Ahead of its August 23 launch, we’ve finally gotten our hands on Concord, Firewalk Studios’ live service hero shooter. Sony’s big multiplayer gamble didn’t get the best of first impressions when it debuted at State of playBut now that we’ve had some hands-on time with the game, is it shaping up to be the live service’s next big thing?
Confidence is the name of the game here, and despite the public’s supposed attitude towards hero shooters, Concord struts its stuff with all the graphical and musical bombast you’d expect from a Sony experience. We’re fans of a good UI and menu design, and Concord has that in spades, and there’s a certain “big ticket” energy to it all that we found infectious.
The beta includes access to three modes, four maps, all 16 characters, and a selection of unlockable cosmetics, none of which will carry over to the full release. What we have here is essentially Team Deathmatch, Kill Confirmed, and a round-based Capture the Point mode. This is nothing new, so Concord is trying to differentiate itself in its characters and gameplay.
The first-person shooter is incredibly precise and in places recalls the floaty gameplay of Destiny 2, which is no surprise given the talent of Bungie veterans aboard Firewalk. Across the 16 characters, you have your typical tank, healer, aggressor, and support archetypes, but where Concord succeeds is in the gameplay loops you’ll find within each character.
Teo uses smoke bombs to reduce visibility, then uses his scope to spot enemies and finish them off with his cluster bomb. 1-Off sends out his trash bombs to disrupt enemies, using his vacuum to protect the team. Jabali is a frontline healer who can whittle down enemy health with his seeker rifle, heal the team with his healing aura, and deal decent damage with his hunter orbs.
The list is long, but like any good hero shooter, the fun comes from playing your role and supporting your team, which was surprisingly present in our random sessions over the weekend. Sure, there will be favorites, like the high-damage Haymar or the self-healing Lennox, but it was nice to see such a diverse selection over the course of matches, with no clear favorite. Firewalk seems to have produced a balanced roster of heroes that all have something to offer.
The most surprising aspect of Concord, however, is how it manages to strike a balance between a hero shooter with a long time to kill and rotating objectives and an arena shooter like XDefiant, where you’re still able to rack up impressive kill streaks.
It is in this fundamental change that we think Concord could We’ve managed to thrive on this, as it’s a defining gameplay loop that we simply couldn’t live without. Abilities recharge fairly quickly and can be replenished after kills, making the battlefield feel much more dynamic. We’re incredibly guilty of saving our abilities for the “right time” in hero shooters, but here, every moment is the right time – and even if it’s not, you won’t be penalised too much for it.
Health is also a big factor in all of this. Your health won’t regenerate naturally, so you’ll have to head to one of the few health recovery points or rely on a teammate to heal. It’s not something we were really keen on doing at first, but it ends up influencing how you play and adds another string of tension to Concord’s bow.
It’s a fantastic start to the game for us here at Push square We’re pretty excited to see the game, but after sitting through the beta, there are a few things we’re still unsure about. For one, if you played the beta, you’ll have leveled up a lot, but it’s not entirely clear why you’re leveling up. Daily, weekly, and seasonal challenges award XP, which increases your profile level, but completing matches also increases your character’s specific level. Cosmetics seem to be the main focus, but if what we have here is any indication of what’s to come, it’s decidedly sparse. Thankfully, there will also be Freegunner challenges, which can unlock character variants with different passive abilities, which we imagine will be a good reason to stick around for “one more playthrough.”
Then there are the weekly vignettes. What we’ve seen so far are high-quality cutscenes that perhaps lack any distinctive features. They’re just there for now, but we don’t expect to fall in love with these characters on day one. We’re extremely interested to see how sustainable and effective this approach to storytelling is, because from the little details we’ve seen so far, Firewalk is clearly trying to build an expansive story.
In all honesty, our biggest problem with Concord is that its current modes don’t last long enough to really sink in the action. TDM and Kill Confirmed only require 30 points per team and are often over in five minutes. Obviously, we don’t have access to the full list of modes right now, but we’re hoping something more substantial will be available at launch. As it stands, its matches are too fragmented, and as soon as things start to heat up, they’re over.
Concord is a dynamic and robust shooter that looks ready to launch. Over the course of the beta weekend, there were no server crashes, laggy matches, technical issues, or anything of the sort. It’s a polished experience that looks ready to join Sony’s lane, and we think players should give it a chance. Is it the most original take on the hero shooter genre? No, but it’s a polished, premium product that already has a solid foundation to build on. We have some questions that we don’t think will be answered until full release, and we’d like to see it let loose a little more, but as it stands, Concord has carved its way to the top of our most anticipated.
Have you tested the Concord beta? What do you think so far? Let us know about your Freegunning activities in the comments below.
News Source : www.pushsquare.com
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