We've been fearing the worst for Highguard since studio Wildlight Entertainment underwent mass layoffs mere weeks after the shooter launched and the website mysteriously went down. It seems there's barely a flicker of hope for the FPS, and yet the latest update is actually adding more features rather than spelling its demise - and promising another patch in the coming days.
No, really. According to a post on Steam, a new map and tool are being added "later this week." The location is called Cloudreach, and it's an airship hangar with a ship docked for maintenance, giving plenty of strategic opportunities. In the description, it's noted the defending team in a regular match gets the high-ground, while there are vents and other areas for more close-quarters engagement.
As for the new equipment, it's a lockpick that lets you open doors and windows from a distance. You can use it in your loadout, or find one scattered within the map for temporary use, and it adds darts as an ammo type as well.
Beyond these, the trader now offers seven times instead of five, and Gentle Giant is the latest mount. Some cosmetics are being put in as well. On top of all this, we get a little snippet of next week's offering, too.
"We aim to bring a new game mode focused on the Raid experience, as well as some balance adjustments to weapons, among other things," the post reads.
This is all likely material that was already complete before Wildlight's staff was significantly reduced, and there's a non-zero chance even the article outlining the update was primed weeks ago. It was confirmed that a "core group" of devs were being retained to continue supporting Highguard, and we can probably expect they'll at least push however much of the roadmap is ready to go before more substantive decisions are made.
