Concord was initially teased final 12 months with a easy video that showcased a ship cruising by means of area. I feel a hamburger was concerned. Anyway, after seeing that quick teaser, I actually anticipated to see a story-driven FPS – this can be a first-party Sony recreation, in spite of everything – however perhaps it’d be one thing like an MMO, a la Destiny. I used to be on board for a brand new expertise regardless, however then I used to be considerably stunned to study that Concord is, the truth is, a 5v5 shooter.
And now that I’ve performed it, I’m very glad that Concord does plan on maintaining with its world lore and ongoing storyline, since a few of my favourite FPS video games like Overwatch and Apex Legends do that seasonally as effectively . Additionally, every season that releases might be free to all gamers, who solely must buy the sport and luxuriate in future updates to return.
While I loved my time within the restricted hands-on preview total, I’ve a number of issues for the longevity of Concord and what it has to supply. Concord’s meat-and-potatoes system is a reasonably commonplace 5v5 arrange, with two groups selecting their most popular character earlier than diving into an objective-based crew battle.
During the preview, I used to be in a position to play three of six modes that might be out there at launch: Trophy Hunt, Cargo Run, and Clash Point. Trophy Hunt was the one one which featured respawns within the match and was mainly Kill Confirmed crew deathmatch.
Cargo Run, in the meantime, was a single-life match the place the target was to run to the middle, steal a Blue Buddy bundle and plant it at one in every of two websites. If planted, the enemy crew might go and stand on the bundle to diffuse it and take it again. And lastly, Clash Point was a round-based single-life recreation mode with the target being to manage the one seize zone in all the map a number of instances to get the victory.
The single-life modes had been robust to heat up on whereas nonetheless attending to know the sport, as failure clearly means you’re out of the motion for a bit. And whereas Concord is a reasonably simple FPS, I’ve a core criticism a mere two months from its August 23 launch: within the construct I performed, the motion felt extraordinarily floaty and required a little bit of time to get used to. This is exacerbated by the truth that every Freerunner character you possibly can play has a novel set of motion and abilities they convey to the crew, so every time you swap to a brand new character, you’re then trying to study and configure your mind to how they work. So you possibly can think about that it will get a bit disorienting.
And whereas Concord might be launched on PC day and date with PS5, I used to be solely in a position to preview this on the PS5 with a controller, and so with that in thoughts, I’d say the motion is closely harking back to Destiny and Halo. Again, it’s extremely floaty, which may very well be a enjoyable component whether it is executed effectively. However, the way in which the preview construct felt, the feather-light jumps and hold time actually didn’t match the quantity of fast-paced fights that might happen at any time within the matches.
While Halo does make the most of an analogous floaty bounce mechanic, the remainder of the mechanics and gameplay in Halo justify that reasoning and don’t make it really feel just like the odd component out. Grenades additionally really feel mild when lobbed by means of the air, the varied skills in Halo all have the identical weight and cadence to them, and the match pacing displays the balancing between the bottom recreation mechanics. Players in Halo, even in aggressive ranked matches, do heal over time after avoiding taking injury for some time.
Similarly, Destiny is a recreation that’s extra PvE associated and thus doesn’t want the extremely snappy mechanics that Halo or Concord want in PvP fights. Even within the PvP fights in Destiny, the standard TTK is slower because the fights may be drawn out as a result of completely different class skills permitting for slower or quicker play, relying on how gamers select to interact (i.e. extra immediately or extra reserved). Each class additionally has completely different motion capabilities and therapeutic skills that guarantee match pacing stays constant all through.
So the issue in Concord, no less than on this preview model, is that it takes little items from video games like Halo and Destiny and mixes them collectively in a system that doesn’t fairly come collectively for me as of but. Concord truly makes use of the identical sort of dodge animation from Destiny that pulls you out in third particular person. While I favored this component in Destiny, in Concord it doesn’t fairly work as a result of there’s a brief-but-noticeable delay between your enter of the dodge and the precise deployment. This could make or break your life since timing is every thing in aggressive play and a single hesitation, or simulated hesitation by means of the delayed enter, can punish you enormously.
Sony says there might be twelve whole maps at launch, so maybe a few of the recreation modes will really feel higher paced and optimized on the others when unfold out. But the way in which issues stand at the moment, most maps felt very oddly misshapen. Some lanes had been too lengthy or large and barely noticed rotations whereas the second lane in one other map would simply really feel completely too small and trigger extended crew fights as a result of its claustrophobic dimension.
Concord touts its aggressive nature and fast-paced fights. I like all of that however discovered that the competitiveness dangers being unwelcoming to new gamers trying to study the sport as a result of a lot of the recreation modes are single-life-focused.
It’s essential to notice that even in case you are an unbelievable participant, Concord shouldn’t be a recreation that permits for a lot of 1v2 fights to be received. Unlike a recreation of Apex or Halo the place you possibly can doubtlessly outsmart your opponents and win in 1v2 eventualities, Concord is so closely a crew recreation that you simply’re not in a position to succeed in case you’re by yourself. While this is the purpose of crew FPS video games, it’s fairly punishing for modes like Trophy Hunt the place you’re inspired to go off and get kills for the target.
Another purpose these lopsided matchups are inconceivable to win is the truth that every character in Concord has their very own well being pool and hitbox. This could be high-quality if these characters had your conventional courses, however Concord doesn’t make the most of your typical class system. Usually, every class has their very own well being stats that you would be able to count on every character in that label to have.
Taking a take a look at Overwatch, as an example, most Tanks have a base well being of anyplace from about 525 to 700 (with combos of shields or armor in recreation for particular characters which have them like DVA and Reinhardt). In Concord, it was extremely troublesome to inform what precisely the well being pool was for any of the courses since nothing was actually fairly established with their system.
For instance, 1-Off is a cute robotic who sucks up trash and is most positively a tank character together with his large physique and clunky motion and hard-hitting weaponry who has 300 well being. However, Teo, who is basically a DPS that performs like your conventional floor soldier-like character with no tank qualities, has 220 well being as a Concord Ranger class. But Roka, one other character who is basically a DPS, is classed as a Haunt and has 170 well being.
What these non-traditional courses imply is extraordinarily complicated. In the preview, we weren’t given particulars on every class and what the phrases imply, but it surely all appears a bit arbitrary when the well being swimming pools and injury numbers range a lot, inflicting a fair additional division of recreation balancing.
Overwatch additionally makes use of the system of making certain there’s a roster for the quantity of characters allowed from every class. Concord at the moment doesn’t make the most of a mechanic like that and permits gamers to make use of no matter characters they need, since these class methods are usually not conventional. While that is enjoyable in idea, in my transient expertise enjoying a aggressive recreation like Concord, it doesn’t pan out too effectively.
Another purpose Concord is so closely a team-based recreation is that every character has their very own working velocity and injury output. It may very well be argued that that is an extension of the dearth of clear courses, however I did need to concentrate on this as its personal balancing difficulty. The DPS on characters is fairly essential because you’re allowed to have a crew of no matter characters you need.
There had been some positively “overpowered” characters within the preview construct that you simply actually did want in your crew in case you wished to win, particularly in Trophy Hunt. Let’s take a look at the rocket launcher Freegunner, Roka.
She’s in a position to deal 43 injury with direct hits whereas firing quickly and establishing her lock-on goal nearly immediately. After having executed some watch backs, it appears there’s no actual reply to what the gap of Roka’s splash injury is and the way a lot it does constantly. So far I’ve seen it hit from an honest distance for 12 injury, then additionally hit for 27 injury nearer to the goal. Roka additionally has eight whole rockets to make use of earlier than she has to reload so these numbers add up.
Comparing this to Overwatch’s Pharah, one other rocket-launcher-wielding character, she solely does 40 injury to an enemy when it’s a direct hit, along with her splash injury being about half that. She additionally solely has six rockets earlier than having to reload and doesn’t have any skills for lock on hearth.
Obviously evaluating these two video games head-to-head isn’t truthful to both, but it surely’s essential to notice the distinction between balancing. It’s completely attainable that with time, Concord will be capable to get a greater grasp for the way its balancing ought to be maintained. But the way in which it stands at the moment, I’m involved for the extra informal gamers’ expertise and normal approachability.
The choice to play crossplay with PC and PS5 might be out there at launch which is sweet information for gamers like me who’ve buddies on each platforms, but it surely’s a little bit of a double-edged sword. The preview construct I performed showcased heavy intention help on controllers. It was most noticeable on Roka, the rocket launcher character, since her weapon locks-on. I might discover myself having to actually rip the thumbstick away to get her to show away from the closest enemy that I didn’t even need to goal.
The different characters I performed didn’t function almost as aggressive intention help, however I might really feel the magnetization there, which was a bit irritating and regarding contemplating the choice for crossplay could be enabled at launch. While sure, you possibly can argue that on PC you are able to do extra speedy motion changes on the fly, the ever-ongoing battle between controller intention help versus keyboard and mouse motion appears to only be aggravated right here.
Fortunately, there are nonetheless a few months to go till Concord’s launch – nonetheless an honest little bit of time for the balancing and tweaking of each facet of the sport that at all times occurs at this stage of the event course of. Fingers crossed Concord is ready to tighten up its floaty controls and tackle its character balancing earlier than it drops on August 23 for PS5 and PC.
