Hero shooters have suddenly become the main focus of the gaming industry. The success of games like Valorant has pushed more studios to target this large player base. As a result, community can enjoy games like the recently released XDefiant and Marvel’s Rivals. These entries have received mixed audience reviews but can maintain a strong player base.
- Concord offers a unique blend of familiar FPS elements with character abilities and diverse movement options.
- Balancing issues, frustrating character speeds, and a focus on a less popular competitive mode have led to a low player base.
- While some negativity exists, legitimate concerns highlight performance issues and the need for movement tweaks.
- The developers have a chance to address player feedback and refine Concord’s gameplay before the official release.
- Concord’s success hinges on significant changes to address player concerns and improve overall gameplay.
Sony recently showcased to the world their take on the Hero Shooter genre, with the beta of Concord. This futuristic shooter set in space first came out as a closed beta, where players had to pay a $40 fee to get the game. However, now the game has gone into an open beta on Steam. Players can download and play this game for free.
Concord’s Core Mechanics
The core gameplay of Concord is a mixture of traditional FPS ideas mixed with new mechanics. In essence, Concord is a 5v5 hero shooter, where each character comes with their abilities and unique weapons. Moreover, like Overwatch, characters possess varying health pools and movement speeds, adding a layer of tactical choice when building your team composition.
Concord takes inspiration from games like Destiny by granting characters distinct movement mechanics. This could translate to grappling hooks, jetpacks, or even teleportation abilities, further diversifying playstyles. The game has a retro-futuristic setting with unique character designs. As the game is set in space, we have aliens, robots, and future humans as part of our hero roaster.
This blend of classic science fiction tropes with a modern twist creates a visually striking and thematically intriguing world. Furthermore, the game currently has four gameplay modes. You have your everyday capture-the-area mode, along with a Cargo Run mode where players need to get hold of a special package.
However, the developer’s main focus is on a 5v5 no respawn mode. This makes each kill more significant and requires players to play a lot more carefully. Moreover, this mode only lets players play as their character once if they win a match with it. Therefore, you are required to pick a new character every time you win a round.
Even though this may not seem like much, this is where a lot of the game’s issues begin.
Problems Plaguing Concord
Even though Concord offers a fresh new take on the Hero Shooter genre, the game has been unable to attract players. During the closed beta only around 1500 players paid to play the early access. This did not get better during the open beta as a lot of players anticipated. Even when the game finally became free to play only around a thousand more players joined.
Recently the player count has been steady around 1300 to 1400 players, which is quite low considering it’s a live service game. There are several reasons why players aren’t as excited to play the game. Firstly, the game isn’t free to play, which is different from a lot of current shooters. Valorant and XDefiant both are still free to play and offer a much more fine-tuned experience.
Secondly, the game has frustratingly slow character speeds. Especially if you are playing with Tanks, you need to get used to moving slowly. The game also has this low gravity setting that isn’t as fun as it sounds. You can simply jump to dodge and get stuck in the air, which is an easy pick for the enemy team.
Moreover, the developers are encouraging players to play the no-respawn competitive modes. This could be important if the game ever goes for a future in E-Sports. However, the players are playing more in the re-spawn modes, with no restriction on character picks. This mode allows for much more of a relaxed and fun experience.
I mean dying feels a lot less worse when you can respawn within seconds. The game is still in its open beta which does allow the developers plenty of players’ data and feedback to make the necessary changes. I do enjoy a good Hero Shooter, and I do hope the works on a lot of these things before the official release.
Community Response
The community response has been quite brutal from the players. This further discourages players from playing and results in long matchmaking times. Some of these reviews I would consider to be purely ridiculous. There has been a recent trend where anything that seems woke is going to be trash.
Concord features characters from all over the galaxy and even shows character pronouns on the screen. Some people have concluded this to be too woke and destroying the game. In my opinion, giving characters some pronouns takes nothing away from the gameplay or combat. However, some negative reviews did have genuine reasons.
Players have complained about the optimization of the game on PC, causing performance issues. Moreover, the players do want the developers to tweak the movement of the characters which could significantly improve the game.
Concord, is a fresh take on the hero shooter genre with distinct movement mechanics and a retro-futuristic aesthetic. The game’s core concept offers tactical depth to the gameplay. However, balancing issues and a focus on a niche competitive mode have led to low player engagement and a critical community.
With open beta providing valuable player data, the developers have a chance to refine Concord’s gameplay and potentially turn it into a successful hero shooter.
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Laiba is a passionate writer who’s been covering the gaming industry for more than 2 years now and has a deep understanding of how this industry is evolving and what gamers love to read.
