After close to a month of silence, following a controversial reveal at The Game Awards, you’ll finally be able to form your own opinion of embattled first-person shooter Highguard later today, when it releases on the PS Store for free.
It’s difficult to determine exactly why the game – developed by an all-star studio led by the creators of Apex Legends and Titanfall – has come under such intense scrutiny.
The online effort concluded last year’s aforementioned livestream, where it was bullishly introduced by Geoff Keighley, and looked a little generic at worst.
There is a general disdain for online shooters among the most vocal gaming enthusiasts, although we’ve seen releases like ARC Raiders thrive under the same conditions recently.
Highguard has received a lot of attention more recently as its social media account went dark for weeks following the game’s reveal, but after the title’s Trophies hit Sony’s servers last week, it’s since sprung back into life.
A livestream is planned later today, from 10AM PST / 6PM GMT, which will feature a deep dive into the experience and its “year one plans”.
The game will then be available to download and play, for free, on the PS5.
We suspect the studio is hoping that by putting the experience in peoples’ hands, it has enough confidence in the final product to silence the doubters.
It’s going to be fascinating to see, then, whether the shooter can turn around the negative sentiment that’s surrounded it since it was revealed.
Will you be giving it a go?