Key Highlights:
- The Game Awards 2025 brought with it an exclusive reveal for Highguard, a free to play hero shooter from the team behind Apex Legends and Titanfall.
- The game was met with a rather disappointed reaction from most viewers.
- In a market oversaturated with hero shooters, its hard not to see why most aren’t interested.
The Game Awards 2025 was in a word, incredibly middling. The award show was panned by viewers worldwide due to its lack of any decent reveals, which was made exponentially worse when show host and creator Geoff Keighley revealed their ‘big secret’ for TGA, which turned out to be Highguard, a free to play hero shooter from the creators of Apex Legends and Titanfall.
The reveal has not been taken to kindly by most, and Highguard appears to be met with a severe look of disappointment from fans, which can be attributed to multiple factors, all tying to the hero shooter genre being way past its prime and of a general fatigue.
Players Disappointed With Highguard’s Reveal
It’s no secret that Geoff Keighley’s Game of The Year show for 2025 was middling at best. While the award ceremony went off without a hitch (along with some well deserved wins for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33), the rest of the contents could be said to be very disappointing.
Ranging from mediocre reveals to ad ridden showcases and cringey setpieces, there was a lot to dislike about this year’s The Game Awards. However, nothing was as disappointing as the reveal of Highguard, which a lot of players seemed to resonate with.
Indeed, social media has been strife with a bunch of complaints from ex Titanfall and Apex Legends fans, who were hoping for something a bit more substantial than yet another hero shooter in an already oversaturated market.
Even wonders like Marvel Rivals have been steadily declining, with the title losing a major chunk of its player base over the past few years, which is to be expected, if we’re being really honest here.
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Fatigue is a big issue, and we’ll never see a resurgence in the genre again, or atleast to these heights.
There’s also the fact that many were expecting a proper, single player focused Titanfall sequel, which was rumored to be in the works for quite some time now.
These two factors culminated in an epic wave of disappointment from fans, many of whom were looking forward to something truly breathtaking at the end.
The Hero Shooter Genre Is Getting Stale Now
We’ve had a good run with Overwatch, but it is time to put the genre to rest. Players have become increasingly tired of the same gameplay mechanics, convoluted progression system and the general idea of regurgitating middling products as AAA games.
The genre is way past its expiration date at this point, and it will only take a miracle to revive it at this point.
Highguard Needs to Bring Something Unique To The Table
That being said, Highguard needs to address a lot of things, starting with dealing with the fatigue built up over years of playing hero shooters. Highguard needs to bring a unique formula to the mix, with a hook that keeps players engaged, something that truly differentiates it from likes of Overwatch and Marvel Rivals.
Simply going free to play will not be enough. Highguard was likely conceived during the heights of the hero shooter genre, but if the team has something to being to the table that is really unique, it could work out.
