Sony is releasing a new hero shooter called Concord in August, which strongly resembles Overwatch. MeinMMO editor Dariusz believes, however, that the game needs significant improvements before its release.
Sony is the publisher of a completely new game called Concord. It is a hero shooter with a total of 16 different characters, all of whom have different weapons and abilities. The gameplay closely resembles Overwatch, and not just because it is colorful.
The abilities of the individual heroes could have come from Blizzard:
- there is a sniper who can reach higher positions thanks to her ability
- there is a gunslinger who throws something explosive
- there is a healer who heals himself when he deals damage with his magical flying ball
- there is a hacker who can teleport
- there is a woman who can fly with a jetpack and shoots with a rocket launcher
You surely understand what I’m getting at. Here’s a trailer:
Last weekend, an open beta ran on Steam and PS5. I played the shooter for several hours and got my first impression.
This will not be an extensive review, as I simply haven’t played the game long enough – but I also didn’t want to keep playing. After about 4 hours, I had enough, and I knew: Concord is not fun for me.
Too fast release, even faster death
One of the biggest problems was performance. I played the Concord beta with friends, and each of us experienced FPS drops when a lot was happening on screen: when multiple heroes spammed their abilities. These drops were so severe that the game stuttered temporarily.
Spamming abilities should not be an issue. Overwatch and Valorant handle it excellently. The FPS drops in Concord reminded me of my last experience in Starfield when entering Akila City on the highest settings. In a PvP shooter, this is a no-go – especially since we are not using outdated systems.
In my opinion, the release of the hero shooter is too early since the game will be available on PS5, Steam, and the Epic Games Store on August 23rd. Especially the performance showed me that a lot needs to happen before the release.
If Concord does not improve performance quickly, the shooter will die within a week – after all, the game costs a hefty 40 euros, and Steam buyers can probably easily refund the game within 2 hours.
The performance was poor, but I generally had no fun
No hero in Concord managed to fully convince me. There were three that I found somewhat enjoyable. I liked:
- the human soldier with an assault rifle featuring thermal scope, smoke, and fragmentation grenades
- the green gunslinger with self-healing and explosive throwing knife
- the grandma with a retro MP who can create walls and create imploding zones.
That’s it. Among the total of 16 heroes, I found 3 okay. However, none of them were as fun for me as an Ana, a Soldier 76, Kiriko, or Bastion in Overwatch. And these are just a few of the heroes I find significantly more enjoyable in OW2 than all the heroes in Concord.
That is the harsh truth. Concord will inevitably compete with Overwatch, whether they want it or not. And my first impression is: OW2 clearly wins this comparison. Given the purchase price of Concord, things look quite bleak for the new title.
Concord squanders potential in gunplay
The game is not a complete disaster. The gunplay actually has potential. I enjoyed playing the soldier with the assault rifle because the weapon was genuinely fun. It has a good scope and somewhat reminded me of Destiny while shooting. And if there’s one thing Destiny does really well, it’s the gunplay.
Concord could be great if it focused much more on gunplay and had more of such standard weapons in the game. Instead, they are heavily oriented towards Overwatch and have flying heroes with grenade launchers, throwing knives, and slow tanks with shotguns and miniguns.
My assessment of Concord is, of course, extremely subjective, and other players may enjoy the gameplay. However, I would have appreciated more normal assault rifles, more Destiny-like gunplay, and maybe the option to slide, instead of a second Overwatch 2.
If I want to play Overwatch, I’ll play Overwatch and not buy Concord for 40 euros.
