Concord hands-on preview — When you wish upon a star

Being unique in the shooter space is hard. Whether you like it or not, you’re going to be compared to everyone else. There’s nothing new under the sun, but it’s nice to see when the blending of different FPS elements turns out to be a tasty new recipe. While it’s too early to make that assumption on Concord, there’s plenty of ingredients here that can make something delicious, if it can withstand the harsh market it’s trying to get into.

Concord is a hero shooter made by Firewalk, a PlayStation studio. From the get go, calling it a mashup of Guardians of the Galaxy and Overwatch while sprinkling in some Destiny isn’t that far off. That said, you’d be remiss to dismiss this FPS just because it looks familiar. Playing it for a while, the tapestry of gameplay being woven is certainly impressive, even if some stitching is still required.

As a Call of Duty player, I realized very quickly that style of play isn’t going to work. While different guns do cause varying status effects on your movement, here it’s all tied to the characters. Big ol’ Star Child isn’t going to maneuver around as fast as It-Z. I’m glad to see the right choice in weaponry associated with this kind of character design, with Emari’s more Reinhardt-esque figure wielding a mini-gun, and Lennox’s agile self firing away with a six-shooter. It gives you a reason to mix up your character choices, rather than picking one and sticking with it the rest of the way. With sixteen heroes at launch, there’s a lot to choose from.

All of these Freegunners are interesting in their own right. None feel like a direct copy of the other, with good mixes of abilities throughout. Each fills certain roles as well, with Teo being a ranger which fits in more of an assault style role, or Daw the tactician being the guy best kept in the back. The only thing I’ve noticed is a distinct lack of healing; only Teo and Jabali have ability to do so, and beyond that you can scour the map for health pads. Given the hero shooter stylings, it’d be nice to see this reworked so team compositions can be a little more diverse, and so I can last a bit longer.

Speaking of the idea of teamwork, it’s very present here, although I see more countering in gameplay than pure team-building. I’m not sure it matters as much to pick the right team as much as it is to work together. For example, I didn’t see a team running with a specific set of five Freegunners. There are some abilities that do make some of them formidable (looking at you Lennox with your insanely overpowered pistol), but overall it seems better to look at the team across from you and make decisions accordingly. As mentioned, I don’t see a lot of direct counters in the crew available, but sometimes it makes sense to pull back and hold irons as Daw when an enemy Star Child keeps running at you.

The highlight of Concord has to be simply playing it. There are several former Destiny developers on staff, and you can easily tell. There’s a crispness to every shot or projectile you use, along with a slower and more deliberate way to move. That is, assuming you’re not running around pell-mell with It-Z or Bazz. Haymar (the stoic woman with a crossbow from the reveal cinematic) has a special ability to her kit where you can jump and glide down to stay in the air a bit, reminiscent of my Guardian’s floatiness. Overall, it’s simply a joy to engage in the gameplay, and playing with each new Freegunner gives the thrill of discovery along the way. I wanted to play more every time I finished a match.

If there’s a good tip I can give you, it’s to not lock in on one version of the character. One of the most interesting parts of Concord is building up a crew of different variants. These aren’t going to play ridiculously different than the base, but different passive abilities are there to encourage different strategies. For instance, I unlocked Lennox’s variant II through a challenge completion. His original passive is a reload on a dodge, but the variant gives an extended mag for both weapons. You’ll get two more shots out of the dodge, but the extended mag is nice when trying to get that last shot onto a combatant. Choosing your variants wisely as you build out a crew is fun, and gives you an additional Freegunner to play with in certain modes.

Those modes are the limited-life ones. We’ll get to respawns in a moment, but Concord is at its best when you engage in these modes specifically. The two available are Cargo Run and Clash Point. Cargo Run will remind you a bit of something like Search and Destroy, although with both teams fighting over the “bomb” to plant it. Here, you’re trying to get a piece of cargo and move it to one of two points to abscond with it. Kill the other team or do that, and after four round wins, you’ve got the W.

It’s extremely fast paced, and the way Firewalk has you engaging with Cargo Run is intriguing. Instead of picking the same Freegunner, they are forcibly grayed out of your crew if you win a round. This pushes you into playing differently, or at least onto another variant. You have to engage with their game and learn these Freegunners, or else it might mean certain death. That, and losses.

The same thing works with Clash Point. This reminds me of Call of Duty’s Control, but of course with its own twists and changes. There’s a single point you fight over, but with a single life each round. This mode threw me for a loop, as I would expect a few respawns at least, but no. It keeps things moving quickly, and for you to pay attention to the routes and character archetypes your opponents are using.

Respawns are something I’m not completely sold on, at least yet. Team Deathmatch can be boring, even once you adjust to the pace. This is a mode where you’d expect to be in a lot of one on ones, but given your Freegunner may be countered by another easily, it doesn’t often play out that way. Trophy Hunt, Firewalk’s version of Kill Confirmed, works a little bit better with an objective focus on collecting a badge after a kill, but still isn’t the best choice. I’ve run into plenty of players cheesing this mode by finding a good choke point and waiting out other players or baiting them into traps. Sure, it’s a decent strategy, but it’s a lame and boring one.

Although I like the design of the maps used for the modes, with clear cut lanes to follow, aesthetically they run together at points. The mix of space rock and metal works for Concord, but even so, I grew a bit tired of the map set. This is especially prevalent in Cargo Run, where (if I remember correctly), a single map is available in beta. It could have been how much I played the beta, with only five maps present for the test. There will be twelve maps total in-game, so hopefully it will make up the difference and allow for more variance. Thankfully, future content for Concord is free; here’s to plenty of new maps making it in shortly after launch.

I like the progression that I’m seeing so far in Concord. There’s a long road ahead, but the mix of daily, weekly, seasonal, and Freegunner challenges seem to lend themselves to that grindy nature that sucks you in. As long as the rewards make sense, mixing in valuable variants and more in along with the cosmetics, it could allow for a lot of engagement for the game.

That’s where we sit after the beta really. There’s a good game here, but can it manage to break out in a crowded space? I’m excited for the idea of weekly cinematics telling a story, but will that be enough to grab the attention of the masses? Will the choice to go with a pay-to-play model work? Can they catch the same fire that Helldivers 2 did?

In the end, I can only judge Concord based on what this beta is. So far, it has fun characters to play as, an interesting selection of different abilities and weapons between them, and crisp gameplay marrying them. Throw in some unique takes on how they approach the limited-lives modes, and a crew builder idea that adds new variables, and I’m fascinated by the possibilities Concord has in front of it. It’s somehow every shooter I’ve played yet still finds a way to feel somewhat fresh.

Concord releases on PlayStation 5 and PC on August 23rd. You can pre-order now, and the open beta is running on both platforms July 18-21.

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