Developed by Firewalk Studio a published by Sony, Concord is a 5v5 hero shooter. Concord is the big PlayStation 5 console exclusive. There is negativity surrounding the game and a lot of players are calling it a failure even when it’s barely out. It’s the early days of the game and you can’t really call it bad. Players should give the game time before deciding how bad is it. I don’t think it is bad but after playing it for an hour it’s clear that the game is unbalanced and undercooked.
I do not think that the game is really bad it just needs tweaks and time to get better. I guess developers released it before its due time. You can’t call it really good because it is just at the spot that it can’t be decided either way. However, it’s not a good game at least it is not a banger which should be kept in mind. There are a decent amount of things that many won’t like about this game. Think of it like a game that is stranded between good and bad that leans more towards bad if that makes sense. All of it makes you to the question is Concord worth it? Let’s find out.
A Hero Shooter
Concord is like something that we have all seen before. It is a hero shooter. There are few things that make it stand out but all of it is pretty familiar. You have the choice of selecting one of the 16 Freeguuners (Characters). Each one of them has its own weapon as well as primary and secondary abilities and passive traits.
Each match is 5v5 and you can play any of these characters as long as someone else is not playing them. There is no class limit and anyone can play any character they want. There is good and bad hero synergy depending on the composition of the team.
The game has six modes and they are split between three playlists. There is a Brawl playlist with modes like Takedown which is the game version of Team Deathmatch. Trophy hunt, which is the game’s version of kill confirmed is also part of the Brawl playlist. Another playlist is the Overrun playlist which has Area Control that is similar to Domination and Signal Chase which is basically Hard Point.
The third playlist is Rvivarly which has Cargo Run and Clash Point. These are the most Overwatch-like modes and they are locked away in the hardcore playlist that has no respawns. It is not unforgivable but it is not something I expected either. Basically, there are 4 game modes at the launch of Concord.
The Gameplay
Not a lot of players are playing rivalry so finding a match is difficult. You can’t play these hardcore modes even when you try. When playing the game it feels unique in some ways. One of the things that’s surprising is that the health pick-up with appear in a fixed location on each map. There are health pickups to heal and there are support characters that will heal you. It gives the game an arena shooter feeling which makes the knowledge of the map more important.
Concord places emphasis on survivability. If you are even decently good at a game it is hard to die. The time to Kill in Concord is slow. When combined with movement power, it is pretty hard to die since every character has some sort of dodge ability.
A lot of your abilities have a limited number of cooldowns. At a certain point, you won’t be able to use an ability. To get the ability you have to kill an enemy. Most support abilities can be used endlessly but the more powerful abilities require kills to keep using them.
Make Your Crew
There is a crew builder feature that lets you build a crew to bring to new matches. Depending on the characters included in the crew, you can get crew bonuses. You can get little benefits like improved healing or a longer range of weapons. Switching to another hero or selecting a hero will give you a bonus related to that class. It’s nothing big but it does give you an edge over the enemy.
At higher level team-play these bonuses can define the meta of the game. The buffs you get are small so you can just keep swapping characters until you get the perfect combination that outway the buff of teambuilding in Concord.
There are also alternate versions of different heroes that you can unlock. These alternate heroes have different passive buffs. Getting the alternate version of heroes is not too hard. Alternate heroes don’t feel game-breaking but it does have an impact on how you play as that hero. So there are some unique things going on in the game.
It is not like this stuff has not been done before but the way the game combines arena shooter and hero shooter elements is unique. The better question is how unique the game actually is. There are some general mechanics that give the Concord its own taste. The overall package feels like a familiar experience.
A lot of the things you do in the game feel like “I have seen it before”. Movement from Destiny, abilities from Overwatch, and character design that is like Guardian of the Galaxy. The character design is not bad but some of the characters do look lame. Start Child which is one of the Alien characters looks like the Blood Brother from Guardian of the Galaxy.
The Heroes
In a Hero Shooter, you need characters that are appealing and fun to play. You don’t really need a character with a good backstory and lore. All you need, are visually appealing characters. The rooster at launch is not that appealing. It’s not like they are useless it’s just that a lot of them don’t look good. They are either too simple or complex in a weird way. A lot of the characters are wearing space suits which is strange.
I personally wasn’t interested in playing any of these characters in Concord. The main focus would be their weapon and powers not looks which is not enough for a hero shooter. Players need an aesthetic connection with their character to make it work. This should not be that much of an issue but then developers went ahead with storytelling.
The Story
Concord starts with a cut scene. It’s boring to watch and the characters don’t make a good first impression. When the first cutscene is over the game shifts to another cutscene. It’s the same place but now there is another person here. You won’t know what’s going on and what everybody is talking about.
That’s where the Galactic Guide comes into play. It is the biggest option on the menu and a lore dump. The presentation is solid and the galactic map is good. The planet icons look good but they are useless because you just click on them and read lore. What good is the planet if you can’t even see it? There is no proper story. The game just wants to add something for daily, weekly, and seasonal missions which are called jobs. It’s small tasks like doing damage, killing someone with the ability, killing with a weapon, and stuff like that.
All of it wouldn’t be an issue if the game wasn’t trying to turn them into missions that are part of the story. The game is trying to tell some sort of story but doesn’t justify it. Concord would fare better without it if I am being honest. That’s what developers need to understand add a good story or not at all.
General Gameplay
The graphics of the game are good. Everything runs well on the PlayStation 5 and the frame rate is balanced. Concord runs smoothly with no stuttering and there isn’t a noticeable lag. All seem polished and the visual of abilities goes great with the flow of the game. It looks nice but not enough to leave lasting memories.
The color pallet is good but there is not enough aesthetics to support it. None of the places are good enough to be recognizable. Think of them like unknown locations that are forgettable. The map with a big Alien in the center stands out compared to others. The map looks nice but the stuff inside the map doesn’t stand out.
Team Play
The quality of your team will have a major impact on the result of the game. Most of the time you will either dominate the other team or they will dominate you. I think Concord doesn’t have enough data on players to match them correctly. This problem can persist for years as we have seen with other games. The time to kill is high as mentioned earlier and healing is everywhere. Depending on the team, there are buffs, debuffs, and traps lying all around the map.
If your team is not there to support each other then your team is going to get dominated. Matches are short and can end in a matter of minutes. It takes a while to get a hang of the character even when the game is providing enough reading material. If you want to switch between characters then that’s going to suck for you.
If you go at it with a Call of Duty type mindset then you are going to get destroyed. Movements are slow and there are too many heavy characters that can tank damage by healing themselves or putting shields to protect. Unless multiple players are shooting, it will be hard to kill an enemy. Once you figure stuff out the game is fun.
Despite different characters having different abilities there are no overpowered abilities. All abilities are balanced and do not feel out of place.
Verdict (Is Concord Worth It?)
There is not enough content in Concord. There are six game modes and these are not too different from other games. With so many games competing with Concord, it can quickly become stale. Changing stuff like character design can make a good impression. The total player base is also not that high and I hope that it finds a niche with certain types of players. The Beta performance was not good and we are already seeing reports of its dwindling player base.
The game is not free-to-play but there is no battle pass or in-game store. I appreciate that but this type of game performs best when it’s free to play. This is especially true in the case of Concord because it does not stand out in a lot of different aspects. It is hard to find good things in the game. Developers must expand it by adding new game modes, maps, and things that are not in other games if the game wants to survive for long.
Things are working against the game and there is a lot of stuff that Concord can survive without. However, the multiplayer experience that it offers is solid, it’s fun, and there are some good powers to use. The old-school map design is good but it can be bad for some players. There are good aspects of the game but there are some other aspects that work against it. If the characters are resigned and some work is done on the story then it can turn around.
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