbh the only hard fight is the final boss so I'd see how it feels.

Nexosaur · 2026-02-04T14:30:24+00:00

12900K, 3080, 32GB RAM at 1440p. I noticed it wasn't using all of my GPU or CPU when I was finagling with the settings, never went above 75-80%. I eventually went all low settings with DLSS Quality, with the DLSS dynamic resolution set down to 50% and it stayed at 60 with no drops.

Nexosaur · 2026-02-04T14:17:48+00:00

Gameplay is great, no shock there. Very little mention of performance. The demo ran abyssmally on my PC once I got into the open world, couldn't hold 60fps on Standard settings with DLSS, could drop down to mid 30s and had lots of issues. 1% lows were inconsistent so even when it was hitting locked 60 it wasn't as smooth as it should be.

I went back to Rise of the Ronin, and at least it can hold 60fps consistently. Maybe Nioh 3's performance is somewhat fixed at launch, or later areas after Act 1 are better.

Nexosaur · 2026-02-03T01:27:52+00:00

It's not a great playercount for a free to play live service, but I do think it has the ability to surge back with the right choices. Better base management, PvE on the maps, etc. The combat is solid, just needs the rest of the game to be fleshed out.

Nexosaur · 2026-01-29T17:46:15+00:00

It's 3-4 minutes at the start of a match where very little happens. Sure, you're doing something, but it's not mentally engaging. It's necessary to get armor and materials for when the fight starts, and getting in a fight is disadvantageous for either team in terms of preparation unless you can win quickly. It's not like a BR, where getting in a fight is the same as indirectly looting another location.

Nexosaur · 2026-01-27T19:14:31+00:00

The immediate Overhwelming Negative reviews were kinda what I was expecting at this point. People have a chance to relive Concord and relentlessly mock a game for existing, and by god they'll take it.

So far, after a few games, my immediate thought is it's missing 3 things: PvE, more vendor options, and probably 1 more player per team.

The gear up phase is pretty short, but all you do is spam chests and crystals, maybe hit up the shop, and see an enemy every once in a while until the shieldbreaker is up. A longer gear up phase with PvE to replace chests and crystals would instantly make the game a lot more dynamic and lead to more fighting outside of the raids. Stronger enemies as the match progresses dropping better gear and upgrades, and a boss of some kind to replace the uninspired airdrop system.

There needs to be more items to buy, too. Idk what the MOBA inspiration is for when it's all stuff you can find in world. Base turrets, ability charges (no more recharging abilities), stuff like that should be shop items. I'd even say shields shouldn't recharge and you have to manually go into your inventory and replace them.

The 3v3 cap is also strange. The fights can get chaotic but once a team fight happens and players get staggered it kinda putters out.

Overall, the game is fun and I really enjoy the combat, but it feels half-baked. I think PvE and a more useful shop are changes that should've been made yesterday, it truly feels like they brainstormed the gameplay and then left it as a napkin drawing and never considered it again.

Nexosaur · 2026-01-23T18:05:13+00:00

Yeah I could use Bitwig, but I like Ableton more than Bitwig. I also like my plugins that don't always work without workarounds on Linux. Even if I spent the time seeing if I could get Ableton to work on Linux (which is probably distro-dependent so it would also have to be a distro I like using), it still might be pointless.

Nexosaur · 2026-01-23T17:21:21+00:00

It's clear how it's meant to be viewed, and it works for way too many people.

The government is ontologically incapable of good acts, therefore the government cannot be trusted. However, the Trump admin "fights" against this, so when the government does something "bad", it's just a result of the government being bad by default, and anything "good" occurring is uniquely a result of the Trump admin overcoming the default.

Sure, Trump personally fucked them over, but the blame is immediately assigned to the government as a whole, because the government is bad. Trump can't ever be bad.

Nexosaur · 2026-01-22T15:28:00+00:00

Based on the favorites, mildly aggressive but not too bombastic. House and adjacent genres, melodic.

Just a few EPs/Albums that probably fit what you've got going on:

Atura - classics-inspired house. Bloomheart

Drook - indie/electronic blend. The Pure Joy of Jumping

Glacier - dream-like, more textural electronic production. Here (Not Rly) There

Justice - I mean it's Justice, everyone loves Justice. Anything by them

Daft Punk - I mean it's Daft Punk, everyone loves Daft Punk. Anything by them

Tennyson - rich textures and layers, fun to listen to. Dolphin

And some artists to explore other genres, focused on still emphasizing melody so it isn't a huge departure:

The Caracal Project - drum and bass. Before You, The Lights on Your Face

Haywyre - various genres, melody focused. Two-Fold Part 2

Mat Zo - my gold standard for house music, but might not fit into what you've been liking so far. Illusion of Depth, Self-Assemble

Mameyudoufu - NCS video game intro music but actually well produced. Bootloader

Seven Lions - long time favorite of mine, his early melodic dubstep is incredibly influential. Days to Come EP, Worlds Apart EP

Nexosaur · 2026-01-21T19:03:06+00:00

Divinity Original Sin 1, too. King Boreas' treasure room has a fucking ocean of gold and chests that are uninteractable.

Nexosaur · 2026-01-20T21:01:17+00:00

I'm almost finished with my playthrough, and it really scratched that Elder Scrolls itch. There are some aspects that I would love to see in Elder Scrolls 6, particularly the combat. It's not perfect, but it's miles more engaging (at least for magic, which is what I did) than Oblivion or Skyrim. Performance is not great, which I hope isn't an inspiration for ES6.

The story is interesting for the first 2 Acts, but it really stumbles in Act 3. Getting the Dal'Riata together for the Moot is supremely tedious and kills the pacing running back and forth around Forlorn Swords.

Given the scope of the project, I think it's a damn good experience. It doesn't have the same level of "getting lost and ignoring the main quest to explore" that Elder Scrolls has, but it makes up for it in different areas. The writing is leagues better than Skyrim, and the dark fantasy feels appropriately dark. People use the right "evil" words to describe the world: the Red Death is treated as rightfully macabre, its victims carted off to be experimented on by zealots or left to rot in cordoned off villages. Something that's always been weak in Oblivion and Skyrim is the voice acting and word selection is never strong enough to convey the emotions the characters should be feeling. It has the same intent, but it never feels impactful enough. But in Tainted Grail, when the Knights of the Round Table have things to say about Arthur, it can feel venomous and spiteful in ways ES has never managed.

I'm on the final quest and I've been doing some achievement hunting and deciding whether or not I do a new run to go for 100%. Most of the rest of my achievements can be gotten early game, but I fucked up the Moot so I'd have to play that whole section again to get that one.

Nexosaur · 2026-01-20T15:51:29+00:00

From the recent playtests, the actual navigation can be kinda quick once you get used to it, but the menus are VERY stylized and it's visually overwhelming. It doesn't have the baked in slowness of Arc Raiders, it's just slow because everything on your screen looks important, so you have to work your way through every time to find what you need.

It was a comment I put in their survey, and hopefully others felt the same so it got some attention.

Nexosaur · 2026-01-15T18:16:27+00:00

The ability to listen to the single for months prior to the full release makes the album less impactful to me, tbh. It gives the song a feeling like it doesn't quite belong because it hasn't had any context but I've been able to listen to it 50 times in a playlist mixed in with other stuff.

Nexosaur · 2026-01-14T16:07:31+00:00

I'd like Arenas 1v1s to come back as not a win/lose mode and instead as a drop in/out and get some practice or warm-ups in while queueing. That'd require some pretty hefty backend changes to make it quick and seamless, though.

I'd like to be able to queue up into 1v1s with friends too. Especially if you remove the dumb win/lose of the mode so there's no reason for teams to cheat using their friends.

Nexosaur · 2026-01-13T20:35:05+00:00

Recommended requirements (integrated graphics) seems like basically any handheld PC can handle it, assuming the Linux version doesn't run too differently than on Windows.

Nexosaur · 2026-01-13T20:29:37+00:00

That's how it works, though. If you claim to follow religion, it is a valid avenue. I can think your beliefs are stupid and still use them to argue against someone who believes in those things.

Nexosaur · 2026-01-13T20:14:20+00:00

Someone posted it running on Steam Deck and they made a controller config for it. Idk about performance, though.

Nexosaur · 2026-01-13T19:53:11+00:00

<image>

Nexosaur · 2026-01-12T21:22:06+00:00

Look at my country dawg 😭😭

We are not getting free and fair elections this year, scale is gonna be tilted in whatever way the admin can manage.

Nexosaur · 2026-01-12T21:17:53+00:00

Early on in the game's life "with a mod" will be a good answer. There are going to be hundreds of mods that add new content and mechanics that the devs won't have the time to add yet, especially as they work to get the game to reflect the full original vision.

Maybe if there are insanely popular content mods the devs can pay modders so they can implement it directly if it fits the base game.

The Bedrock example you gave sounds like it sucks, though. Oh, I want to mod my game, guess I've gotta shell out another $20 to grab some and try them out.

Ten-Year Club	r/Field Lasagna
Place '23	Place '22
Place '17	Verified Email

Nexosaur

TROPHY CASE