Chris InglisConcord is a 5v5 hero shooter developed by Firewalk Studios and published by PlayStation and set for release on August 24 for us in ANZ. I was enthralled when I watched the first reveal trailer. The characters looked cool, there was some great dialogue, and it gave me vibes of Guardians of the Galaxy. However, my excitement waned when I found out it was a hero shooter like Overwatch. I loved Overwatch for a long time, but I stopped played it many years ago as it was getting too frustrating as my skill level couldn’t keep up with the general playerbase. A closed beta for Concord was held over weekend and thanks to PlayStation AU, I was able to jump in for several games and I am pleased to say that I had a great time learning the game and I am looking forward to playing more during the open beta weekend. You do need a PlayStation Network account to play, so keep that in mind.
The game boasts some absolutely stunning sci-fi visuals, with detailed environments and character models that bring the futuristic world to life. If you liked the reveal trailer, the game’s introduction scenes are just as good in letting us see into the lives of the initial squad of six freegunners on board the Northstar ship – Vale, 1-0FF, Star Child, Lennox, Haymar and Teo. Voice acting for all characters is excellent and fleshes out their personalities well, and the sound design is equally impressive, with impactful weapon sounds and effects.
When I clicked to join my first game, I was surprised to see a list of all 16 freegunners available to select. Four of the other players in my team quickly chose four of the main characters before I realised what was happening, so I had a quick scan of the heroes and picked one. When you select one you can press R to see their skills and abilities. There isn’t much time to let the information sink in before you are loaded into the game session. I would have preferred to have some sort of introduction to all other characters, or better yet, to have hidden them until we saw them be revealed through in-game cinematics.
I understand that Concord is a 5v5 hero shooter so you really need 10 heroes to start with, so perhaps could have hidden the final 6 (Battlestar Galactica reference!). That aside, all I did was play a match with one character, try out their jump and shooting abilities, tried to get some kills and then load up a different character with each death. You gain experience when you play a character, so obviously you will want to narrow down your favourites pretty soon to start putting some game time into them, but I liked trying out each character through various games. I haven’t settled on a favourite just yet but am hoping to try have my best 2-3 characters worked out through the upcoming open beta.
Concord goes beyond the typical run-and-gun hero shooter experience. The inclusion of cooldown timers on abilities necessitates a more tactical approach to their use. You need to carefully consider when to unleash your more powerful attacks and this creates a constant push and pull between offense and defensive strategies. There’s also time needed to learn the various maps, their choke points and objectives. I quickly worked out that positioning and teamwork become paramount to success, with flanking manoeuvres and coordinated pushes key to securing victory. Voice comms were off for most of the teams I played with, so that would add a lot of strategic value too.
Gameplay feels more sluggish when directly compared to Overwatch and it is more a mix of between Halo Infinite and Destiny 2, and the size of the characters has bearing here too. Some have double jumps, some have a short hover, particularly sniper-like classes. Weapons vary in their power too, with some weapons having a long time to kill (TTK), or at least it felt like that. Some of my sniper shots were awesome and took out people in 1 hit, then other times I must have shot their toes or elbows, as it took several shots to kill them, or more often they killed me.
The beta weekend had three out of the six game modes that were playable, though Trophy Hunt was the only one available for fresh start players. Cargo Run and Clash Point required unlocking through achieving levels. Trophy Hunt was your typical team deathmatch style where you had to collect trophies from dead players. Cargo Run was a single-life match where the objective was to run to the centre to retrieve a Blue Buddy package and plant it at one of two sites. If planted, the enemy team could go and stand on the package to diffuse it and take it back. Lastly was Clash Point which is a round-based single-life game mode with the objective being to control the only capture zone in the entire map multiple times to get the victory.
There were four maps available – Freewater, Star Chamber, Water Hazard and Shock Risk. Each had a short intro cinematic of the Northstar landing in the particular planetary map zone. I can’t wait to see more of the lore and story of the game revealed as time goes on. The story of Concord has me the most intrigued and I hope we get some decent amounts as each week and season progresses. The open beta next weekend will have an additional new mode, Area Control, and a new map to learn, Bone Mines.
I played the game on PC, and I only have a RTX3080, yet it still ran very well considering my potato setup. I rarely had any hitching or deaths due to FPS or latency despite my ping in the scoreboard fluctuating between red and green. I didn’t have enough time to check the actual ping to the servers, but the gameplay certainly felt smooth. I never felt like I couldn’t kill anyone I faced, I just don’t know the characters well enough yet to push against the enemy or know their tactics. I noticed some Valorant style effects that had poison and explosive attributes, and also saw some teammates throwing down some healing fields. For me, it’s going to take some time to learn all the characters, but I had a lot of fun with the couple of hours I got into the beta.
Concord’s amazing visuals both in the cinematics and in-game, and the characters I got to test out gave me the desire to want to play more. For me this is a rare thing considering I haven’t played Overwatch or Destiny 2 for years. The strategic depth of the maps, gameplay, and freegunner roster is brimming with potential. Diehard hero shooter fans might have different things to say about it, but I certainly enjoyed my time and am very much looking forward to the open beta this coming weekend.
These gameplay impressions utilised a Steam key provided by PlayStation AU and Concord has an open beta running this weekend and is set for release on August 24 for us in ANZ on Steam and PlayStation.
#roundtablecoop
Johnny
