PlayStation has been pushing into the live service space for a while, with Firesprite’s Concord being the latest entry. It ran its beta over the past few weekends after its unveiling at May’s State of Play, which was met with a mixed reaction. The initial cinematic gave off Guardians of the Galaxy vibes before the following gameplay video, giving way to a 5v5 hero shooter. Concerns about it being too little, too late, and priced at $40 were prevalent. Getting to play it throughout the beta, Concord has potential. With some clear concerns, it has a solid base to build off, but the biggest question remains: can Concord become a Helldivers 2 surprise success, or will it join a giant heap of failed live service games?
Concord’s hero shooter brand will immediately be familiar to Overwatch fans. The full 16-launch roster of Freegunners, the titular space mercenaries that make up the cast, was available. Each character fits a traditional archetype, with DPS, healers, tanks, and others on display. They all have unique weapons and abilities. I instantly gravitated to Haymar, who had a powerful single-shot crossbow and fire powers, and Jabali, who had a machine gun and healing abilities. Depending on the rest of the team’s makeup, I concentrated on these two but spent time with almost every character.
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The minute-to-minute gameplay is almost always engaging and fun. The gunplay is tight, and the abilities vary well among free gunners. Haymar’s crossbow had a satisfying pop from the Dualsense when shot, while Teo’s assault rifle constantly rattled and shook the controller, letting you feel every shot from the clip. When the team synchronized, it was incredibly fun to use the abilities to cover each other’s weak spots and take out enemies in a flurry. The deathmatch modes felt a lot like the Crucible in Destiny 2 in the best way.
The issue that quickly arose was the character balancing, with some (namely tanks) feeling overpowered and others feeling entirely useless. I came across the same handful of Freegunners in every match. There wasn’t much variation in team makeup, leaving most characters feeling superfluous. The time to kill varies wildly, too, with some characters dying too fast and others taking too long.
General movement speed is something that needs to be adjusted as well. Some characters feel right, but others feel far too slow. This, coupled with spawns that usually have you on the other side of the map from your team, can create a frustrating experience. The movement is excellent, though, with each character having different movement kits. Some can double or triple jump, others can hover or float, and all have a unique dodge mechanic that you can use to avoid some shots and get behind cover.
The available modes ranged from standard team deathmatch to a mode resembling Call of Duty‘s kill, which was confirmed to others as more objective-based, including a King of the Hill-style fight. They all work well enough and will instantly feel familiar to anyone who’s played a first-person shooter in the last decade. There isn’t anything unique, though, with every mode feeling like something you’ve played before.
One of the significant issues with the beta was the general lack of feeling of progression. Sure, you’ll find your dailies, weeklies, and other challenges that will give you a bonus experience, all filling meters popping off after the match. The problem is that the reward economy just doesn’t feel worth it at this point. You’ll unlock character variants with different abilities, but most of the time, minor cosmetics aren’t that enticing. I wasn’t drawn to the level to chase whatever carrot was supposed to be dangling; instead, I played because the actual game was fun, but that varies, too.
Concord is inherently built on teamwork. If you’re playing with friends or random people who are interested in coordinating, Concord is a blast. Solo queueing is a different and much more varied experience. Scattered teams mean getting steamrolled, especially as people would drop at the first instance of a possible loss. On top of the lack of meaningful progression, this just leads to a meandering experience that doesn’t feel like it has a purpose.
On top of all the rational concerns about the game, Concord also has a lot of unreasonable movement against it. Some players are up in arms about the fantastic and diverse cast of characters or the pronouns that feature for each Freegunner on the character selection screen. Y’know, the real issues. Cries of DEI and ESG are loud from grown men thinking they’re intelligent, not even bothering actually to play the game to give it a fair go. Concord already has a hill to climb, but it must contend with those trying to slick the path up with ridiculous and pathetic boycotts for all the wrong reasons.
The maps available in the demo were all well designed and engaging, with an otherwordly art style. The character designs are unique and memorable. The cinematics offer insight into the lives of the Freegunners, and each I watched was fun enough for the few minutes they took up. On top of the tight gunplay and abilities, I am looking forward to Concord‘s launch in a month. The balancing and meandering progression, on top of low player counts on Steam during the beta weekends, are concerning. Concord has potential and could be something special, but in its current state, I am concerned that this could not hit the way Helldivers 2 did. There are still significant questions in content offerings post-launch and how rich the road map ahead is, but Concord stands a chance at being something cool if it can build on a solid base and fix the issues in the beta. Time will tell if it does.
Concord launches on August 23 on PS5 and PC.
