Concord is ok, but not necessary. Preview

Intel Core i5-8700K 3.7 GHz / AMD Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7 GHz processor, 16 GB RAM, DirectX 12 graphics card and 8 GB memory, such as NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super / AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT

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The announcement of Concord at the PlayStation Showcase event was met without enthusiasm – this is not just another hero shooter (of which there really are not many, but still), but also a game published by Sony. Hardcore PlayStation fans don’t like such projects – give them single story adventures that collect awards at the end of the year. But for some reason, the company not only releases such a game under its own brand – it also asks $40 for it, although recently multiplayer shooters have been distributed using a shareware model. In July, Sony decided to conduct beta testing of the upcoming new product to show what exactly is offered for that amount and how Concord is unique.

⇡#Despite logic

First, a fun fact: when the beta testing of Concord was first announced, it was said that access to it would be given by pre-ordering the shooter. Shortly before the scheduled launch date, news appeared – it turns out that pre-ordering was not necessary; all PlayStation Plus subscribers will also be allowed into the beta. This may in fact have been the original plan, but from the outside it looks like there were ridiculously few pre-orders and it would take too long to find players in matches.

The beta version begins with a story cutscene, where the characters are very similar to the Guardians of the Galaxy

It is not surprising that the audience is in no hurry to give Sony money – from the trailers it was difficult to understand how Concord differs from the free Overwatch 2, why it is necessary to abandon the free Apex Legends and Valorant, and how the new product is better than the free Destiny 2, which also has PvP modes. Closed beta testing did not provide clear answers to all these questions. It is clear that this is a high-quality project, the characters are gorgeously animated, and their number is large enough to make your eyes widen when you get into a match. But why they want $40 for this is unclear. And no, it’s not because there are no microtransactions – the costumes will be sold for real money.

Concord is a multiplayer shooter in which two teams of five players fight each other in different modes. In the beta version, only “Brawl” is initially available, and “Rivalry” is unlocked at the sixth account level. Selecting Brawl puts you into either Assassination (team deathmatch) or Trophy Hunt (similar to Call of Duty’s Predator), fun with respawns. “Rivalry” also has two modes – either you protect the cargo, or you get into the “Battle”, where victory is given both for capturing the zone and for eliminating all opponents. In both cases, matches are divided into rounds, and in case of death you have to wait until the end of the round.

In modes with revivals, players are crowded together more than in Rivalry

That is, already at this stage Concord is no different from its competitors – all these modes are in every competitive shooter. Perhaps there will be something unique at release, but in this case it should have been shown during testing. Trophy Hunt plays exactly like Predator in Call of Duty, with players leaving behind tokens when they die. And “Skirmish” is reminiscent of “Trials of Osiris” from Destiny 2, only there the battles are much more intense due to the ticket system and valuable rewards for winning several matches in a row.

The situation with heroes is better – there are already sixteen of them, so when you first get into a match you have no idea who you want to play. The beta does not have a tutorial mode, so you have to figure it out on the fly. Here the game turns out to be very similar to Overwatch – you cannot create sets of equipment, all characters carry their own weapons and have radically different skills. Lennox carries a heavy pistol and throws an exploding knife. Emari is armed with a light machine gun and creates a generator that gives her allies bonus armor. Buzz throws throwing knives and also makes enemies vulnerable to damage. Someone heals, someone disables the enemy’s weapon, someone can hover in the air or build a protective wall. One has a submachine gun, another has a sniper rifle, and the third has a firearm.

Junkrat’s local counterpart even reloads his weapon very similarly

Although there is no clear division into tanks, damage dealers and support characters, it is obvious that the heroes here perform different tasks. There are fighters like Theo – with a rifle, a pistol, as well as smoke and cluster grenades, he is clearly needed primarily to eliminate opponents. And some 1-OFF – a large walking iron barrel – protects the team with the help of an air barrier from which shells bounce, and he has a lot of health. What’s noteworthy is that despite all the heroes having two active abilities, none of them have an absolute skill—as the match progresses, no powerful “ultimate” accumulates that can turn the tide of the game. This is an interesting decision that I rather welcome – when the winning team in Overwatch 2 starts rotating ults, there is not much fun. Here there are more opportunities to win back, since everyone is on equal terms, plus or minus, until the end of the match.

⇡#One for all

The characters also differ in their controls: there are very slow shooters, and there are fast attack aircraft. Some simply make a double jump, while others float above the ground. Everyone can dodge (something like a roll, on PS5 it is activated by double-clicking the crouch button), but some fighters receive a bonus when using it – for example, they run faster. Nothing unusual for those who have played Overwatch, but in Concord you can influence the behavior of characters in battle thanks to team bonuses – the main “trick” that distinguishes the project from other hero shooters.

The game creates one team automatically – perhaps if this did not happen, players would have to understand the mechanics

This mechanic is horribly explained in the beta—so much so that people on social media are surprised at its existence when someone mentions it—but it has a noticeable impact on gameplay. At the sixth account level, the ability to create teams opens up – you must create a list of twelve heroes that will be available to you in the match. Among them there may be copies of your favorite heroes (no more than three) – the main thing is that you choose at least five unique fighters. They are all divided into six roles: Marines, Wardens, Ghosts, Stormtroopers, Anchors and Tactics. The essence of these roles is that after the death of a character belonging to a specific role, the corresponding passive ability will be transferred to all other heroes in your squad. Roughly speaking, after the death of a fighter, it is advisable to switch to someone else in order to take advantage of the bonus that is active until the end of the match.

For example, if the caretaker dies, all other heroes’ firing range will increase. If a ghost dies, the movement speed of its comrades will increase. A deceased tactician will transfer accelerated reload time to others. And so on. As a result, you can finish a match with a maximum of six passive bonuses, if you die the required number of times and constantly change characters.

Health does not regenerate automatically, and first aid kits are marked on the mini-map

Achieving this will not be easy – you will lose the match before you reach this number, since the game goes up to 30 eliminations in Brawl, and up to four wins in Rivalry. But you will definitely earn at least two or three bonuses, and it is expected that you will first assemble a team that suits your playing style. You love playing as machine gunner Emari, but she runs and reloads so slowly that starting a match with her is painful. In this case, run around as a ghost, then take the tactics, and then take it – with speed bonuses it will be much more comfortable.

On paper, the idea sounds great – it’s truly an innovation in the hero shooter genre. There is synergy here not only between the heroes chosen by different players on the team, but also between the characters you yourself change after death. This isn’t Overwatch 2, where you’re forced to switch to D.Va against an enemy Widowmaker or to a Reaper if your opponent has a strong tank – here, of course, you can counter one character with another, but the change of fighters occurs in Concord for a different reason.

The number of team bonuses is visible in the lower right corner – you just need to memorize what exactly each icon means

However, if Overwatch 2 taught us anything, it’s that not everyone wants to switch between heroes. It’s not for nothing that there are “wantricks” (those who play one hero all their lives), many have “mains” (heroes that people prefer over others), and so on. There is a high probability that even users who know about this mechanic will ignore it – well, they want to run after a girl with a crossbow and memorize her features, so that if they die, they will not suddenly switch to a machine gunner or knife thrower. They would rather start with them, quickly die from the first thing they come across and pass on the improvements to their favorite character, spoiling their team’s statistics and making the match more difficult. Or they won’t spend any time on it at all.

Therefore, the main feature of Concord is seen as a “trick” for the sake of a “trick” – it seems like an interesting idea, but it’s not at all like what fans of competitive shooters want. Ideally, among the sixteen fighters, you will find three or four that you like, and whom you would not mind switching to in case of death – then this mechanic will not cause negative emotions. However, this seems like an unnecessary complication – a tactical shooter element in a game that doesn’t look or play like a tactical shooter.

There’s no fault with the graphics here—both the characters and the maps look luxurious

So it turns out that many elements of Concord are copied from other successful projects, and its main distinguishing feature is far-fetched and goes against the way people are used to playing multiplayer shooters. The characters could have saved the situation, but their designs are very boring – just women, men and aliens, when looking at which no emotions arise. In Overwatch, you could look at Tracer, Reinhardt or Lucio and immediately, without any further clues, understand who they were and what they were doing. Here the characters are also different from each other, but they look as if they were drawn by different people who did not know that they were working on the same project. The full version promises some plot scenes that reveal their characters, but if you don’t fall in love with the characters at first sight, then interest will not arise later.

***

Sony rarely publishes multiplayer games, but if it does do so, then in case of failure it quickly closes the servers – just remember Destruction All-Stars. That game also had a price tag, but at first it was distributed on PlayStation Plus – however, this did not help attract an audience. There is a feeling that the same story will repeat itself with Concord – a paid game, similar to its popular free counterparts, is unlikely to gain success. If current competitors like Overwatch 2 cannot crush it, then after the release of Marvel Rivals – another heroic multiplayer action game – Concord will most likely not be remembered at all.

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