It’s been a week and change since Highguard’s release day, and general consensus was in the rough ballpark of “it’s okay, but it’s gonna need some updates.” Apparently, Wildlight’s devs took that as a personal challenge. The game’s already risen from “Mostly Negative” to “Mixed” reviews, and the game is (quite literally) just getting started.
After adding a highly-requested game mode just days after launch, the game is also on the verge of its first major content update. Highlights include a whole new map, a new character, and another new gamemode – though this one’s less of a surprise than 5v5.
Will these changes be enough to bring the game up from the trenches of the Game Awards fiasco? Perhaps not by themselves; performance optimization remains a high priority, and that issue isn’t one that ‘Episode 2‘ aims to tackle.
Highguard ‘Episode 2’ Brings These Additions Tomorrow
‘Ekon’ is the name of Highguard’s new Warden, a classic combination of a monster-slayer and a werewolf in one. He’ll be able to sense injured enemies through walls, and unleash a wolf spirit to hunt down nearby enemies. This will let Ekon sense the hunted player, and his Ultimate ability applies that same effect to all enemies regardless of location.
The new map is called ‘Skydrift’, a network of floating islands for players to fight over. It’ll be available for both 3v3 and 5v5 play.
And as for that new gamemode: it’s Ranked! Ranked mode is a 3v3 format, and offers the standard player-rank-climbing experience you can find in most pvp games. What’s interesting is how transparent the devs are about exactly how your rank will go up or down.
For example: in ranked mode, winning as a solo player will net more points than if you party up with two of your buddies in a voice chat. Similarly, you’ll lose fewer points if the game goes south if you’re a solo player. And that’s just one of the many variables you can read about in the patch notes.
There’s also a suite of smaller features to help out your experience. For example: Ranked mode also adds a new cosmetic: banner frames, that display your rank to players across the game.
A new mount type will also be added: you can ride a wolf into battle! A basic one will be given to all players for free, like the starter horse, bear, and panther. Presumably, there will be versions of the wolf mount available with more flair as paid cosmetics.
There’s also a lifetime stat screen! You’ll be able to track how often you’ve successfully defended your base during a raid, among other things.
Finally the game will also be getting a bunch of quality-of-life features. You’ll see your killcount in a game just above your minimap, many more things are pingable, the game reacts more visibly when sending friend requests, and more. All small things, with the idea of making your game experience just a little sweeter.
However, you don’t technically have to wait until tomorrow to see new Highguard content. Wildlight has also released a story cinematic, something the comments have judged as “what the game should have shown at the Game Awards”.
And a piece of Episode 1 will be sticking around for some time, too. Those seven ‘quests’ the game launched with will remain available, alongside new ones for Episode 2.
