Uh oh, I played 7 hours of Concord this weekend and immediately want back in

GamesFPSConcordUh oh, I played 7 hours of Concord this weekend and immediately want back inWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Sony)

concord

My eyes were wide and WASD fingers nimble as I booted up Concord’s closed beta this weekend. I’ve had my eye on Sony’s new hero shooter since its big reveal last month. While a vocal contingent quickly decided that Concord is an Overwatch clone wearing Guardians of the Galaxy cosplay, those brief glimpses of gameplay got me excited forwhat looked like a crisp, arcadey FPS from ex-Destiny folks.

Concord has more in common with Call of Duty than Overwatch

Concord’s roster of heroes—with their varying sizes, species, and backgrounds—might give the initial impression of an Overwatch also-ran, but their similarities end once you get past the heroes themselves. In reality, Concord has more in common with modern arena shooters like Call of Duty, XDefiant, Destiny 2’s Crucible, or even Halo.

Every hero has a niche, but they’re all pretty lethal

Concord is much more of a “shooter” than a “hero” game. Other than a few tank-shaped heroes who struggle to compete without a teammate around, every Concord character can hold their own in a fight. There is no “Mercy” who’s basically useless when the rest of the team dies—the two Concord heroes with group healing, Daw and Jabali, also have wicked powerful guns.

The default PC settings are wack

Concord is only Sony’s second simultaneous PC/console launch after Helldivers 2, and while it plays well on PC, it took some tweaking to get there. The whole game felt off for my first few matches and my framerate was all over the place (RTX 2080 Super, 1080p). Turning off motion blur (curse you!) and setting everything to medium cleaned things up dramatically.

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“Hey cousin”(Image credit: Firewalk Studios)

“Hey cousin”

Concord’s hero ‘variants’ are a neat way to offer different builds of a single character

This is kinda cool: You can unlock “variants” of Concord heroes that have the same abilities, but a unique perk that changes their playstyle. The one available in the beta for Lennox, the green guy who looks like Cousin Richie from The Bear, swaps his default perk that reloads his guns after rolling with double the magazine size for both of his pistols.

Variants are their own hero slot, which looks weird on the roster screen, but that plays into Concord’s “crew builder” system. More on that below.

The ‘Crew’ system is really confusing and maybe pointless

Worse is that the crew system makes a lot less sense in a respawn mode like Trophy Hunt or team deathmatch. There’s no point to adding multiple copies of a hero to your crew when there’s no lockout mechanic, and the game even suggests that you equip a default roster with all heroes when playing these modes. If that’s the case, then why are you able to screw yourself over in the first place?

(Image credit: Firewalk Studios)

Concord

Concord’s guns are top notch

Some of my favorites so far are just really well-executed versions of guns we’ve all played with before. Lennox’s two revolvers riff hard on Destiny’s hand cannons and Hunt: Showdown’s vintage six shooters. DaVeer’s goopy launcher is like the TF2 Demoman’s remote mines and grenade launcher in one gun. The strike of Vale’s sniper rifle can be heard across the map, and leaves an intimidating smoke trail just like in Halo or Valorant.

Dodging is neat, but is third-person really necessary?

Concord has a dodge button that’s genuinely useful, but I don’t like that using it zooms the camera out to third-person. I know that occasional perspective shifts are a Destiny/Bungie staple at this point, but I’d love the option to stay in first-person at all times in Concord.

The respawn modes rock, but Concord’s round-based modes are super sluggish right now

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Concord has more in common with Call of Duty than Overwatch#

Every hero has a niche, but they’re all pretty lethal#

The default PC settings are wack#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

Concord’s hero ‘variants’ are a neat way to offer different builds of a single character#

The ‘Crew’ system is really confusing and maybe pointless#

Concord’s guns are top notch#

Dodging is neat, but is third-person really necessary?#

The respawn modes rock, but Concord’s round-based modes are super sluggish right now#