Concord Review – OUT OF TOUCH

Only a few live-service titles ever find a consistent audience, let alone keep the lights on a year later. Many have tried and failed to find a stable foothold. From Square Enix to EA, companies keep on trying to gain that coveted slice of the pie. Now, it’s Sony’s turn to throw one of their 12 planned live-services at us and see if it sticks… Long story short: I doubt this one will.

Have I Seen This Before?

When I sat down to review Concord, I immediately thought “What’s the value proposition here?” because there are several other hero shooters like Overwatch or the upcoming Marvel Rivals that match this game’s level of quality, yet are ultimately free games to jump into. And with a starting price of $60 Australian dollars, it’s hard to justify said price tag when Concord hardly brings anything new or notable to the table. Yes, the look and feel of the game is well-constructed; each hero has their own distinct flavour and they’re all quite easy to pick up and slay. However, it doesn’t exactly have that elusive X factor, the crucial element that separates one hero shooter from the slop.

Of the 6 main game types, only the Brawl mode (standard 5v5 respawn match) and Signal Chase (King of the Hill) make the most sense in terms of gameplay. Since Firewalk Studios is comprised of many veteran Bungie devs, it plays a lot like Destiny and doesn’t lend itself well to the hero shooter mechanics Concord attempts to promote. If you try and play the other game modes like Area Control (Domination) or Rivalry (no respawning), you’ll quickly realise what I mean. There are also two solo training modes and 5 obstacle/hazard courses, but they seem like an afterthought more than anything. Rest assured, I’m saving you $60 here. Thank me later.

What I do like about Concord is how it encourages the use of different hero characters called Freegunners. You can certainly stay with one hero throughout a match, but regularly switching between them during a respawn grants extra bonuses to mobility, range and more which can definitely come in handy, especially since some tank characters move outrageously slow. Never thought I’d get PTSD flashbacks of King Zora sluggishly shuffling over in Ocarina of Time, but here we are.

A Slow Burn

Even though Aussie internet can be a dog’s breakfast at times, the hit detection and impact of the animations are pretty solid… most of the time. I heard the game was crashing on other PCs, but my computer ran the game surprisingly well with NVIDIA DLSS. It’s just a shame that player slots don’t dynamically change or get filled with bots if a player drops out though, because it absolutely STUFFS the 5 vs 5 balancing. Leaving a match early only gives you a warning… twice, for some reason. I’m assuming afterwards that there’s a time penalty because it quickly flashed on the screen before I got said warnings. But yeah, it could use some work. Also, the fact that it took me 2 minutes plus to matchmake at launch, does not bode well for the game’s future. Since player counts are already looking grim, I can only imagine lots of twiddling thumbs behind keyboards—and buyer’s remorse.

The progression part of a live-service title is muy importante, but Concord doesn’t exactly provide much here. Unless you’re a die-hard trophy stan, the rewards and cosmetics gained from levelling up and completing certain challenges like ‘heal 500,000 damage’ or ‘take out 5 people while sliding’ only offers subtle colour or cosmetic changes to your Freegunners. If you’re expecting extra abilities or wacky skins to claim, then you’re bang out of luck. Most people aren’t big fans of the designs to begin with, even if the graphics do look great. So unless you’re fully onboard with this game somehow, don’t expect a miraculous overhaul, apart from a few extra heroes and stages being released over the next year or two. If it’s still around, that is.

While I’m still on the fence about the quippy Guardians of the Galaxy-style writing, I’m slightly concerned whether they’ll actually finish their episodic story or not. Apparently, the plan is to showcase a bite-sized episode of the Freegunner group’s escapades every week, which will eventually fill out an entire story. Albeit, from what I’ve seen so far, nothing’s hooked me into the world of Concord yet. I don’t have much interest in its future either, to be honest. There is a bird’s eye view section of the surrounding planets and their points of interest on the Galactic Map, but they’re essentially just big lore dumps. Only hardcore Mass Effect lore fans will enjoy themselves here methinks.

Decision

You’re gonna give me a weird look for saying this, but Concord isn’t the worst thing ever. Because its PvP system is mostly well-executed, the moment-to-moment gameplay can be fun at times. Switching between different characters mid-match for a unique playstyle and perks helps to keep things fresh, while the animations, graphics and hit detection are genuinely great. However, when you compare Concord to other free hero shooters in the market, there isn’t much in the way of distinction or flair. The story isn’t particularly intriguing, the characters aren’t memorable, half of the game modes don’t exactly fit and the progression is lacking at best. Does this sound like a live-service that has staying power? Probably not.

By Anthony Culinas – Reviewed on PC

Average

Considering that several free live-service titles offer extra game modes and stages that are just as good, if not better than Concord, any potential hurdles like long matchmaking times, drawn-out progression, tacked-on single-player modes or discount Guardians of the Galaxy dialogue will quickly send people packing.

This game was reviewed using a download code provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The Beta Network uses affiliate partnerships, however, this does not influence reviews or any other content published. The Beta Network may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links that are on the website.