Concord Beta Impressions – A promising tease of what’s to come

Firewalk Studios has kicked off its first beta weekend for its forthcoming 5v5 multiplayer shooter Concord. Featuring four game modes and free reign of all sixteen playable ‘Freegunner’ heroes, this debut from the team with Destiny vets is seriously the goods. Yes, even when you’re as mediocre a player as I am and getting your behind handed to you.

Concord’s currently playable game modes are made up of two playlists. Brawl certainly feels like the more casual player-friendly offering, providing a Team Deathmatch mode known as ‘Takedown’ and a bounty card collector known as ‘Trophy Hunt.’ For players far more skilled than I, the Rivalry playlist offers a bomb planting and defending/attacking ‘Cargo Run’ and a simple game of King of the Hill, known as ‘Clash Point.’ This latter playlist is more extreme too; with a single life being granted to players each round. No respawns.

Games in the Rivalry playlist are, to me, terrifying. With all sixteen Freegunners being vastly different from the last, many ways exist to be outnumbered and overpowered. When your team is eliminated in a game of Counter-Strike 2 for example, you have a hard fight ahead of you but it feels doable. When you pull that off, it’s a moment of triumph and one worth celebrating. Lose all your teammates in a no respawn match of Concord, however, and you’re a deer in headlights as a tank, a highly mobile DPS player and a healer for the group come barrelling towards you. By then you’ve accepted your fate, it’s written in stone and there’s no fighting chance.

Naturally, I gravitated towards typical games of Takedown and Trophy Hunt instead, and it seems that’s the same for the current majority of players. As, for some ill-advised reason, there are currently no training rooms or modes to try out to familiarise yourself with each Freegunner, this is the current best means of learning the ropes. Quickly I became enamored with Bazz. She’s got a bit of a recon and stealth approach which I’m pleased to learn works with a game like this. Equipped with fast-firing throwing knives that, in combination with the ability to pierce your enemies with a projectile that leaves them vulnerable, is a deadly combination. Topping it all off, playing with her crouched provides limited x-ray vision through walls to see other players, perfect for taking advantage of the map design that will often allow for quality looping around and flanking, closing that last gap with Bazz’s other devastating ability, her lunge stab attack. She’s my favourite thus far, and is prime for picking off isolated players or tense 1v1 battles if you’re skilled enough.

I’ve found other Freegunners to be equally diverse in both design and play. It-Z is a cheeky, fiery alien with dyed purple hair that moves incredibly fast and is lightweight à la Scout from Team Fortress 2. She’s a Freegunner I definitely want to get my hands on more when I’ve found myself to be a better player because her simple ducking in and out of encounters to dole out damage is compelling. I would love to be skilled enough to play characters like Lark, an alien with a spore-like head that offers plenty of self-buffs that mean when the timing is right you can stack damage. I’m always terrified when I come across an enemy Lark because I can tell they are good at keeping themselves alive and melting me when it comes to it. It’s also just nice to load into a game with characters with diverse pronouns and body types. Overwatch may still be the king of hero shooters but you’d be remiss if you didn’t note all the often thin, anime same-face design the cast is guilty of having.

Star Child is a brute who is just my absolute champion when push comes to shove.  With a punchy shotgun and a charge ability you can end with a powerful slam, if timing and skill serve you right they’re a really good means of clearing an area. It’s no secret that all the characters I’ve mentioned thus far are more or less the ones with a low skill ceiling. This is just the start though, and I’m just excited to experiment more and more. Healing characters like Jabali still really do task players with actually shooting and not just hiding behind your team, healing them. And that’s a good thing. No longer is just pointing at an ally and shooting the heal button enough, like say, Medic in Team Fortress 2. Now when push comes to shove you actually need to put some work in. I’m anticipating the fun of being thrown into the deep end with characters like this.

Concord looks to be another successful multiplayer shooter from PlayStation. While I’m not quite sure it’ll reach the heights of Helldivers 2 come full release, I’m never not having fun in this beta hands-on. Gunplay and combat feel really good. Matches never sprawl out too long, there’s always enough going on in a match to take something out of it to better yourself in the future. It truly feels good to be there day and date for a new hero shooter, starry-eyed and hopeful of a community that loves it as much as you do. I just hope you people also show up. I’ll be damned if we let this be another Battleborn situation. I’m counting on you all.

Concord is available for PlayStation 5 and PC on August 23rd. The first beta weekend may be wrapped up but the free-for-all open beta is happening next week, running from July 18-21. Stay tuned for more on this colourful and fun shooter.