I can’t help but feel some sympathy for Firewalk Studios and Concord. This one game is saddled with three of the heaviest burdens in gaming: competing as a new live-service game, being a competitive hero shooter, and living up to the standards of a PlayStation first-party game. This initial beta features all of the characters that will be included at launch, four different game modes, a couple of maps, and one little story vignette. While there are plenty of things that can and will be tweaked up until, and after, launch, I believe we’re seeing what the core of Concord is, and it’s good.
The problem is that good isn’t good enough for success in today’s market where a new game has to somehow find a way to rip people away from other games they’ve already invested years of their lives. Concord has a strong core once you get into its flow and find your character, but the modes and progression aren’t created equal. I’m interested enough in seeing more for now, but struggle to see it holding many people’s attention for the long term.
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Meet the Freegunners
Not just Overwatch at home
A major flaw with this first beta that won’t exist upon launch is the lack of any tutorial. Concord will launch with 16 characters, all of which are in this beta. Each one has a unique weapon (or two), two skills, and slightly different movement options. Without any way to even go into an empty map to test out how each character moves, shoots, and their abilities work, you’re forced to read a quick description and toss yourself into the fire to learn mid-match. I won’t rail against this as hard as I normally would since the game does reference a tutorial that is simply not available during the beta, but it feels like that should’ve been a priority to include in a beta period.
Once you know and understand a specific character’s kit, there’s a lot of fun to be had mastering it.
Heroes in Concord are delightfully unique and varied. I wasn’t able to deeply play every single one, but did interact with each of them long enough to see that no two were a copy of another. Lennox (my completely unbiased favorite for no reason in particular) uses a pair of pistols, an explosive throwing knife, and a self-heal, while Haymar uses a handheld crossbow, has a blinding grenade, and can create flame walls. Once you know and understand a specific character’s kit, there’s a lot of fun to be had mastering it.
On a base level, Concord looks and feels great. Graphically the game is a treat, from the menus to the models and maps. Every character has a great sense of style and looks great in motion, and the lighting and identity of the maps are clean and readable. Unlike some other hero shooters, which are filled with visual noise and screen pollution, even in the most intense moments I never felt overwhelmed with particles and effects going off to the point where I couldn’t read the situation. The same goes for the gunplay. Aiming and shooting is perfectly responsive, and landing hits give you a nice sense of feedback. The game does have a deliberately more “heavy” feel compared to some shooters. You won’t be slide-canceling and drop-shotting here, but that doesn’t mean your mobility is limited.
Each character has some form of double jump, triple jump, or hover alongside a dodge. This gives the game a nice sense of verticality in battles, but the maps on offer didn’t feel like they fully embraced that design. Most map designs felt fairly standard in funneling the action through lanes with some larger rooms, but only one played with multiple levels in a major way. The current maps all felt perfectly functional, if not memorable or unique.
The current maps all felt perfectly functional, if not memorable or unique.
Where Concord’s vision feels most uncertain is in its modes. Instead of focusing heavily on team-based objective modes like Overwatch, Concord currently has two forms of team deathmatch and two round-based objective modes with one life per round. Variety is great, however, it is very clear that not all characters are equally balanced for each mode. Heavy “tank” characters in particular feel way too slow and underpowered in modes focused just on racking up kills. On the other side of things, if you don’t have a healer or are playing a character with the ability to self-heal, round-based modes lose momentum when you need to retreat to find a health pack on the map.
I assume those modes are meant for the more hardcore or players rolling with a coordinated team, but it still feels like an awkward fit. I would rather see Concord build itself around two or three modes than spread itself so thin that some characters just don’t feel made for them. Even running with randoms, I never saw much synergy or strategy in character choice. Again, this is only a beta so I don’t know how the game will look in its final version, but even in the Overwatch beta there were clear meta teams and counter picks that were fun to learn and made each round and match exciting. Concord just doesn’t give off the impression of having that same level of depth in the long-term.
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A good game that came too late
Not sticky enough to last
When Concord works, it is a great time. The more I played, the more it grew on me once I found my preferred Freegunners and stuck to the modes that the game felt built upon. Shooting feels great, and for now, the balance feels fairly well-tuned. There are some big flaws I assume will be fixed by launch (no backfill on games where players drop is the biggest example) but what holds it back isn’t something that can be “fixed” so easily.
Concord just isn’t that sticky. While I’m having a great time now, I don’t see myself coming back after a month. There’s just nothing so compelling in the gameplay or progression to entice me to make it a part of my routine. None of the modes—at least what is playable so far—spark any drive in me to master them. I’m having a good time, but only in the moment-to-moment sort of way. When one match ends, I won’t be eager to start another after trying out the entire cast.
Had Concord come out even 5 or 6 years ago, maybe it would’ve stood a chance. For better or for worse, Concord being a good game in 2024 isn’t enough to succeed.
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