I’ve been keeping an eye on Concord since it was announced during the Summer Games Fest. The premise looked cool, but at the same time, it seems confusing. They’re trying to mash together a few different games with influences from Destiny, Overwatch, and Valorant. But then coupling that with a storytelling experience that looks like it would sit comfortably in Guardians of The Galaxy. Furthermore, there are some really confusing mechanics being baked in that even after reading about numerous times, I’m still not sure I understand. I can’t help but feel like Concord will be DOA if it goes ahead with its release date in a month. It looks like it needs delaying and I’d be surprised if it’s not.
What’s Concord about?
Concord is a competitive hero shooter that pits two teams against each in 5vs5 battles other across various game modes and maps. With 16 heroes to choose from, you’re not short on options. And this is where one of the biggest strengths of the game lies. The characters look unique and they have a lot of cool abilities to play around with and learn.
Additionally, the art style is something I love. There’s some great imagination in how the heroes look. And some of the maps look excellent as well. Although, as I’ve yet to play, this is only based on what I’ve seen in videos and screenshots. But the vibes look cool.
Here’s the thing though. When the game was announced they showed a cool cinematic video introducing the world and characters. People full of personality, wit, and all that stuff you’d expect to see in a story-driven game. Then on came the developers and announced it as being a 5 vs 5 comp shooter. Everyone collected went “ehh”. It just seems to have been presented in such a strange way…
I’m just a bit confused about what is going on with this game and that immediately makes me not want to spend money on it.
Beta
Over the weekend they held their closed beta. I think it’s fair to say that it didn’t have the greatest showing with a peak of just over 1100 people on Steam. With the average being way below that over the weekend. Access to the beta was given via preorders of the game. Which makes it look like the preorder numbers weren’t great on PC. However, if you also factor in that with your preorder you also get given several additional codes to give to friends. The picture looks even worse.
Perhaps – and understandably so, people are just wary of preordering and are waiting for the open beta kicking off on the 18th of July. Even so, the game has definitely had an underwhelming reaction since its announcement.
When you consider that many other competitive FPS games have multiple betas that often run months in advance. This feels a little too close to launch to be able to actually fix any potential issues.
At £35 it’s not hugely expensive. However, when you look at similarly competitive titles they’re typically free to play and propped by cosmetic microtransactions and battlepasses. I know a lot of people don’t enjoy this monetization method. But, it seems most fitting in this case. Plus, you’re likely to still see those monetization options anyway – although they don’t seem to have been officially confirmed yet, so an additional £35 on top of that kind of stings.
Try not to judge
I’m trying not to judge what I’ve seen too harshly. But, first impressions matter and Concord’s first impression has left me feeling off about whether this game will be any good. Thankfully with the open beta, we will all be able to give it a go and I’m looking forward to checking it out.
I love to see developers taking bold steps to try something new and this format of a story-driven world with competitive FPS gameplay alongside could work. But even as I write that, it just sounds a bit odd.
Are we going to see another Suicide Squad flop or a Helldivers 2 triumph? Here’s hoping for the latter.
-Will
