In this modern age of video games, chasing trends is the fastest way of success. Especially when it comes to online multiplayer triple A games, where the risk is great and the reward is greater.
Unfortunately for Concord, it has followed a very difficult trend to compete in: the hero-shooter genre.
A genre where to gain a following, every aspect of the game must be nearly perfect, simply to compete. The gameplay feel, the heroes, the maps, the pricing, the balancing, the amount of content, etc.
Overwatch 2, Marvel Rivals, Valorant, even Paladins, are Concord’s biggest competitors.
Table of Contents
GAMEPLAY
The sense of play that Concord has is a mix of Overwatch and Valorant. The variety and teamplay of Overwatch along with the gunplay and strategy of Valorant would have made an exciting and intriguing. The concept was interesting, but alas, the execution was less than satisfactory.
The sense of pace the game has feels unnaturally slow. This can be attributed to a few factors. Such as the sheer size of the maps, as well as the different balance each hero has. For example, Daw feels bad to play, despite having good abilities, and high damage as the shooting range would suggest. Hitting your shots is important here, very important. If you cannot score the eliminations, even as a support, then you are not helping your team.
We believe that hastening the free gunners, permanently, would make the game feel exciting. Eliminations are rare, and most of the time, it’s the fastest free gunners that can get them. Playing as a Tank or a Support feels frustrating.
HEROES
The free gunners in Concord are impressive in numbers, and are all freely unlocked once you start the game.
There are many different classes and many passive buffs that make each free gunner different in their own way.
The abilities are really underwhelming to use. Some free gunners have very interesting abilities, like the spore buffs, or the garbage vacuum to absorb all incoming projectiles. But the rest are disappointing. One of the most damaging abilities in the game is a lock-on melee attack. That doesn’t really inspire creativity.
The guns, however, are worse. Most feel the same, some feel weak, and a small portion have guns that are so horrible, that even if the free gunner had good abilities, you would rather use someone else.
The free gunners are also not likable at all. It’s hard to connect with them, or have a certain favorite that you enjoy above everyone else. In Overwatch, people still play Genji because he’s an exciting character with a cinematic trailer about him and Hanzo that had hundreds of millions of views. Nobody in Concord captures you like that. That’s one of the biggest detractors, you need your heroes to be likable, so that you can market the game based off of them. You also have less chance of selling skins since people do not like any hero they see in the game. Again, in Overwatch, there are more skins being worked on and sold than balance patches are being made.
The heroes have personality, special abilities and gameplay styles, their lore is great and their looks is iconic. Especially the animated videos about them. That’s what carries Overwatch to a new level.
As for Concord, they don’t have that. Their short animated videos and even a lore page is very underwhelming. The characters designs and abilities are also hard to remember.
MAPS
Huge, detailed maps for fighting between the free gunners. However, as stated before, they’re a bit too big. The free gunners are simply not fast enough to use the map to their advantage. Teamplay is difficult when the tanks are really slow and everyone else is far too fast.
The healing stations are placed awkwardly and there aren’t many places for cover. Hard to fight against the more powerful free gunners as a Tank when you’re a bullet sponge with no place to regain your focus.
The map design simply feels like it belongs in a different game. They should have been smaller to accommodate for the speed of the free gunners.
BALANCING & CONTENT
The balance is actually good. The gameplay might feel slow, and the maps are very underwhelming, but the free gunners are exceptionally well balanced. No single hero feels too strong or too weak, although tanks and supports always get the short end of the stick. Star Child, for example, might seem like a very good tank. His abilities look excellent, but he’s far too easy to eliminate due to the open environment.
But some others like Lark deserve recognition. The developers should be proud above all for the perfect balance they achieved in a genre where balance is a sick joke.
The game is quite new, and is priced at $40 to play, but the content is still promising.
You have daily and weekly challenges to beat, several free gunner skins and attachments, and a lore page to explore, although it is quite underwhelming.
It has no battlepass, which plagued multiplayer games for years. A refreshing change, one that should be applauded, and hoping that more developers ditch the battlepass system.
Concord is still very new with potential to reach great heights if Firewalk makes all the right moves. With their extensive experienced developers from all established studios like Bungie, we can be assured that they might turn the ship around to success.
VERDICT
The game is a live service, which gives it a far longer lifespan than most other games. Improvements can still be made, the developers are confident in it after all.
Concord currently is not a very attractive title, nor should it be recommended, but if it does reach it’s potential like most others believe, then it will be a big competitor in the hero-shooter genre.
For now, the game sits on a 5/10.
