PlayStation Studio is back with another online shooter – Concord’s open beta wrapped up this weekend and after spending 20 hours with it, is it worth the €40 price of entry come September? Find out in our preview.
Concord is an online FPS made by PlayStation Studios, featuring a variety of your standard modes (Deathmatch, Capture The Flag, Sudden Death (no respawn), Kill Confirmed) wrapped up in a futuristic setting with cutscenes to add to the lore of the world.
I’ll start with the positives – Concord is gorgeous with highly detailed textures running flawlessly on PS5 across the maps we got to test. There’s a lot more coming in the full game, but map design is tight, and gets you back into the action quickly. Characters also look great, with a distinct variety of humans and aliens. Each character gets 2 abilities that add a lot of variety and strategy to who you choose and how you play. Do you prefer to play medic? Medic characters can throw out healing orbs or healing pads. Want to cause some chaos? One character lets you throw grenades that burst into strips of fire. Guns? A huge variety of guns are there for all of the characters too. My favourite combo was the sniper with 3 mines and a super jump. All sounds pretty good, right?
Concord is on paper, a sure-fire hit for me. I play a lot of COD and Overwatch, and this sits right in the middle of those two. However, it’s that €40 price tag for me that’s giving me major pause for thought. Concord does everything right, but nothing innovative in the FPS space. Want a character-based shooter? Overwatch 2 is now free to play. Want a more traditional FPS? XDefiant is free and plays great, and COD MW3 just got added to GamePass today.
Sony, if you’re reading this. Make this game F2P, sell some cosmetics and a battle pass and you have a sure-fire hit on your hands. As it stands today, as well as Concord plays and looks and the detail added to the world and characters. I can’t see it finding a long-term audience to play it.
Concord’s Digital Deluxe Edition unlocks on Tuesday, August 20, 2024 – three days before the game’s global launch on August 23, 2024, it’ll be available on PS5 and PC. A beta code was supplied by Sony for this preview.
