With all the live service titles from Sony officially (and unofficially) cancelled, it’s interesting to see Firewalk Studios’ Concord survive the purge. Maybe Sony sees something in the sci-fi, totally-not-Guardians-of-the-Galaxy setting. Perhaps with Helldivers 2 making an impact in the PvE market, it’s looking to capture the competitive hero shooter market or at least co-exist with Overwatch 2 and Valorant.
Regardless, I went hands-on with the early access beta for Concord, available on PS5 and PC for pre-orders, but an open beta will go live for all players from July 19th to 21st (which adds the Area Control mode and Bone Mines map). Let’s outline everything you should know and possibly worry about with the upcoming shooter.
Intro, Weekly Vignette and the Galactic Guide
Remember how Concord was first revealed? The cinematic trailer showcased the Northstar crew wheeling and dealing through a busy metropolis to fulfill a job. By comparison, the intro to the beta – perhaps the first of many cinematic vignettes – is more subdued. It sees the likes of Lennox, Haymar, 1-Off, Vale and Star Child anticipating an invitation to the Freegunner channel for taking on jobs, probably officially or something. Haymar is the cynical, detached one telling everyone to keep their expectations low. 1-Off will sternly talk to anyone who disappoints Haymar. Star Child says something, while Vale is optimistic. They get accepted. I can barely contain my excitement while typing all this.
However, the production values, from the skin textures and facial animations to the lighting and voice work, are impeccable. This attention to detail carries over to the character select screen before matches. For example, Haymar looks tough but slowly exhales, perhaps out of nervousness, before locking in again.
I also like how a new entry appears for the Galactic Guide with each relevant dialogue. Lennox commemorates a bobblehead which seemingly belonged to the crew’s previous ship. If you want to delve past “seemingly” and learn more, the Galactic Guide has the details. Or rather, it will with the final release – the Guide isn’t currently available in the early access beta.
Characters
Compared to other hero shooters, Concord leans closer to Overwatch than Valorant in kits and weapons, though a few aspects carry over. Each playable Freegunner has a unique skill set – Lennox throws explosive knives and can self-heal. Roka is Pharah at home but with the ability to slam down on opponents and gain improved tracking on her rockets when activating her hover. Haymar is a crossbow-wielding mystic who can blind enemies and toss projectiles to create a fire trail. Some also have secondary weapons, like a second revolver for Lennox or a sidearm for Vale.
Abilities have cooldowns, but some also have multiple charges on top. Once those charges deplete, you must score a kill for an extra charge (or die and respawn). It reins in abilities to an extent but doesn’t make them any less significant. There may be extensive balance changes by launch time, but as of now, each character feels distinct enough in terms of feel, even if many of these kits will look familiar to those well-versed in hero shooters.
Roles
Further distinguishing each Freegunner is the role system. Wardens, like Haymar, have increased weapon range, while Haunts, like Roka, have higher mobility. A Tactician has increased reload speed; Breachers have reduced dodge cooldown; Anchors receive more healing; and Rangers have lower weapon recoil. They’re more like bonuses the corresponding Freegunner benefits from rather than anything game-changing.
Movement
If you’ve ever played Overwatch or Destiny 2, the movement will feel sluggish. Even the hovering and jumping feel slow, though a bit more weighty. Each Freegunner has a dodge, though some can use them mid-air and even activate special effects, like stealth. Others have a double or even triple jump, and you can also slide. To counteract any potentially slower pacing, the maps feel compact, which works for 5v5. However, lower numbers mean it’s that much of a chore to find enemies.
Time-to-Kill
This further ties into the time-to-kill. It’s on the longer side, which isn’t a bad thing when it comes to hero shooters. With the movement and deployables (more on that in a bit), players are more likely to group up in an area and team shoot. Characters like Haymar or Teo can somewhat break this up with their grenades, though they may be negated if someone has 1-Off vacuuming up all the projectiles while Emari provides armor to everyone and puts up a shield. Combine this with Daw, who creates healing pads and barrier domes, and you have one of the more obnoxious team comps to deal with.
A slow time-to-kill with limited mobility options and no passive health regen can also result in fights where you barely make it out alive and almost always get cleaned up by another enemy. I understand where Firewalk Studios was going with some of this. It’s reminiscent of Destiny 2 Year 1, where Crucible was slower and more gunplay-heavy (with less emphasis on snipers, shotguns, rocket launchers and so on), but also Overwatch 1, except 5v5 with no role queue. At the very least, the abilities don’t take forever to recharge, and the gunplay feels good.
Maps
I’m somewhat positive about Concord’s maps, though several have a common theme. Maps currently available in the beta include Freewater, Star Chamber, Water Hazard and Shock Risk. Freewater is a backwaters town with a central bridge in the middle – the sections off to the sides offer plenty of open-air flanking routes. Star Chamber emphasizes the central point concept even more but has a circular platform with a gap in the middle to maneuver around and a more spacious lower level. The corridors are also narrower, which is ideal for Breachers like Star Child, though it’s sometimes better to hang around the middle on high ground.
Shock Risk is where things start to get a little iffy. The middle point returns, but it’s so out in the open with so many potential places to get shot from that it’s almost not worth it. Instead, the narrow corridors on the sides are where battles occur, with plenty of space to back out and take over or toss Wall of Fire grenades to cut off chokepoints. If even one team is attempting to hunker down with two Anchors and Daw, you’re in for a long match, even if there’s plenty of room to flank.
Water Hazard is a competent map for Cargo Run, though the bot spawn may need to shift between rounds to prevent the fortification strategy used by some. Otherwise, there’s a nice mix of cover, corridors and notable points of interest, though I’m disappointed that the giant sea creature is little more than a husk.
Brawl Modes
There are two playlists currently – Brawl and Rivalry – the former offering two modes – Team Deathmatch or Takedown and Kill Confirmed or Trophy Hunt. There are respawns in these modes, and the objectives are pretty straightforward. Win the former by eliminating enemies – each kill provides a charge for some abilities that you can pick up. The latter is about defeating opponents and picking up their Bounty Cards before their allies can retrieve them. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before.
After each death, you return to the Freegunner screen to select your character (with an option to spectate others). I know it’s annoying to hear the one-liners every time, but there is a method to the madness.
Rivalry Modes
On the other end is the Rivalry playlist. It doesn’t have skill tiers or divisions, but this will likely be the ranked format for the future. Rivalry is round-based – first-to-four wins – and uses a knockout system for its characters. Win a round with one, and they’re unavailable for you on the next, but that doesn’t stop your teammates from choosing them. Conditions apply, though, which we’ll get to later.
The two modes are Clash Point and Cargo Run – the former is essentially King of the Hill, where both teams fight over capturing a single point. Emphasis on “capturing,” not holding – once that percentage reaches 100, the round is over. Cargo Run is Concord’s take on Bomb Defusal from Counter-Strike: GO. A bot spawns in the center of the map after a short period, and either side must pick it up, take it to one of two zones and begin the extraction process. The enemy team can interrupt the process, and you must stop them. Alternatively, both teams can ignore the objective and annihilate the other first.
It’s also possible on Clash Point, eliciting much confusion when I first heard it. Granted, one team could hunker down on a map with Emari, 1-Off and Daw, forcing the other team to come to them to gain point control. Your team can effectively take turns on each of these heroes and use the same strategy in subsequent rounds. However, there’s also potential for a snowball since the first team to secure a kill can set up on the point, making it more challenging to dislodge them.
Variants
Freegunners have separate passives on top of their role. For example, Haymar’s Hellfire passive grants more charges to her Wall of Fire grenade and reduces the cooldown of her blinding shot. Why would that matter when no one else uses her abilities? That’s where Variants come in, which are existing Freegunners with different passives. So while Lennox can reload on dodge, Lennox-2 – yes, “2” – gets more ammo for both weapons, meaning ten shots in his primary revolver instead of six. It’s a notable concept to add more nuance, but why couldn’t these be unlockable passives for that character? That’s because of the…
Crew Builder and Bonuses
At Reputation Level 6, you unlock the Crew Builder, one of the more baffling systems of Concord. It allows for creating a roster of Freegunners and lets you have up to three copies of each (which includes Variants, by the way, so you can effectively have six Lennox on your roster). The line-up must have five unique characters, and back-ups are provided during a match in case you need an Anchor.
Why? Because if you switch characters between deaths – and rounds in ranked play – you inherit their role passives. If you switch from Lennox to Lennox-2, you inherit the former’s range passive, which stacks with the latter’s. Going from Lennox to another Warden character, like Haymar, also effectively lets you double up on the same passive, but you can’t stack beyond that.
It’s an intriguing yet confusing concept that’s not explained well. Your HUD displays the active role passives but not what they do. Hope you’ve got the icons memorized.
I can understand having this as a means to promote character-switching. Since there are no Ultimates, you don’t have to worry about losing charge when switching. However, what if you want the Anchor passive to increase healing received for Lennox, but someone is already playing Emari or 1-Off? You can’t switch to a Variant if someone is already playing the original character since duplicate heroes aren’t allowed.
What if you’re doing well and don’t find the opportunity to switch, aside from jumping off the map? Worst of all, the role passives seem inconsequential, providing almost no discernible difference.
The Crew Builder also messes with Rivalry’s knockout format. Why draft characters between each round when you can have six Lennox? Why bother trying to master a handful of characters in a role when you can stack your favorite? Firewalk probably wanted a draft system that doesn’t discourage people from one-tricking a character, which perhaps explains the…
Persistent Deployables
Deployable refers to healing pads, trip mines, walls, spores, etc, which persist on the map. If you throw out a bunch of trip mines as Vale and switch off to Lennox, those will remain until destroyed by an enemy player. The same goes for walls built by Duchess. The kicker is that they also persist between rounds in Rivalry, causing some players to beeline to the objective and set up a fortified position to gain an advantage on the other team.
Regardless of the knockout system, this is possible if teammates cycle between the relevant Freegunners. You can even have a single player do this consecutively on one character for three rounds with the Crew Builder. I’m interested in how Firewalk deals with this by launch time because it’s super obnoxious.
Progression
Once again, if you’ve played Overwatch 2 or even a gacha game, the progression should look familiar. Complete daily, weekly and seasonal challenges to earn XP to level up your Reputation. Matches also provide XP, so progress is not solely dictated by challenges. Leveling up your Reputation unlocks new cosmetics and customization options, but there are also optional pursuits, like unlocking new Variants. A Theo Variant is available in the beta, which you can unlock by completing five challenges. Characters also level up with use, though there doesn’t seem to be a point (at least in the beta).
Cosmetics
The cosmetics in Concord range from weapon skins and charms, poses for victory and defeat, and match entry emotes to gloves and new outfits. You can also modify your bounty card, which displays kills, assists and your motto. Reputation levels award cosmetics, and leveling up characters could provide access to more customization options and skins. However, it wouldn’t surprise me if Concord goes the way of Overwatch, which has a shop with cosmetics to purchase with premium currency that can also be earned in-game.
No Kill-Cam, Join-in-Progress or AFK Kick
Another infuriating thing about Concord at present is the lack of a kill-cam. Sure, you’ll always know who killed you, but how? Where were they, what are their cooldowns, and how many charges do they have for their abilities? Knowing where enemies can enter from and where they can flank is important. Those who don’t want the option can turn it off in the settings or skip it to check other players’ perspectives, but Firewalk forgoes the choice entirely.
Even worse is the lack of kicking idle players or joining matches in progress. You’re down a player or two because of the matchmaking? You better tough it out till the end because no one is coming to help. Alternatively, you can leave because of…
No Leaver Penalties
The onus is often on a player to stay with a match until then, but when matched 4v5 or even 1v5, it’s understandable if you want to duck out and go next. However, what about evenly-matched affairs where someone decides to leave for whatever reason? The beta doesn’t have leaver penalties – not even in Rivalry, which would be disastrous at launch. It may not seem like a big deal in casual matches, yet the issue became so rampant in Overwatch 2 that Blizzard had to take harsher stances against leavers. Even if Concord doesn’t go down that same path, it must clamp down on them in Rivalry and the future ranked play.
Overall Polish and Bugs
I mentioned the strong production values from the cinematics and character details, though I’m somewhat divided on the clothing. How can you make someone as smooth as Jabali and not give my man a sleeker coat? Regardless, while the overall polish, fidelity and sound design are good, there are some bugs. These include an issue where my HUD – reticle, ability cooldowns, you name it – disappeared.
Another bug, potentially caused by a player leaving in the middle of a match, essentially broke my sprint and hover. The first was fixed after respawning while the second required exiting the match. There also seems to be a bug where my character would inherit their role passive after a respawn despite not swapping, which may be a UI bug.