Concord Review – Discordant

To say that Firewalk Studios had an uphill battle to fight with Concord would be an understatement. Its characters already came across as trying too hard to emulate the MCU’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Then it was revealed to be a 5v5 competitive shooter with unique heroes and a live service model. The $40 pricing was viewed as a big ask, especially in this day and age when prominent competitive shooters like Valorant, and Overwatch 2 are free-to-play.

As the months passed and the minuscule interest remained stagnant, Concord finally released to a whopping 697 peak concurrent players on Steam. Already touted as “dead on arrival,” its flaws go beyond its lackluster content, baffling Crew Bonuses, identity crisis, and wasted narrative potential. For all the pomp and circumstance behind its weekly cinematic vignettes and popping pastel hues, Concord isn’t all that interesting.

The story, such as it is, sees the crew of the Northstar urgently awaiting approval from the Guild to take on jobs. Spoiler: They get it. I pointed this out already in my beta impressions, but revealing a game with a bombastic cinematic trailer and then kicking it off with a bunch of people sitting around a computer doesn’t drum up interest.

Yes, I can see some of their quirks – Star Child’s faux-Drax impression, 1-0ff’s polite android character, Haymar’s dreary “it’s not a phase, mom” outlook – but it doesn’t build to anything. If anything, it’s a lazy approach to justify why the Northstar crew is traveling across the Concord galaxy, taking on all these tasks.

It’s even more hilarious when you peek into the Galactic Guide, one of the game’s highlights. This giant interactive map of the galaxy provides lore for trade routes, planets, and other locations, and there’s some genuinely involving stuff. The Northstar was built by an unnamed Guild corporation decades prior, and now they want it back by any means necessary.

There’s an unexplained Tempest wall, destroying a once-busting trade hub and consuming everything in its wake. Even light-speed travel has an interesting backstory. As you play more, additional entries unlock, letting you dive deeper into some points beyond their introductory text. A shame, then, that they serve nothing more than lore, having no impact on the actual gameplay. Imagine if this were a co-op PvE title with missions set in these locations. Alas.

Unfortunately, outside the weekly vignettes, Concord does little to showcase the characters’ traits or interpersonal connections. Think of Overwatch and how it has conversations playing out in spawn or interesting quips when eliminating certain characters.

You may get a dialogue or two when a match starts like Haymar saying you shouldn’t make fun of a Mystic since they can light you on fire (she’s the Mystic – that’s the joke). However, beyond calling out enemy grenades or spouting some one-liners, the overall selection of voice lines feels limited, making the Freegunners feel all the more soulless.

In terms of content, Concord offers 16 playable characters (each having Variants), 12 maps and six modes divided into three playlists. You also have a few Time Trials, where you tackle specific challenges like running through tripwires and smashing enemies as Star Child in a race, and they have leaderboards to compete in. There’s also a barebones Training Range and Practice.

The six modes in question will look familiar to anyone who’s played a competitive shooter in the last few years. Takedown is all about scoring kills, while Trophy Hunt is Kill Confirmed – slay enemies, gather their Bounty Cards, or deny them. Area Control is Domination with three zones to capture and hold, while Signal Chase is King of the Hill, with the point moving after a brief period and perhaps the worst implementation of the mode I’ve ever seen.

The latter spawns new control points too quickly, and there are no lock-out times, so it’s often better to cap the fresh zone rather than contest the current one. I’m unsure if this was an oversight or just a means to provide teams with a comeback mechanic. Either way, it’s annoying.

All these modes feature respawns – the Rivalry playlist with Cargo Run (aka Bomb Defusal) and Clash Point (a more traditional King of the Hill) doesn’t. Once the objective is complete or opponents are defeated, the round ends. The first team to win four rounds wins the match.

Each successive round win removes a character from your playable roster, thus encouraging you to choose someone else. Both modes are decent enough, though Cargo Run doesn’t let you stop a rival team’s extraction so much as convert their progress to yours. Another “unique” mechanic that I’m not a fan of, but it’s nowhere as baffling as Signal Chase.

Overall, it’s not the most extensive amount of PvP content. There’s no Free-For-All Deathmatch, Custom Games or special modes to engage in. The progression system is straightforward enough, as you earn XP from completing daily and weekly Jobs to level your profile and characters to unlock new cosmetics. For a game that touts hundreds of customization items, the variety and depth of cosmetics feels sparse at best and unimaginative at worst.

It could be argued that Overwatch didn’t offer much as a paid product at launch, but that was eight years ago. By today’s standards, Concord isn’t flourishing with things to do. Honestly, I can’t even say whether the lack of a proper Ranked mode is all that bad, given the long matchmaking times for Rivalry or just how flawed the modes can be.

The maps look good, even if they don’t sport any earth-shatteringly new gimmicks. For example, the giant sea creature’s corpse on Water Hazard is little more than a pathway and Shock Risk sports a large tower in the center with multiple windows and exits overlooking it. Freewater gives pseudo-Tatooine vibes, while Glance and its extensive sightlines are more opulent. The designs and layouts are solid overall, right down to the placement of health packs, flanking routes and choke points, and thankfully, they don’t start to bleed together after extended periods.

The gunplay and abilities feel solid enough, though I’m not a fan of the slower, floatier movement. It encourages hanging back and team-shooting, yet it’s not impossible to pull off flanks and maybe score a lucky kill or two on unaware opponents. At times, it feels like Concord wants to be a hero shooter like Overwatch and a faux Destiny clone. Each Freegunner has unique weapons and abilities while having unique roles, though it’s not mandatory to follow a “one tank, two damage, two support” composition to win.

Some characters feel like must-picks for their utilities, like Daw and Lark, though there’s something to be said about their overall balance, especially considering deployables remain consistent between rounds. Having to deal with Daw’s dome shield and healing pads – with some decent damage to boot – feels annoying, especially in maps with zones. Meanwhile, Lark’s Spore Seeds are must-haves for their damage resistance and movement speed while slowing enemies and making them vulnerable.

Between generic kits like Teo, with his assault rifle, smoke grenades and cluster grenades, or Lennox, with his explosive throwing knife, revolvers and self-healing, there are some distinct playstyles. Kyps’ silenced burst pistol isn’t ideal for full-health targets but can catch weaker opponents off guard, especially when using stealth. Disrupting their abilities and pinging them with Surveillance Traps is also ideal for the team. Then you have Haymar, whose explosive shots (which can be charged) deal great damage, while Wall of Fire and Blinding Flash provide decent area and crowd control.

There’s nothing wrong with Concord playing things relatively safe with many of its characters’ abilities, though they pale to what the competition offers. One distinct difference from other hero shooters is the lack of Ultimates. Instead, there are Crew Bonuses, where switching to another role allows for inheriting bonuses from the previous one. You could choose Roka, a Haunt, for increased mobility, and then, on respawn, opt for Haymar, receiving more agility while hovering.

The bonuses aren’t massive nor mandatory to pursue – they’re to encourage switching to other characters between rounds. I would prefer if the characters’ kits provided enough impetus for switching, offering significant counter-play in some situations. Either way, if you want to main a specific character throughout a match, then not switching is still plenty comfortable.

There are also Variants, alternate versions of characters with different passives. Since you can only have one of each character in a match, this is a way to circumvent that and have two Lennoxs or Teos. I shudder to think of two Daws with a never-ending assortment of shields and health pads.

Technically, Concord runs well enough, with only the occasional latency issues and significant frame drops in a single match. The problem is its overall makeup. As intriguing as the world-building can be, it feels divorced from the competitive multiplayer aspect (and plenty of other live service titles know how to leverage the former to bolster the latter). The gameplay and maps are decent enough but fail to deliver significantly fresh experiences. Meanwhile, Crew Bonuses, while neat in concept, feel unnecessary and bog down the experience, especially with the constant return to the character select screen.

How Concord evolves and whether Firewalk Studios can inject some compelling ideas into the mix remains to be seen. As of now, there’s very little reason to delve into it when so many other titles offer much more engaging gameplay for free of charge.

This game was reviewed on PlayStation 5.