The reaction to Concord wasn’t great during Sony’s State of Play earlier this year. But after playing a few hours of the sci-fi FPS on PS5, I’m sold on Concord’s mix of hero-shooter action and tight Call of Duty-like gameplay. The only question is: Will people be willing to spend $40 for a multiplayer-only shooter in the year 2024?
Over the weekend, a bunch of people got to play Concord—PlayStation’s upcoming 5v5 hero shooter—for the first time via a new beta. Usually, multiplayer betas are fun marketing demos to get people even more excited for your big new game a few weeks or months before launch. But for Concord, which arrives in August on PS5 and PC, the situation feels very different.
When Concord was first unveiled in May, its trailer was negatively compared to Guardians of the Galaxy, while the confirmation that it was a PVP-only game did little to get people excited. So, the stakes were higher than normal for this first online beta. This is Concord’s first real ( and maybe only) chance to win people over and change the conversation around the FPS before launch. And while I’m not sure everyone will be convinced that Concord is good, I’m happy to say that, yes, it’s a damn fine shooter.
Overwatch + Destiny with a sprinkle of Call of Duty is the easiest and laziest way to describe Concord to other people who play games. But it’s accurate. Concord—which is set in a brand-new sci-fi universe filled with aliens, mercenaries, and 5v5 arenas—features a large roster of colorful and distinct characters who all play differently ala Overwatch. It also has slightly floaty (in a good way) movement and lots of wild abilities and powers, just like Destiny. And finally, sprinting, shooting, and map design feel very Call of Duty (also in a good way).
So many heroes to choose from…
In the beta I mostly played two game modes: Team Deathmatch and a mode which was basically Call of Duty’s “Kill Confirmed” where you kill people, pick up their tags, and try not to die or the enemy will grab your tags.
The first thing that struck me about Concord as I played these two modes was just how nice it felt to move around and shoot other players. Concord’s action is extremely snappy and smooth, so I always felt in control no matter who I was playing or what I was doing. It made hopping over obstacles to get a better angle or enemies or running away to fight another day a lot of fun.
The next thing I fell in love with about Concord was how all of its various characters or Freegunners felt different. I don’t really remember their names—during combat, I’d shout out nicknames like “Monkey Man” and “Spy Robot” to my brother—but they all provided a unique experience. If I wanted to be a slow, big, hard-to-kill tank I could choose the giant yellow robot with a vacuum canon that sucks up bullets. If I wanted to be a fast and nimble damage dealer I could pick the alien-elf lady with her SMG and zip around the map like a maniac.
Sure, plenty of hero shooters offer their own stable of characters with unique skills and roles, but here it feels like Concord wants its Freegunners be more distinct to the point that I assume some people will call the game unbalanced or unfair. (“Why can that character mantle and run around but I can’t?”) The thing is, this ended up making the game a lot more fun as it forced teammates to work together and Concord’s smartly designed UI and gameplay meant that I was constantly doing cool shit with randos—like trapping enemy players behind a magic wall while someone wiped them out with a grenade.
My personal favorite was Daw, a medic with an assault rifle, unlimited healing pads, and a powerful bubble shield. During matches, I’d often cover an area with health pads—which stick around when you die—turning a spot in the map into “Heal City.” However, Daw can be countered, like all the characters in Concord, by shooting the healing pads and prioritizing the medic gunner in fights.
One thing that did feel off in Concord was some of the maps. They were a bit too big or empty for the 5v5 fights that make up the sci-fi shooter’s foundation. I’m not sure if this can be fixed before launch or if players will get better at traversing the maps over time and make them feel less sparse, but for now, it feels like each map I played could have lost a few of its hallways and rooms and been better off for it.
Now, with all those positive words out of the way (and one complaint about maps) it’s time to talk about the elephant in the spaceship: Concord’s $40 price tag.
Concord is a hard sell in 2024
As good as Concord is, I’m not sure this kind of game can work in 2024. There are so many good free-to-play PVP games out there right now that aren’t exclusive to PS5 and PC. Why would someone spend $40 to play a new one? I’m not sure.
Even worse, Concord doesn’t include—at least not at launch—any kind of PvE horde mode or co-op campaign. It’s unlikely to ship with a map maker or Fortnite-like creative mode, either. It just offers a 5V5 PVP shooter experience and…that’s it. I’m just not sure how many people are going to pay a premium for that when they can get similar experiences in other games for free.
Sure, those other games contain tons of microtransactions and often lock new characters behind grinds, something Concord’s devs promise won’t be the case in the upcoming sci-fi shooter. All new maps, game modes, and characters will be included for free in future updates. That’s great! But I worry Concord won’t get many future updates if it doesn’t develop a large playerbase.
And while I get that Sony is trying to pull off another Helldivers 2 with Concord—charging a premium and not cramming in annoying in-app purchases—I’m not convinced it will work as well this time around. Hopefully, I’m wrong. Because if I am, then Concord will live on for many years and I’ll get to keep playing it and having a great time. If not well, at least we had some fun in the beta.
Concord launches on PS5 and PC on August 23. Players can check out its second beta weekend, which is open to all, and starts on July 19 and ends on July 22.
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