Concord

(available for PlayStation 5 and PC)

Concord is the latest Sony Live Service game made as part of PlayStation Studios, this one coming from Firewalk Studios, a relatively new studio that Sony initially signed an exclusivity deal with before outright buying them- something that I took a lot of interest in, since it seemed very unlike Sony to buy a studio without seeing a single game that they had made.

Sony’s Live Service initiative hasn’t been going very well, it’s only success so far has been Helldivers. Concord had a lot of marketing around it, it even opened the last state of play, but when the trailer was uploaded online, it became one of their most disliked videos ever- people were not happy that this game was coming out, especially considering that it didn’t look like there was much to this game.

It’s basically a hero shooter, similar to a game like Overwatch (more comparisons with that to come) set in a pretty generic sci-fi universe, with a clear influence from Guardians of the Galaxy.

You get a few modes at launch, but you’re mostly playing Team Death Matches, though I managed to get into a few games of what in most shooters is called ‘Kill Confirmed’ (i.e. you have to pick up the person’s dog tags for your team to score the point, you don’t get points for the kill alone).

I played Concord in both the beta and the full release, but rather annoyingly, my progress from the beta didn’t carry over to the full release. I also noted that you don’t get many rewards from it, which is extra annoying because to access the beta on PlayStation requires you to purchase the digital deluxe version, which I did.

I’ll point out that this game won’t score well today, as I deleted it quicker than almost any other Sony first-party game I’ve put on my PlayStation.

But, of course, we have to go through the game and discuss what went well and what didn’t.

PROS

• Framerate

This might be due to the fact that I played this game via a PlayStation that was connected to the internet via an ethernet cable, but I never noticed any framerate drops even when there was a lot happening on screen, except for when there were connection issues, which is something that I can’t say for Overwatch! But judging by the play count that was on Steam, this might be due to the fact that there aren’t enough players on there to push their system to the limit.

MIXED

• Reward System

I’m thankful to say that the microtransactions aren’t too high this time, but the reward system has a mixed feel to it.

On the one hand, the game does give you a variety of tasks to do to earn currency. The downside is that they don’t change all that often and they can be quite specific, to such an extent that I was never going to try and attempt them because it didn’t suit my playstyle.

I also thought that the rewards just weren’t worth it. The cosmetics are just rubbish. It might be due to the fact that I was playing it at launch, but there wasn’t much variety there and it takes ages to unlock them! I’d never thought I’d miss the Loot Boxes from Overwatch.

CONS

• Uninspired Gameplay

This has got to be one of the most boring Sony first-party games I have played in a long time. It is dull, dull, DULL!

The big problem is that the character variety means that matches usually play out the same, and the lack of game modes at launch means you’re stuck, playing a hero shooter where there’s not much going on.

I actually think that the game is really stupid to lock a few modes behind Level 6- people will put this game away before they get to that point, and you’re not missing much if you unlock it.

But it’s also just not very new-user friendly. Again, if I compare it to Overwatch (which this game is very clearly trying to emulate) that game is very good at creating a variety of gameplay styles, so there is always one character that is going to fit you. It also, as a result, makes it very newcomer friendly!

Because of the lack of variety, it’s not very friendly for those wanting to pick up and play. There were many instances where I was so bored of constantly being killed because I couldn’t get to grips with the character that I had to pick because someone else took my main. I was often just begging for the match to be over so I could go and do something else!

• Character Variety

I couldn’t tell you anything about these characters. It’s not as if they’d have to do much to make them work- Overwatch, despite the fact that they have spent a lot of money on animations and comics that flesh out the characters, realise that it’s not necessary to feel the variety.

The developers clearly put a lot of effort into these characters, and they’re putting in new cutscenes to expand them each week, but it’s boring and generic. There’s the one with the big gun, the cowboy character, the guy who looks like a living cactus who is kind of the cover star, the only one I remember the name of is Moka, and I only liked her because she had a newcomer friendly weapon of the rocket launcher.

Even then, the powers they have are rubbish! Moka has one where she gets to slam her fist into the ground, but I only ever killed one person because it never worked as intended. They’re pretty crap!

None of them have any personality. I will admit that I find some of the designs pretty cool, but even then, they almost feel AI generated. Like someone typed in ‘do a visually distinct yet generic sci-fi setting’, which also extends to the maps that you fight on. They all look the same! The only difference is what colour the sky is.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Concord is obviously a massive punching bag for Sony at this point, and I suspect that they will drop it very quickly, but it’s all because this game is very bad. The game is uninspired, it doesn’t work very well, the character variety isn’t there… Yeah, the framerate is alright, but it’s in service of a game that I don’t want to be playing!

It’s a mess. Pure and simple. I think if Helldivers 2 hadn’t been a success, Sony might have been looking at getting rid of the Live Service Initiative altogether.

Despite all of its faults, I would still recommend Overwatch 2 over this, because I can’t recommend this under any circumstances.

FINAL SCORE: 3.5/10