Highguard immediately review-bombed as Steam rating plummets

New Free-to-Play raid shooter Highguard has been review-bombed on Steam right out of the gate. In mere hours since servers went live, it’s dropped to a ‘Mostly Negative’ label.

Highguard certainly didn’t enjoy the smoothest path to launch. Its major spotlight, capping off the 2025 Game Awards, arguably did more harm than good, as thousands of gamers all but turned sour on the F2P shooter based on its placement in the show.

Silence in the weeks leading up to launch did it no favors either, as discourse continued and many wrote the game off before getting the chance to play it. With thousands of minds already made up, it should come as no surprise then, that now, hours after the game’s launch, it’s being review-bombed.

Highguard has swiftly dropped to a Mostly Negative rating on Steam, with over 9,000 reviews already filed at the time of writing, a mere three hours after the floodgates opened.

Highguard players rush to review-bomb new F2P shooter

Of the more than 9,000 hasty reviews, a whopping 7,200 of them have a negative slant. Naturally, the vast majority of these reviews barely have an hour of total game time.

Some do look to offer legitimate criticism, providing reasons as to why they’re allegedly uninstalling the game already. In some cases, players have struggled with the 3v3 structure, calling it “wrong” for a shooter of this kind, insisting that lobbies should be much bigger.

Though of course, the vast majority we’ve seen instead take the opportunity to poke fun at Highguard, stemming from its month of silence as the discourse took root, and many made their minds up before playing.

“Utter garbage,” one review with under half an hour of game time read. “Awful, truly awful,” another chimed in with no further explanation.

One early player went as far as to question whether the game was, in fact, created by former Apex Legends developers. “The game lacks personality [and] also tries to be 10 different games in one.

“I want a refund, but I can’t since it’s free to play.”

Do take all of this early ‘criticism’ with a heaping pile of salt. As with many online shooters, it certainly takes more than a few rounds to find your footing and get a sense for it all. There’s every chance the Mostly Negative rating drops further as thousands more rush to share negative reviews.