What Deadlock's Street Brawl reveals about Highguard's 'kitchen-sink' ruleset
PC Gamer writer Justin says Highguard’s sprawling, “kitchen-sink” ruleset feels overwrought after comparing it to Deadlock’s new Street Brawl mode, which pares gameplay down to rapid, single-lane rounds. Highguard alternates big, open-world moments—farming Vesper (money but blue) and horseback skirmishes—with an objective phase where teams grab and escort the Shieldbreaker, then a cramped siege where you plant bombs and breach walls.
The horse-based thrills often evaporate once matches funnel into the tight base fights. Justin argues the game tries to mix MOBA-style roleplay, battle-royale scavenging, and siege tactics but misses the appeal of each: time-to-kill is “too short for strategic, MOBA-like exchanges, but too long” for satisfying shootouts, health regen and tough shields elongate fights, and each character only has one non-ultimate ability.
Open maps also blunt the tension of farming Vesper, leaving downtime with few surprises. He says he wished Highguard would lean into its best bits—riding, Shieldbreaker fights, and wall-crashing—or offer focused modes (a dedicated CTF, he suggests). By contrast, Deadlock’s Street Brawl condenses matches into quick rounds where everyone piles into one lane, the first team to take a tower wins, you return to buy items, then repeat—likened to ARAM in League of Legends, but with its own twists like dropping pianos on players.
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