Ahead of its August 23rd release, we finally got our hands on Concord, the live-action character shooter from Firewalk Studios. Sony’s massive multiplayer gamble wasn’t met with the best first impressions when it debuted on Game statebut after spending some time with the game, is it shaping up to be the live service’s next hit?
Confidence is the name of the game here, and despite the public’s supposed attitude towards hero shooters, Concord packs all the graphical and musical bombast you’d expect from a Sony first-person experience. We’re nuts about good UI and menu design, and Concord has it all in a bowl, and there’s a certain “big job” energy about it all that we found infectious.
The beta includes access to three modes, four maps, all 16 characters, and a selection of unlockable cosmetics – none of which will carry over to the full release. What we have here is essentially Team Deathmatch, Kill Confirmed and a round-based Capture the Point mode. There’s nothing you haven’t played before, so where Concord tries to differentiate itself is in its characters and gameplay.
The first-person shooter is incredibly tight and reminiscent of Destiny 2’s floating gameplay in places – which is no surprise given the ex-Bungie talent on board Firewalk. Across all 16 characters, you have your typical tank, healer, aggressor, and support archetypes, but where Concord excels is in the play cycles you’ll find in each character.
Teo is all about using smoke bombs to reduce visibility and then using his scope to spot enemies and finish them off with his cluster bomb. 1-Off sends out his Garbage Barrel Bombs to harass enemies, using his vacuum to protect the squad. Jabali is a frontline healer who can tick off enemy health with his search rifle, heal the team with his healing aura, and deal decent damage with his hunting orbs.
The list goes on, but like any good character shooter, the fun lies in playing your role and rooting for your team, something that was surprisingly present in our randomly matched sessions over the weekend. Of course, there will be favorites like the high-damage Haymar or the self-healing Lennox, but it was nice to see such a variety of selections in the matches, with no clear leaders. Firewalk seems to have created a balanced roster of characters, each with something to offer.
The most surprising aspect of Concord, however, is how it manages to strike a balance between a character shooter with long kill times and rotating targets and an arena shooter like XDefiant where you can still rack up impressive killstreaks.
It is in this fundamental change that we think Concord could thrive because it’s a defining game cycle that we just couldn’t get enough of. Abilities recharge pretty quickly and can be replenished after kills, so there’s a much more dynamic feel to the battlefield. We’re incredibly guilty of holding on to our ‘right moment’ abilities in hero shooters, but here every moment is the right moment – and even if it isn’t, you won’t be penalized too much for it.
Health is also a big factor in all of this. Your health won’t regenerate naturally, so instead you’ll need to visit one of the few health pickup points or rely on a healing teammate. It’s not something we were too keen on to begin with, but it ends up affecting how you play and adds another string of tension to Concord’s bow.
It’s a fantastic start to a game we’re in here Pooh Square we’re incredibly excited, but after spending time with the beta, there are still a number of things we’re not sure about. On the one hand, if you’ve played the beta, you’ll have done a lot of levels, but it’s not really clear what you’re leveling for. Daily, weekly, and seasonal challenges award XP, which levels up your profile, but completing matches also levels up your specific character. The focus seems to be on cosmetics, but if what we have here is any indication of what’s to come, it’s definitely sparse. Fortunately, there will also be Freegunner challenges that can unlock character variants with different passive abilities, which we think will be a good reason to stick around for “one more game.”
Then there are the weekly vignettes. What we’ve witnessed so far are some high-quality cutscenes that perhaps lack any defining features. They’re just there at the moment, but we’d hardly expect to fall in love with these characters of the day, period. We’re extremely interested to see how sustainable and how effective this approach to storytelling is, because from the little tidbits we’ve had so far, Firewalk is clearly trying to build a sprawling story.
Honestly, though, our biggest issue with Concord is that its current modes don’t last long enough for us to really get into the action. TDM and Kill Confirmed modes only require 30 points for each team and are often over within five minutes. We obviously don’t have access to the full list of modes right now, but hopefully something more substantial will be available at launch. As it stands, his matches are too small, when things really heat up, they’re over.
The Concord is a delightfully lively and robust shooter that almost feels ready to go. During the beta weekend, there were no server crashes, game lags, issues, or anything like that. It’s a polished experience that feels ready to join the Sony pantheon, and we think players should give it a shot. Is this the most original take on the character shooter genre yet? No, but it’s a polished and premium product that already has a solid foundation to grow on. There are some questions that we suspect won’t be answered until the full release, and we’d like to tease a bit more, but right now Concord has just shot to the top of our most anticipated.
Have you checked out the Concord beta? What are your thoughts so far? Let us know about your Freegunning activities in the comments below.
