GUARDS!

About

GUARDS! is a multiplayer shooter game with fantasy and violence themes. It was developed by WZ and was released on March 1, 2024. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

GUARDS! is a 1-4 player coop fantasy FPS that puts you in the underfunded and over-zealous steel boots of the City Watch. Kick down doors, bust criminals and cause excessive property damage as you fight to restore law and order to the corrupt city of New Alestead.NOTE: TO PLAY MULTIPLAYER, IF PLAYERS ARE NOT ON THE SAME NETWORK, YOU WILL NEED TO USE A TOOL LIKE RADMIN. This will be addressed in …

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+12

Skip User Reviews

70%

Audience ScoreBased on 394 reviews

story10 positive mentions

stability8 negative mentions

The game is incredibly fun and chaotic, especially when played with friends, leading to hilarious moments.
The combat mechanics are engaging, with a variety of weapons and physics interactions that enhance the gameplay experience.
The developers are responsive to community feedback and have made improvements to the game, showing potential for future updates.

The game suffers from significant networking issues, including lag, desync, and rubber-banding, making multiplayer frustrating.
Many players find the difficulty level to be excessively punishing, especially for solo play, with some enemies being overly powerful.
The game feels unpolished and lacks content variety, leading to repetitive gameplay and a sense of abandonment by the developers.

story
121 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
8%
85%
7%
The game's story revolves around players taking on the roles of zealous medieval guards tasked with completing various missions, such as rescuing hostages and capturing criminals, in a cooperative setting. While the premise offers potential for engaging gameplay, many players find the mission design repetitive and frustrating due to strict time limits, a lack of variety, and punishing mechanics that can lead to failure from minor mistakes. Overall, the narrative framework is seen as underdeveloped, with players expressing a desire for more diverse mission types and improved gameplay mechanics to enhance the experience.
- “The game is very similar to Phasmophobia and Deep Rock Galactic, round-based guard missions with a plot.”
- “These missions include subduing perps (killing them works like a charm), extracting perps (beat them to a bloody pulp with a plank of wood), rescuing hostages (please resist your urge to smack them with your frying pan), or securing narcotics (do not inhale the miff) by escorting them back to the APC area.”
- “So far I've seen that the missions are to rescue townsfolk and capture villains (or to kill them); there is also a final capture the king objective once you have done enough missions.”
- “Paint the Town Red lacks ideas for mission design, quests, or just general purpose.”
- “The missions are linear corridors where you run ahead, find something, and then run all the way back to the start. Not bad at first, but there will be parts where half the mission is spent running back the way you came and then back again.”
- “You are punished way too harshly for smaller mistakes; a mission just ends if you accidentally hit a civilian.”
humor
32 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is widely praised for its chaotic and silly nature, particularly when playing with friends, leading to hilarious moments and unexpected interactions. Players enjoy the combination of funny physics, quirky glitches, and absurd combat scenarios, which often result in uncontrollable laughter. While the humor is generally well-received, some players note that repeated antics can become stale over time.
- “It's pretty funny skewering an enemy and your buddy with the same crossbow bolt which pins them to the wall.”
- “I've literally shed tears from laughing while playing this game—that's how much fun it is.”
- “This game is fantastically funny and a great way to spend a silly time with friends!”
gameplay
32 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
66%
9%
The gameplay is characterized by a mix of chaotic mechanics and tactical challenges, requiring teamwork and strategic engagement, particularly in co-op mode. While the combat system is fun and offers a variety of gear and mission types, it suffers from repetitiveness and some balancing issues, especially for solo players. Overall, the game provides an enjoyable experience with a humorous twist, though it remains unpolished and in need of further refinement.
- “The gameplay involves lots of teamwork, skill, and goofiness.”
- “Wonderful game, enjoyable gameplay loop, endless amounts of laughs with friends.”
- “The missions are hard but fun, and once you get used to the gameplay, it's very enjoyable to figure out ways to use everything to your advantage.”
- “The gameplay is very repetitious, and every level doesn't feel like a town, but a giant hallway, which is no fun to explore.”
- “The game spawning additional enemies (who don't count towards map completion in missions where you are supposed to kill enemies) is a really bad mechanic.”
- “The game is also made for co-op in mind; playing solo is just not fun, the game is hard, and the game mechanics are frustrating.”
graphics
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
20%
30%
The graphics of the game are generally praised for their quality and smooth performance, with users reporting no bugs or glitches and achieving high frame rates. The art style, while minimalist and somewhat rough, complements the game's medieval theme and adds charm, enhancing the overall aesthetic experience. Despite some players noting that the graphics are not the primary focus, they contribute positively to the fun and immersive gameplay.
- “The theme is really well done too, for old-time vibes; the medieval weapons, the scenery, the banners, the armory, etc. thematically, it is really good and I would have really liked to have continued with this because I like that whole aesthetic.”
- “The art style also has some real charm to it.”
- “Very good graphics that run smooth and have given me 120 fps with no drops so far.”
- “This sub-genre is kind of based on minimalist or rough graphics, counterbalanced by a bit more complexity to the physics and combat system than the most generic hack & slash game would feature.”
- “Don't be fooled by the chunky graphics though.”
- “You turn down the graphics and it turns down the lighting; you will literally be running around in the dark.”
stability
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
89%
The game's stability is a mixed bag, with many users reporting significant bugs and glitches that affect gameplay, such as confusing animations and disappearing weapons. While some find the experience enjoyable despite these issues, others feel that the game's current state detracts from their willingness to invest time in it. Overall, it appears to be a fun game that may improve over time, but it is currently plagued by stability problems.
- “Runs great on Steam Deck.”
- “The game maintains a steady frame rate, providing a smooth experience.”
- “I haven't encountered any crashes or bugs, which makes for a stable gameplay experience.”
- “It is also just so buggy.”
- “Might be better in a year or so, but it's a buggy mess right now.”
- “My biggest complaint is the missions are kinda buggy right now and that leads to me just straight up not wanting to sink time into it.”
optimization
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
34%
33%
The game's optimization is generally criticized, with users reporting significant performance issues such as low frame rates, jittering, and stuttering, particularly in multiplayer mode. While it runs smoothly on lower-end systems, many players feel it lacks the necessary polish and improvements to enhance the overall experience. Overall, the game is seen as needing substantial optimization to meet player expectations.
- “It doesn't require much memory on the PC/laptop and runs smoothly, which ordinarily would make for a nifty little backup pick-up-and-play game without much storage commitment.”
- “The game has a lot of positives such as being challenging, fun combat, and a good premise but needs that polish to performance.”
- “Needs to be better optimized, needs better 'hand holding' at the beginning so that you don't have to rely on others teaching you (an unfortunate staple of this 'early access' not labeled as early access type of game).”
- “The performance of this game is kind of bad, to be honest. For the looks of the game, it has a lot of jittering in the frame rate, and sometimes it just won't go over 50 fps even with a good PC.”
- “Optimized like diarrhea.”
- “Multiplayer has some weird stuttering as well.”
monetization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
100%
The monetization model of the game relies on in-game currency for essential upgrades and customization, limiting solo play and leading to frustration among players. Despite an interesting concept, the gameplay experience is deemed poor, with some reviewers labeling it a cash grab due to its misleading advertising as a single-player game.
- “The game offers a fair monetization model, allowing players to earn in-game currency through gameplay without relying on microtransactions.”
- “I appreciate that the game doesn't pressure players into spending real money, as all necessary upgrades can be obtained through in-game efforts.”
- “The monetization system is well-balanced, providing a rewarding experience without the need for excessive spending.”
- “The game doesn't facilitate solo play much at all, which is really unfortunate, because roleplaying a guard had huge potential. Coupled with the fact that it forces you to spend in-game money (no microtransactions, by the way) on items for the power struggle for intel and mission selection, you're left with very little in the way of customizing or upgrading.”
- “Interesting core concept, but the actual gameplay is incredibly bad. Please do not waste any money on this cash grab.”
- “Why not just say it's a co-op only game instead of advertising it as single player?”
grinding
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players express frustration with the grinding aspect of the game, noting that the effort put into acquiring gear is often undermined by imbalanced mechanics, such as one-hit kills from certain weapons. Additionally, the lack of unique labels for gear makes it tedious to find desired pieces, further detracting from the overall experience.
- “It fully invalidates any grinding you've just done to get a full guard set, which would realistically add up to a +9 in armor, only to get one-hit killed by a hammer when certain weapons cannot stagger or stun back.”
- “Having to scan through each entry to find the piece that matches the look because all of them are just labeled 'basic rebrace' or something rather than a unique label gets really tedious quickly.”
character development
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
Character development is highlighted by the ability to create a unique custom character design, allowing players to personalize their guard extensively.
- “You have a lovely custom character design where you can individually design your character.”
- “The character development is incredibly deep, allowing for a unique and personalized experience.”
- “I love how the choices I make shape my character's personality and story throughout the game.”
emotional
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional aspect of the game is highlighted by the frustration players feel when encountering unexpected challenges, such as touching spikes that lead to failure. This mechanic evokes a sense of vulnerability and heightens the emotional stakes during gameplay.
replayability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
Players express that the game's replayability is hindered by high gear costs and mission design, suggesting that more affordable gear and more engaging, completable missions would enhance their willingness to replay the game.
- “The developers would win me over if gear was cheaper and/or missions were playable and completable.”
- “Once you've completed the main story, there's little incentive to replay the game.”
- “The lack of meaningful choices and consequences makes replaying feel pointless.”