Concord is an incredibly distinct PvP shooter in an incredibly busy space. Tight, polished gameplay drives its diverse cast along a number of memorable maps. Distinctly old-school in its execution, it is multiplayer game stripped of annoyance and packed with fun.
Concord is the most fun I’ve had with a competitive online multiplayer shooter since Titanfall 2 and Overwatch.
Blizzard’s game-changing Overwatch and Respawn’s second attempt at a great thing both released in 2016. Where Overwatch ushered in the prominence of hero shooters, Titanfall 2 was a taut, high-energy competitive game.
Our space has ballooned. At times it feels unsustainable. Like it or not, Fortnite transformed the landscape. Battle passes. Battle royales. Free to play. Online multiplayer games may be a hydra of possibility but there are a few heads that seemingly can’t be severed from the current mold.
In ways, Concord feels like a bastardization of the current multiplayer landscape, especially what one must seemingly do to satiate the skewed expectations of the masses. It costs $40 at launch. It contains no battle pass. Outside of a scant few solo training and timed trial modes, it only has 5v5 Pv5 competitive modes. It’s also a new IP.
Concord is strangely pure but in a way that is being lampooned as a dusty, poorly thought-out relic. When I play Concord, I think of Goldeneye 007. I think of the Facing Worlds map in Unreal Tournament. I think of a Halo LAN party. I think of ignoring my college homework for endless hours of 2Fort on Team Fortress 2.
There are things that Concord certainly lacks and a number of things it could do better. But in the face of an unyielding deluge, I can’t help but praise Concord for getting so much right and, above all things, being a blast to play.
Firewalk Studios has framed everything in Concord around a cohesive universe. A trip into the dense lore of the Galactic Guide from the game’s main menu treats players to an interactive galaxy of planets, shipping routes, and character beats. As players continue to level up each Freegunner, land on a new map, or watch weekly vignettes played upon booting up the game, the Galactic Guide is updated with new information.
While I’m uncertain if the lore dumps in Concord would have been more palatable if narrated by a character from the game, after reading nearly 100 entries I can say that Firewalk put a great deal of thought into the machinations of this universe. Each of the game’s maps have a purpose within the lore. Several maps take place on the planet Leviathan, a world covered in water and coveted for its ability to produce salt. You see, water is scooped up from Leviathan and then transported to the desert planet Glance where the water evaporates and leaves behind salt. This salt is used for faster-than-light travel. Unfortunately, Leviathan’s moon is going to crash into the planet, leaving the Guild–the universe’s governing body–strapped for fuel. Plus all the moisture being absorbed into Glance’s atmosphere is causing the planet’s overall temperature to cool.
At its heart, Concord‘s narrative is a critique of rampant capitalism and the damage certain species inflict on the environment. But it also contains a number of interesting bits of science fiction, including an all-consuming force called The Tempest that ravages planets and cut off the Wilds of the Concord galaxy from anything behind it. Biomes, governments, monsters, and more are given life.
Yet it is all packed into the Galactic Guide, a few morsels in the How to Play section for each Freegunner, and drops of environmental storytelling found in maps. Firewalk has promised that each week, players who log in to Concord will be treated to vignettes that dive into pockets of the game’s overarching story. As of writing, three of these vignettes have been released and feature six of the 16 Freegunners on board their ship the Northstar. These short movies have some charm but do feel relatively quick and contained.
My hope is that as the weeks go on, Firewalk will expand these vignettes outside of the Northstar and perhaps introduce other non-playable characters important to the lore. While the context does enrich Concord as a whole–especially for players who latch onto the lore–having no other way for players to interact with it does come as a detriment, perhaps causing the devotion to such a full-bodied narrative to be somewhat superfluous.
While I understand that many would appreciate Concord housing some single-player mode–being a PlayStation game, and all–I think some kind of PvE mode has the possibility to satisfy the many avenues of Concord as a whole. The large, varied maps are viable for any number of objectives and hordes of enemies. The synergy between all the various Freegunners would work resoundingly well in a cooperative setting. And there would be additional opportunities to inject narrative in a game that so desperately wants players to appreciate it.
But, in its current form, Concord is a 5v5 competitive shooter. And there can be many things a person may want or expect from a game but it is essential to judge it based upon what is offered, not what could be.
Assumptions that Concord is an Overwatch clone with Guardians of the Galaxy costumes is an obvious reduction but one that sees the game only as a caricature of itself. Certainly the scrappy band of Freegunners contain personalities that deliver jokes and exposition with a bit of cringe but there’s a warmth in the dialogue and the prose. Marvel does not have the trademark on quirky characters but it does have the mindeshare. Star Child has the closest analog with Drax and Lennox is more than just a lizard man Yondu.
Much has been said about the appeal of Concord‘s characters and their visual design. And honestly, it’s hard for the well not to have been poisoned by both online discourse and the passage of time. Much credence has been given to Blizzard’s designs of the original Overwatch crew, of how readable their personalities and abilities are just from first glance. But we live in a world where games have featured archetypes for decades and general shapes, sizes, and attributes often indicate a lot of what people will be playing.
The 16 Freegunners players control in Concord are ripped straight out of a 70s or 80s sci-fi film. My closest point of comparison to this aesthetic is Teo, the classic soldier archetype that has an assault rifle and throws grenades. Teo’s hefty shoulder pads evoke Kyle Reese from The Terminator or many of the soldiers in Aliens. Haymar’s cloak calls to sword and sorcery films of the time but her chunky boots look straight out of a NASA moon landing.
There’s a hint of ugliness in many of the characters’ outfits because the universe of Concord is more utilitarian, chunky, and scrappy. The Wilds is cut off from many of the resources it used to have and these individuals are wearing recycled goods. The diversity present in the entire group of Freegunners is also an aspect of the game worth applauding. Concord features a cast of characters of different species, races, and body types. Tanks like Emari and 1-Off are comically massive when compared to others. Kyps looks like a Replicant in a suit from Blade Runner if they didn’t try to look like people with skin.
And once players spend more time with these characters, their designs seem all the more practical. A favorite of mine is Daw, a heavy-set medic who throws down healing pads and a defensive barrier. Though visually a bigger target, the healing pad strapped to his back gives him the silhouette of a turtle, a defensive creature with a protective shell. His weapon is a semi-automatic rifle that devastates with long-range headshots. He is a slower-moving character and looks that way, implying that he is best used when holding down a location. Lark is a creature formed from spores and his gun fires literal blobs of spores that seek out targets, while his abilities include covering the floors in plants that buff teammates.
Across the various Freegunners in Concord, players will naturally want to ascribe certain roles. While certain characters lean into support and tank roles, they are much more nebulous than that. Firewalk has done an astounding job at striking a balance of making all 16 characters viable in multiple scenarios. Hard counters to certain characters definitely exist. Many characters would struggle in a 1v1 against another. But these don’t make Concord a hard-line hero shooter.
Again, take Teo. His fast-firing assault rifle can likely down most characters in a full clip, same with a direct hit from a grenade. But his smoke grenades allow him the opportunity to synergize with a support role outside of blanket DPS. By throwing a smoke grenade in a hallway or chokepoint, Teo can literally make it impossible for anyone to see. However, Teo has a passive allowing him to see enemies through the smoke when aiming down the sights. It creates new opportunities for cutting off enemies and preventing them from taking blind pot shots.
A particularly devastating combination is that of Emari and Jabali. Emari has one of the highest health pools in the game and can project a shield in front of her capable of absorbing significant amounts of damage. But she also can give other teammates an overshield as well. Though she is also one of the slowest characters in the game, she can tank damage while also providing support. Jabali on the other hand can throw healing orbs that are absorbed by another character who then projects a healing aura around them. If Jabali heals Emari, Emari and any player around her will also be healed. But Jabali is a capable fighter himself as his machine gun can track enemies and do good damage.
It would be easy to get lost in the various situational engagements I’ve gotten in in the around 200 matches I’ve played in Concord during the Beta period and the full release. Suffice it to say, there’s a place for all 16 of these characters in practically any combination. I can see an argument for Kyps to have the damage of their burst pistol buffed but that’s only because I’m not great at landing shots as her when stealthed, which increase the critical damage the shots do.
Roka became a fast favorite with her ability to shoot rockets at distant targets. I initially was terrible with Duchess until I mastered her ability to confine and block out enemies with her walls and devastating AoE blast. 1-Off, to me, is one of the most unique characters in a FPS. His vacuum gun has two firing modes, one that damages in a small cone and another that sucks up everything on the battlefield, from bullets to deployables. As players suck up more and more, 1-Off can throw trash bombs that ricochet off walls and do devastating damage. He deploys air barriers that deflect projectiles and protect his flank.
Players can easily get stuck with a character and not want to switch from them. It’s natural to become accustomed to one or two ways of playing and not want to do worse by experimenting. While a quick venture into the How to Play section will tell players all they need to know about a character, an argument can be made for Firewalk not making it painfully obvious what a character does upon selection, though a mere button press brings up the necessary text.
Where Concord truly excels is in pushing players to change up their Freegunner selection over the course of the match. Each Freegunner is assigned to a certain role: Anchor, Breacher, Haunt, Ranger, Tactician, and Warden. When players select a Freegunner with that role, any Freegunner selected after that will have a crew bonus applied based on the previously selected role. An Anchor increases the healing a Freegunner receives; a Breacher unlocks a faster dodge cooldown; a Haunt increases mobility; a Ranger improves weapon recoil; a Tactician makes reload speed faster; and a Warden extends a weapons effective range.
Over the course of a match in Concord, players can eventually have all six crew bonuses applied to their Freegunner if they select a different Freegunner after death in a role they have not had a bonus applied to. While it seems like a confusing system, upon character select each crew bonus a Freegunner unlocks is highlighted.
So say you aren’t satisfied with Emari’s intial speed. Play as a Haunt like Roka or Bazz first and Emari will have her speed boosted. Don’t like the shorter range of Star Child’s shotgun? Play as Lennox first to get his range boost. And don’t think that the crew bonus system incentivizes death, it simply doesn’t. What I learned about the crew system was that it encouraged me to change up my Freegunner selection based on the situation at hand. Where Overwatch emphasizes specific roles and their use in a win, Concord matches can be won playing with virtually any combination of Freegunners. However, you may find that your team seems to be struggling after you’ve died a few times and maybe the map isn’t great for Vale’s sniping. Why not switch from her to a character that would benefit from her range bonus. Countless times I moved from one Freegunner to another and felt the tide of a match turn in my favor.
That same logic also applies to the opposing team. As a match continues they may change their team makeup, inspiring you to again adjust which Freegunner you’ve selected. With Call of Duty being my primary PvP game anymore, it is nice to see a match rely on more than just a gun and its attachments. In Concord there doesn’t feel like a distinct meta overrides most strategies. It certainly pays to lock down an area with Daw’s healing pads and Lark’s plants but all it takes is a Star Child to rush in and slam them away or a 1-Off to suck up all the objects.
Concord‘s matches can often transform multiple times between start and finish. The massive maps on hand are well designed to have engagements and chokepoints flow across them. I do think there are situations where players will often spawn far from their team or a control point, causing a frustrating lull especially when attempting to prevent the enemy team from gaining points. But as I became accustomed to all the maps I was floored by how many times obvious spaces for big engagements would shift and morph to tiny hallways or the edges of a map.
Players wanting to further engage with the crew system can also make up their own crew lineup, placing Freegunners in specific spots. The designed crew will be the one available during matches. It’s here that players can also assign variants of Freegunners that may have different perks. At launch 8 variants are available and it would have been nice to see all 16 Freegunners have multiple but over time that roster should expand as well.
It’s astounding how much polish Concord‘s overall package has. In the two weeks I’ve played the launch version there have been a few patches here and there but none seemingly altering Freegunners in big ways or adjusting maps. This is a beautiful, colorful game and without a doubt one of the best looking competitive multiplayer games available. Firewalk has Bungie veterans in it and I would argue that the gunplay in Concord is some of the best feeling since Destiny. Once players acclimate their brains to how Concord operates in terms of reloading, recoil, movement, and various other systems, each game truly shines.
What’s perhaps most frustrating about Concord is that it lacks a truly special, distinct mode that one could only find here and that truly benefits from the crew system. As it stands, Concord features a team deathmatch, a Kill Confirmed-like deathmatch, and four control point-based modes. One playlist features a mode where a team must control two of three control points to earn points while the other mode has a singular point shift around, like Hardpoint. Another playlist does not allow respawns, with modes requiring players to either capture a zone or deposit a small robot in a zone and hope it doesn’t get defused. In this playlist, crew selection is vital as winning a round locks players out from their previous Freegunner variant.
In Concord‘s current climate, matches strike a balance between being just the right amount of time and over too soon. Deathmatch modes are the best of 30 and in the mode focused just on kills, can be a bit short. For the control point respawn modes, it’s whoever gets to 125 first. I’ve been in matches where one team has completely decimated the other and it feels both over too fast and not soon enough. Whether this is a case of skill-based matchmaking or one team simply being better is hard to say. But Concord truly works best when a 5-stack of players act as one unit.
I’m not sure why Firewalk did not include some other mode in the game, such as a Payload or Capture the Flag mode. What’s on hand can certainly be intense, brisk, and challenging but I have to wonder what mode will come out in a future update and why it wasn’t included at launch.
Arguing the simplistic, multiplayer-only aspect of Concord is difficult if you look at the landscape of other games that are free and balk at the idea of paying $40 for something. But Concord feels special in that it doesn’t waste players’ time, especially because it is not bogged down by an endless grind for cosmetics. The cosmetics on hand here are primarily color switches and alternative skins do not particularly astound me. But players earn everything simply by playing the game and leveling up their account and characters, completing jobs, and having fun with the game. Is that really such a damnable sin? Does Concord require a secondary investment or currency or reward track to be a better game? I don’t think so.
It has been increasingly difficult over the months watching the reception Concord has had and then having the full game opened up for criticism. Fundamentally this is an excellent, technically sound, great to play game. It is not attempting to rewrite hero shooters as we know them. What it succeeds at is giving players a roster of diverse characters, all with fun and viable avenues of combat. I’m not sure if Concord would benefit being styled as a shooter after the F2P chase but it seems in limbo either way.
But again, we are here to judge a game for what it is. Not what it should be. As time goes on Concord will add new Freegunners, maps, modes, and story. So far, the current pool of what Concord has offered is great and undeniably memorable. Devoid of all the bullshit this is a fantastic multiplayer game that would have stood tall years ago and deservedly should stand tall now.
Concord is an incredibly distinct PvP shooter in an incredibly busy space. Tight, polished gameplay drives its diverse cast along a number of memorable maps. Distinctly old-school in its execution, it is multiplayer game stripped of annoyance and packed with fun.
