With the Concord Closed Beta going on this weekend, I hopped in to give Firewalk’s hero shooter a try. If you are unfamiliar with me, I love Overwatch and think hero shooter mechanics can work pretty well in certain scenarios. With all that said, though, after a few hours of playing, I came away from my time with Concord thinking the game was fine at best and boring at its worst.
Generic Sci-Fi Roster Doesn’t Set the Tone
Since Concord’s reveal a couple of months ago, I generally agree with what I have seen most people say about the game’s cast of characters. They all feel very generic for this world. Some are straight poor-man ripoffs of the Guardians of the Galaxy, while others just kind of exist. None of them really left their mark on my mind, and the couple of cutscenes I sat through really didn’t make me want to know more about them.
During gameplay, there were a couple of standouts that I thought were more interesting to play than others. For example, Teo, although his kit is essentially a basic soldier character, I really enjoyed throwing smoke grenades and using his sight to pick out enemies through that smoke. It-Z was fast and very maneuverable, and I had a decent time playing Emari, who towers over everyone on the field.
None of the other characters appealed to me much. Some had weapons that didn’t feel good to use, abilities that I didn’t like, or just playstyles in general that didn’t catch me. No ultimate abilities really make the gameplay focused on basic shooting, as well. There’s not much strategy or teamwork to whip up with your teammates. Just point and shoot. Every hero shooter is going to have a character that doesn’t jive with you, but I found that a lot more common here than usual. Overall, I think the roster is weak. I was tired of being shown to the character select screen after every death, which only exasperated that issue. Unfortunately, the gameplay doesn’t help much in that regard.
You’ve Probably Played this Style of Game Before
Concord doesn’t stand out that much, mainly because of how easy it is to compare to other already existing things. I already mentioned the Guardians of the Galaxy characters, but playing matches in this game couldn’t help but make me think of Destiny PvP. By this point, I am very sure that Bungie has had at least some influence on the Firewalk Studios with both being owned by Sony, but I was surprised that it felt so similar. Granted, I’m not the biggest Destiny fan and haven’t touched the game for years, but the floatiness when jumping, the way your damage slowly chips away at enemy health, and the overall vibe of the maps feel very Destiny-coded.
Maybe the Destiny comparison gets you more excited for Concord, but I couldn’t help but feel that I’ve played this style of game forever ago. The beta didn’t offer much in the way of objective gameplay, with team deathmatch and kill confirmed being the two main modes on display. It was so basic and boring. After playing for a bit, you do unlock what the game considers competitive mode, which consisted of a zone control and search and destroy-esque mode, but both being round-based with single lives just turned all games I had there into quick deathmatch rounds. Even when it tries something different, Concord can’t carve out a reason for me to come back.
Concord has a Murky Future
The Concord beta did nothing but cement my opinion of the game being middling at best. By no means is it poorly made, but there’s no real soul to it. It wants to compete with free-to-play shooters like Overwatch, Destiny, and even XDefiant, but it will cost $40 and likely still have all the microtransactions those other games get criticized for. The world it’s building is shallow and uninteresting and the gameplay is just fine. While there were tidbits I enjoyed, I couldn’t help but sit there and think of how I wanted to play something else entirely.
All of this should be accompanied by the reminder that Concord hasn’t been released yet. While we are a month from launch, there is time for adjustments, improvements, and additions to be made. I’m sure there’s plenty of content not on display in the beta, but I couldn’t help but feel what they put on display is about as barebones as a hero shooter can get. I don’t want to talk down on an experience that some people are enjoying because I have seen some players say they really enjoyed their time with the game. I couldn’t get the same experience. Hopefully, Concord fares much better when it releases, but it really didn’t strike me as something I had to put money on right away.
