Concord review

Our VerdictConcord feels out of touch and already out of time.

Our Verdict

Concord feels out of touch and already out of time.

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Need to KnowWhat is it?An underbaked, overpriced, and dated hero shooter.Expect to pay$40 / £35DeveloperFirewalk StudiosPublisherPlayStation PublishingReviewed onRadeon RX 6600, Ryzen 7 5700G, 32GB DDR4 RAMMultiplayer?YesSteam Deck:Not VerifiedLink:Steam

Need to Know

What is it?An underbaked, overpriced, and dated hero shooter.Expect to pay$40 / £35DeveloperFirewalk StudiosPublisherPlayStation PublishingReviewed onRadeon RX 6600, Ryzen 7 5700G, 32GB DDR4 RAMMultiplayer?YesSteam Deck:Not VerifiedLink:Steam

Gunplay is serviceable, with recoil and weapon handling that channels far more of Destiny 2’s PvP mode, The Crucible, than Overwatch or Valorant, albeit with none of the punchy feedback that gives that game its sense of weight or tactility. Floaty movement through maps with three lanes and varied sightlines, abilities on cooldown where you toss out orbs that do stuff and then come back, and an exhaustingly long time-to-kill that incentivizes your whole team to mob together and focus down single targets—you’ve seen all this before, and it’s been better and $40 less expensive. It is fine in a marketplace where fine does not and has not cut it for years.

This is one part of Concord that is especially confusing. Destiny’s Crucible was just a single mode, interwoven into a PvE/PvP progression system designed to make sure hardcore players never ran out of stuff to do. It also wasn’t that great, and its Destiny 2 counterpart has long languished in the shadow of the more popular, more substantial campaigns and raids. In isolation, the Crucible would have been a miserable experience—and really, that’s all Concord has.

Concord’s overlong time-to-kill demands precision with weapons and hero toolkits that often aren’t up to the task, making gunfights exhausting. Even the weapons in Concord’s arsenal geared towards straight DPS, like Lennox’s (ref: green cowboy alien) dual revolvers or Teo’s (ref: soldier man in body armor) assault rifle are chores to use, unable to chew through health bars fast enough to make fights any less dull.

(Image credit: PlayStation)

Concord, PvP FPS

Coupled with Concord’s agonizingly slow movement speed, I found that I was rarely getting kills, unless I opted to stay glued to my team to become a giant roving death star of heroes. Concord obviously encourages team-play and cooperation, but the piddly weapons and sluggish heroes leave its deathmatch and objective control modes feeling samey, devoid of that captivating sense of push and pull that you find in other hero shooters. Most of Concord’s matches devolve into two giant mobs of Battleborn wash-outs waddling around huge empty maps, slowly chipping away at each other.

It doesn’t help that Concord’s maps are a total bore to actually play: An assortment of alien ruins, research facilities, and cargo bays designed for strictly even competitive matchups with barely a hint of personality.

Isolating a healer or tank carries none of the importance in Concord that it does in Overwatch. The absence of ultimate abilities is sorely felt in this regard, leaving Concord’s matches none of that call and response dynamic that Overwatch and Valorant players will be familiar with—there’s nothing in Concord’s combat space that is as attention-demanding as a Genji deploying his Dragonblade ultimate in your disorganized backfield, or a Cassidy “high-noon”-ing from a clear vantage point. Concord is just about killing other dudes and standing on circles, and any abilities that slow down that already sedative process feel like a waste of everyone’s time.

Image1of5(Image credit: PlayStation)(Image credit: PlayStation)(Image credit: PlayStation)(Image credit: PlayStation)(Image credit: PlayStation)

Image1of5

(Image credit: PlayStation)(Image credit: PlayStation)(Image credit: PlayStation)(Image credit: PlayStation)(Image credit: PlayStation)

(Image credit: PlayStation)

Concord, PvP FPS

(Image credit: PlayStation)

Concord, PvP FPS

(Image credit: PlayStation)

Concord, PvP FPS

(Image credit: PlayStation)

Concord, PvP FPS

(Image credit: PlayStation)

Concord, PvP FPS

The Freegunners' tool kits are a bit more engaging than their personalities, but only just. Many of the weapons and abilities feel too unwieldy or are overly difficult to deploy effectively in combat. One Freegunner, DaVeers, has a support-oriented kit built around a woefully underpowered incendiary grenade launcher, and it’s rare to be able to do much with her before being mobbed to death. Duchess trades offensive power for an area denial toolkit which has her tossing out concrete walls to lock off lanes, forcing opponents to slowly jog around barriers of negligible importance before easily murdering their builder. Even when it does go off correctly and cuts somebody off from their team, the aforementioned time-to-kill issue doesn’t provide an avenue to capitalize on that.

Image1of4(Image credit: PlayStation)(Image credit: PlayStation)(Image credit: PlayStation)(Image credit: PlayStation)

Image1of4

(Image credit: PlayStation)(Image credit: PlayStation)(Image credit: PlayStation)(Image credit: PlayStation)

(Image credit: PlayStation)

Concord, PvP FPS

(Image credit: PlayStation)

Concord, PvP FPS

(Image credit: PlayStation)

Concord, PvP FPS

(Image credit: PlayStation)

Concord, PvP FPS

A major problem right now is that players simply aren’t willing to stick out a whole match. One of these two mobs will invariably obliterate the other, and then one or two of the losing mob’s members will come to their senses and realize that they are playing Concord and that they could be doing anything else with their time and quit. This leads to the second round almost always being a steamrolling of the other team. I’ve never in my life played a game where a week inside the launch window, games are being won and lost because players seem to be getting depressed mid-match and quitting. Worst of all, even when everyone sticks around for a full match, it’s still scraping at the shadows of Overwatch and Destiny 1.

The Verdict45Read our review policyConcordConcord feels out of touch and already out of time.

The Verdict

45Read our review policyConcordConcord feels out of touch and already out of time.

45Read our review policy

ConcordConcord feels out of touch and already out of time.

Concord

Concord feels out of touch and already out of time.

TOPICSPlayStation

TOPICS

More about concordCompetitive shooters are at a crucial crossroads in 2025: ‘sweaty’ teamplay vs. casual funMarvel Rivals director says Concord ‘didn’t bring any unique value’ that would convince players to give it a shot, but admits that no one can really predict what will or won’t succeedLatestFinal Fantasy 14 communities panic as it turns out change to blacklisting, meant to help reduce stalking, also lets players use mods to track their altsSee more latest►

More about concord

Competitive shooters are at a crucial crossroads in 2025: ‘sweaty’ teamplay vs. casual funMarvel Rivals director says Concord ‘didn’t bring any unique value’ that would convince players to give it a shot, but admits that no one can really predict what will or won’t succeed

marvel rivals

Competitive shooters are at a crucial crossroads in 2025: ‘sweaty’ teamplay vs. casual fun

Black Widow aiming sniper rifle

Marvel Rivals director says Concord ‘didn’t bring any unique value’ that would convince players to give it a shot, but admits that no one can really predict what will or won’t succeed

LatestFinal Fantasy 14 communities panic as it turns out change to blacklisting, meant to help reduce stalking, also lets players use mods to track their altsSee more latest►

Latest

Final Fantasy 14 communities panic as it turns out change to blacklisting, meant to help reduce stalking, also lets players use mods to track their alts

Alisaie, a side character in Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail, folds her arms with a confident smirk on her face.

Final Fantasy 14 communities panic as it turns out change to blacklisting, meant to help reduce stalking, also lets players use mods to track their alts

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Our Verdict#

Our Verdict