It’s hard to be optimistic about Concord’s success after its dismal debut earlier this year, with the beta, while fun, failing to capture the attention of a critical mass of players and early access numbers also worrying.
In fact, this review wasn’t ready last week because almost everyone who had been playing the game couldn’t find a match in the turn-based mode, which is unlocked after reaching a certain player level. That’s how hard the game is. But hey, player numbers aside, harmony Is it actually fun and engaging as a competitive online shooter? Well, kind of. And that’s its biggest problem. Sometimes everything goes well and the result may have just the right amount of energy needed to grow and evolve, but the moments of true joy are far too few and far between.
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Let’s get the obvious out of the way first: Concord reportedly took a full eight years to fully develop, which sounds absurd. Even at its best, Concord isn’t huge considering the high (and apparently unnecessary) production values on display. At launch, there are 16 characters, 12 maps, and six modes (in three completely separate playlists). Beyond that, the “single-player” experience is limited to a practice range, a general tutorial, and five fairly basic time trials, all of which are built using the same assets found in the main multiplayer experience.
That argument is contradicted by the game we got, which isn’t any more fleshed out than the handful of free-to-play games we’ve seen in the same genre over the years. There’s also the matter of all the effort, time, and money invested in fleshing out all the characters, lore, and complexity of the Concord universe. The game has a beautifully rendered guide to the galaxy that’s updated regularly as you play; it’s chock-full of stuff sci-fi fans would love and long-winded text… if this were a single-player adventure (or at least an ambitious co-op game). My personal take? At some point, Concord was something else entirely, and it ultimately narrowed down to a by-the-book PvP shooter. The unwavering plan to churn out high-quality cutscenes every week only reinforces that idea.
Regardless, Concord is a decent enough hero shooter. While I don’t hold its formula as high as the beta, the game has clearly gone through a lot of iteration and internal testing (eight years!) Each character feels well defined in terms of playability, and the concept of stacking everyone’s team passive skills is an interesting twist that I hope plays a bigger role in team-building (Marvel Rivals is doing something more ambitious with a similar idea).
However, I also agree that some of the characters that are supposed to be more agile tend to feel a little more cumbersome or heavier than they should, which is a shame because the gunplay is pretty good all around. I also think that playing the game with the DualSense controller feels better; PlayStation’s first-party PS5/PC releases are really good at making the most of the hardware, and Concord is no exception. The haptic feedback is great, but not over the top, and I found myself sticking with it rather than disabling it right away like I’ve done in recent Call of Duty titles.
The decision to remove ultimates entirely was a bold one that added a more tactical and “teamwork” feel to the game, but it also led to the problem of a snowball effect that was too powerful unless the enemy team started to shake things up on their own. This was particularly acute in modes like TDM, where some characters were downright terrible choices, and if the early game didn’t play well, it would be nearly impossible to bounce back, even with a strong team.
The maps, while visually stunning for the most part, are a mixed bag. Some maps feel just right for 5v5-scale battles and have arena-like layouts that work well, while others look like remnants of old co-op maps that were remade as PvP scenarios and are too large, causing allies to get lost and enemies to wander around aimlessly. Given the time it took to develop, Concord often feels disjointed despite being well-polished.
Perhaps the real knock-out blow comes from the characters themselves, which, while playable enough, are, for the most part, visually unappealing, which is going to be a huge problem if you’re trying to sell a hero shooter in 2024 (a difficult task in and of itself). This has nothing to do with the garbage that’s been dished out by the worst people we know of. The lack of unique visual designs for 90% of the (admittedly colorful) cast, for example, feels like the result of an over-focus on gameplay. Ultimately, most freegunners end up looking like aliens and humans who walked into a cheap outer space thrift store and came out wearing random clothes. Sure, their galactic guide background info is cool, but most people won’t care.
All that motion capture money and realistic lighting won’t matter when you’re in the game. You won’t even notice them. You will notice the bland character designs, though. It’s clear that a lot of work and effort went into it, but it feels like the whole thing was weighed down by outside input and market research based on the latest relevant information in 2019.
The PS5’s performance and graphics are also a headache. 4K/60 seems to be the only target, which is a strange decision given the nature of its competitive shooter. 2K (or even 1080p upscaled) targeting 120 FPS seems like a logical choice, but for now we’re left with an online game that tries too hard to be realistic rather than as smooth as possible (and does suffer FPS drops in some cases). In addition to switching to a free-to-play mode, I fully expect a performance mode to be available soon as well.
These little flaws become more apparent the longer you play Concord. Beneath all the rubbish and confusing business decisions (like not releasing it as a PS Plus Extra), it’s a decent game, but why should you put up with all these frustrations when the game has no distinct personality and there are currently better free alternatives?
Sure, Concord’s paid model is better than a nightmare FPS filled with game passes and paid skins, which sounds great on paper, but the package has to be enticing enough to warrant a purchase, and simply put, it lacks. Part of me hopes it finds its audience and improves, but this looks like another Suicide Squad situation.
Concord is available now on PS5 and PC. This review was written using a code for the PS5 version of the game provided by the publisher.
