Concord is not the disaster the discourse around it would lead you to believe. This online first-person shooter – a debut effort from Sony studio Firewalk – has outrageous production values, a fair business model, and a genuinely entertaining gameplay loop. Its biggest issue is its lack of identity: there’s no denying the developer has been heavily inspired by Guardians of the Galaxy, and while the title does genuinely try to blaze its own trail, that’ll largely be its downfall.
For those who haven’t been following, this is the second of PlayStation’s much-discussed live service efforts, following on from the record-breaking success of Helldivers 2 earlier in the year. Available on PS5 and PC, this is a premium release with a $40/£35 price point, and all 16 characters and 12 maps are available for everyone from day one. There are no microtransactions, Battle Passes, or hidden costs – although the studio has said it plans to sell cosmetics at a later date.
You play as a Freegunner from a ship named the Northstar, a ragtag crew of sci-fi mercenaries tasked with taking on high stakes missions. Each match, across a total of six modes, is framed as one of said objectives. Characters include a lizard-like individual named Lennox, who wields a revolver and can heal himself. You’ll also find Haymar, a pyromaniac with a penchant for crossbows, and Teo, an ex-elite soldier with a love for grenades.
Each of the 16 characters have their own personality and kit, providing them with unique gameplay possibilities. Lark, a kind of fungi-like humanoid, can deposit plants on the stage which enables them to either warp to safe spots or buff the mobility of their teammates. Emari, meanwhile, an enormous hulking lady, can deploy armour for her allies and utilise her own personal shield to defend herself from incoming shrapnel and enemy fire.
A key gameplay mechanic encourages you to switch between different characters in each match, as completing a full round with one hero will unlock bonuses for another. Choosing the hyperactive cat-girl It-Z, for example, will improve your movement speed. You can then utilise this when you respawn as a different character to increase your overall agility. All of these systems intertwine strategically, allowing you to collaborate with teammates to seriously enhance the capabilities of your chosen character.
To add even more tactical depth, variants of each Freegunner are available to unlock. While these don’t drastically change their kit, they do introduce interesting gameplay wrinkles, such as increased ammunition reserves or better healing capabilities. The higher tension modes – like Flash Point and Cargo Run, which don’t have respawns – really force you to consider your team-building priorities, and reward you for understanding multiple characters, as winning a round will permanently lock you out of your currently selected hero for the remainder of the match.
The production values are off the charts, with dense detailed sky boxes and superb animation. All of the characters are motion captured, and while there’s a degree of uncanny valley to some of the heroes, it still all looks incredibly impressive in motion. Personally, we’re not particularly keen on some of the designs: 1-Off, a recycling robot armed with a giant industrial vacuum cleaner, is ridiculous – and DeVeers is inexplicably equipped with Tupperware on her head.
It’s also hard to shake the lack of originality in places. Star Child, a beefcake shotgun wielder with red and blue skin, is effectively Drax – and Teo is your typical textbook PS3 protagonist from 2008. We wouldn’t be surprised if he’s voiced by Nolan North!
The developer clearly wants you to fall in love with the characters regardless. It’s promising weekly cinematic skits in order to connect you with the cast, and these look as expensive as they sound. Frankly, we’ll be surprised if it’s able to afford to keep making these beyond the first few seasons, and we’re not entirely sure how much they add to the overall experience. The same could be said of the lore library, which expands as you explore more maps and progress with different characters.
We should reiterate, there are no Battle Passes or shady business models here: everything can be unlocked simply by playing the game. This includes alternative outfits, accessories, attachments, and more. While the studio has admitted it intends to sell cosmetics later down the line, it’s refreshing to play a multiplayer game not burdened by microtransactions, and there’s a reasonable amount to unlock on day one. It remains to be seen how much more gets added in future seasons.
It’s worth mentioning as well that the user interface is a work of art. It captures the title’s retro sci-fi theme perfectly, and everything is presented cleanly and clearly. There are also no real bugs that we’ve encountered, although we did get stuck to the spot towards the end of one match, meaning we couldn’t move to assist our team. Fortunately, we’ve been unable to replicate this issue and we’re assuming it’s rare.
Our biggest concern, beyond the overall lack of identity, is how the game is going to retain players’ interest long-term. There are only six modes available at launch, almost all of which are variants of playlists you’ll be familiar with from other games, and there’s not the lure of a never-ending list of quests and objectives like in Fortnite. The studio clearly hopes players will get a kick out of the gameplay itself and not all of the surrounding fluff, but that’s a tough ask in this competitive market. We obviously can’t speak to how much the title will grow and evolve beyond launch.
Conclusion
Concord is a clean and well-meaning first-person shooter, with no shady business practices to boot. Its lack of real identity is an issue, and it’s difficult to determine just how much Sony is going to get behind it long-term. However, there’s a polished and beautifully presented experience on offer here, with some interesting tactical team-building systems and sublime animations. Firewalk’s debut may not be out of this world, but it’s genuinely pretty good overall.
Comments 160
I'm not sure how this comments section is going to go, but thanks for reading everyone. I'll be available to answer any questions you may have.
A couple of things I noticed about this game that didn't make the word count:
Thanks for reading everyone, and remember to be polite to each other!
Totally agree with the review, well done Sammy!
Thanks Sammy.
Agree that this comments section is going to get messy.
@get2sammyb Sammy you know your not allowed to say anything good about this game.but thanks for the review I'll be picking the game up once i.ve cleared out my backlog a bit.
Thanks, Sammy. Nice try, and I respect and often share your taste in games, but will be most definitely passing on this one.
I watched/read multiple reviews but it seems this game is not for me. Playstation plus is already super expensive, which even keeps me from playing games like destiny 2 (being a dad I won’t be using PS plus a lot hence it being expensive… currently I’m lucky if I game 2 hours a week).This game costing €40 euro whilst being behind the PS plus paywall means I won’t be buying . Also the characters… I mean why couldn’t Sony release a remaster of MAG or Killzone?
Edit: I do hope the studio will not get closed as every channel /article I visited mentions the gameplay loop is good
Sounds like this game's main criticism is linked to the poor timing of release and the lack of single-player campaign to branch out the lore. Otherwise, it sounds like an above average game. I prefer playing third-person shooters, but might give this a go.
Would’ve been decent if free to play, but for £35/40 it’s a robbery.
The presentation is nice and a lot of love has been put into it, but it suffers from being a very stale genre of game, Sony should’ve put the £300m into a multiplayer game that people actually wanted like SOCOM.
@Sanquine Maybe they still will! Probably worth noting that MAG didn't set the sales charts alight either, though. (Although I enjoyed it!!!)
@DonJorginho My suggestions would be MAG, Warhawk or Killzone 🙂
@get2sammyb Yeah, which was a shame as that game was far ahead its time (on console).
Not sure how “a good presentation, some pretty cool characters, and no micro-transactions” warrants a 7/10… all that proves is 7 is in fact the new 5 as I said in your Skull and Bones and Suicide Squad reviews.
It's a shame for the studio and I feel like the lesson Sony will take away from this is: Let's invest in existing franchises because nobody wants new IPs.
I’m not hugely into these types of games but I’m saddened to see they’ve done a good job with a great business model, yet it’s doomed to fail.
In reality if they made this FTP and full of micro transactions, then people would complain endlessly but it would at least have an audience.
Some pretty cool characters? Really? Which ones? Let’s go to the 400 players on steam and ask. Also before you say “THEYRE ON PS5” Every single live service game has many more players on pc as opposed to the console counterpart. So we’re looking at less than 1k total players. Wow.
@get2sammyb
How has the matchmaking time been for the no-respawn modes in particular? Reason I ask is those were my favorite modes from the beta by a mile but matchmaking times could get up to 5 minutes at times unfortunately.
@Sanquine It was definitely ahead of its time, as was Warhawk and Starhawk.
I mean Sony has really had some amazing multiplayer games over the years, but it's lacked the conviction to really push them and has ultimately got beaten by other developers iterating on some of the ideas it pioneered.
@Malaise There is a training mode which teaches you the overall gameplay loop and introduces you to three of the characters. Beyond that, there's a training mode you can play with any of the characters to test them out.
And there are time trials you can do which will help you to better understand the mobility of some of the characters.
So not perfect in terms of getting you up to speed, but a bit better than it was in the beta.
@get2sammyb - Sony had some great multiplayer games in the PS3 generation, but we need to remember that the current community they created in the PS4 generation has a hatred for any type of multiplayer game.
I don't know how many times I've seen YouTubers and different people commenting on Concord or Fairgames saying that this isn't the kind of game the PlayStation community wants (I saw some even mentioning Astro as well). Sony has created a whole army of people who only play these third-person single player games that cost 200, 300 million. I have no idea how they are going to reverse this (if they do)
I just think the price has killed it before anything. If it was free then it would beat the hate because anybody can give it a go and gameplay trumps all (see XDefiant etc). Nobody’s going to dump money on something that both isn’t guaranteed to take off and has this level of crap around it.
Really fun game. This game has shown peoples true colors. I thought the push square community was better than what has been shown on every Concord article but they are not and its unfortunate. It goes beyond the 40 dollar price tag and some ugly characters. Sad stuff.
@ED_209 Agreed, it's a huge challenge for them to overcome. I won't even pretend to know the answer, but I hope they can overcome this!
@ED_209 it’s weird because a huge chunk of ps4 players migrated from xbox which was a huge multiplayer machine. i’d bet that most of the ps4/ps5 user base is former xbox players (atleast in the US)
@LazyLombax According to our Scoring Policy, a 7/10 is as follows: "A good game with more positives than negatives, these titles are not average in our eyes. A release awarded this score may lack ambition or polish, but still offers a quality experience. Fans of a given genre should not overlook a game with this score, but may want to consider which areas we felt let the experience down."
I think that fits this game, and the review I wrote. I do think it's largely unoriginal and re-treading familiar ground, but it's doing it competently and I do think fans of first-person shooters will like it. (Even though they may have plenty of other ones to play.)
Worth noting that if you read the full review I also liked other things about the game, like the varied character kits and some of the team-building systems.
Thanks for reading!
@Sanquine all last iterations of those 3 titles flopped, even though i enjoyed them, we all look at them now with rose tinted glasses, but there's a reason Sony hasn't continued any of those series in the last decade.
@get2sammyb I think the best solution are single players like uncharted with a multiplayer included.
@get2sammyb
For £40, its asking a lot to compete with better live service games which are free.
Is it worth £40 in your opinion?
Did the devs ever say why it's called Concord rather than Freegunners?
@Netret0120 That's a tricky one. Personally I don't mind free-to-play and I'd be totally fine with that model with microtransactions.
But I know there's been a LOT of discourse on sites like this one for years that people hate microtransactions and just want to buy the games outright.
Looking at a lot of the discussion around Concord, it turns out that's actually NOT what people want to do. Which is quite confusing (but not really surprising).
@Sanquine - It is complicated. Even if Uncharted 5, for example, was a great single player game with a good multiplayer mode, I bet there would be people complaining about the update rate, addition of skins, etc. People would require from the game as if it were like any other live service game.
GT7 is a great example of this, just go to GT Planet and see if people are happy with the updates (which are free) that the game has been releasing since its launch.
@TheDaddyOtaku - Concord is the name of the fictional galaxy that the game takes place.
Con: costs $40 when you have a handful of free to play options
@ED_209 Stellar Blade exists buddy.
@Luvstagrind Counterpoint: there's no microtransactions or in-game currency and everyone hates those. (Or used to hate them — I'm a bit confused about whether we like/dislike free-to-play now.)
@Sanquine destiny 2 is free to play..no need for a ps sub.
Just to point out that the review has a higher wordcount than the peak CCU on Steam has players.
Firewalk and Sony willingly - and I assume, knowingly - launched a 40 Dollar game into a marketplace crowded by established competitors that are mostly free to play.
Not only that, but they got half of the hero shooter genre wrong; the heroes. The artstyle has no mass market appeal. Everyone looks and/or feels like they're in a Guardians of the Galaxy dvd you ordered off Temu.
Meanwhile, games with actual attractive characters like The First Descendant and Stellar Blade are making bank. I'm not saying every game should have anime girls, but it would have doubled the CCU here. Easily.
Anyhow. Concord launched with a fifth of Lawbreakers' peak. Just over a twentieth of what Suicide Squad launched with. That is the game's beginning, and its end. It will be on PS Plus in 12 to 18 months, it will be F2P within 24 to 30, and it will shut down one to two years after that. While that is pure conjecture and thus should not be used to determine a review score, it is so plausible to me that I could not fathom dropping 35 quid on it. Clearly others feel the same. There is a non-zero chance that this might be the E.T. moment for the live service genre - that's how colossal this bomb looks.
On the other hand, Helldivers 2 launched with an identical price point to extreme vitality. There’s clearly a secret sauce here.
I think its more a 5/10. The games does nothing new and has awful character design. You can play other games in the same genre that are much better and free
Is anyone playing this game? It had like 600 people on steam which already slashed in half. Expensive project for maybe a few thousand pc sales and few more on PS
@RagnarLothbrok I think everyone is playing black myth Wukong. It was really close to breaking records on steam
@get2sammyb I think the whole microtransactions thing is a split debate also, so it is hard to use it as a point either way as it isn't relevent to the correct people.
People hate them in single player games, people who dont play live service games like this, but GaaS are fueled by them so taking them out of one isn't appeasing those who hate them.
It is also okay to hate when microtransactions prey on kids and parents who don't know any better, but also still understand that that is why those games are successful, and that if they didn't have the addictive nature, those people wouldn't be playing them anyway.
I can’t disagree with the score. Because you knew from the outset it would be well made as Sony first party tends to be polished.
However even if it was 9/10 everywhere it would still struggle.
It just doesn’t have a market. There’s no niche like helldivers had or anything. It’s just another live service shooter at £35 sitting in a mountain of already established £0 live service shooter.
If you get bored of the £0 shooter you are currently playing, you are going to give another £0 game a try, not the £35 option
@Northern_munkey Really? I always thought multiplayer games were behind PS Plus. Thanks for the information. Guess i will be playing Destiny then!!
I played the early access and confirmed that this game isn't for me. I don't like multiplayer and this game did not sway me. I would have picked it up if it had a single player campaign.
@13th-UwU - Wait, so would you rather see Naughty Dog working exclusively on Factions 2 for 6, 8 years instead of keep making single player games? From what I remember, ND itself confirmed that this is what would have happened if they had continued with that project.
I find the whole "money was lost while studios could have continued making single player games" thing funny when Naughty Dog actually seems to bee the only Sony studio affected by this. And I have great doubts as to whether we would be playing or even seeing their new single player game even if Factions2/Online had never existed. Horizon Online has been in development since 2018 and it looks like that have not affected any Guerrilla's ability to develop and launch Forbidden West and its expansion.
Naughty Dog, Santa Monica, Insomniac, Sucker Punch, Bend and so on have not been shut down, so "quality games with good stories" are still coming, they're just taking longer because that's how the nature of game development is at the moment. They have not been canceled just because Sony bought studios that are focused on live service games.
@get2sammyb yeah, good one Sammy. Been keen to read an actual review of Concord and it's more or less what I expected. And while online, competitive MP GaaS games are wholly not my cup of tea, hopefully it'll go down well with the people it's designed for.
@Gunnerzaurus Why pay $40 or more for an online game that won't live forever and the chances of dying are high? I don't buy online only games, it's really not worth. I want to have access to my games in 10 - 20 years, like I still have with my PS1/PS2 games.
Online only games are just for the moment, once they get boring and repetitive, they die fast. Some of them are even dead on arrival.
I enjoyed it for like a hour, the main problem for me was the boring game modes, I need more then just your basic team death match
@Sanquine yeah it went free to play just after I bought the physical edition 🤬
@Sanquine there are a lot of great f2p games. I have no idea of the type of games you like but check out path of exile,warframe and the first descendant. All three are damn good.
Nice review. The game isn’t for me but I do think it’s incredibly sad that it is doing so badly as it’d have been nice to see something with such a fair business model being rewarded.
I think the world they’ve built here looks interesting and I’d quite like to play a single player campaign in this setting. Maybe that’s what a new IP like this needed: a baller campaign to make people care, then with an excellent MP suite on the side for those that want to hang around afterwards.
Nowadays people choose to hate something without any real reason. Only because a youtuber told them to do so. I don't see any reason why this game is already so mistrusted.
I don't play multiplayer games because I don't have the free time to invest in them. But if I could, I would play Concord, as I enjoy sci-fi a lot. Give a chance to the game folks.
@13th-UwU As you did not said what those reasons were, I stand with my opinion. Good night.
@13th-UwU - You've already answered your own question my friend.
One studio is freaking Naughty Dog, historically known for making some of the best single player games out there while the other is Firewalk, which was created from scratch to work on Concord.
Naughty Dog could have released Factions, but who would maintain the game? Who would release the weekly updates, new skins, new modes, maps, etc.?
As they’ve stayed away from the Microtransaction rubbish I’d be happy if this game was a success. Although it’s definitely not my genre. Online sandbox repetition isn’t my thing.
@get2sammyb
RE game cost / FtP.
I think most would be happy with Free with No microtransactions.
Im being a little sarcastic, but the amount of complaints when AAA full price games moved to £70 was staggering, and imo unfair when you consider development costs and the relatively low level of price increases over the years.
That said, we desparately need to see the death of microtransactions in full priced games (eg DD2, MK1, WWE 2k##), & the now very common releasing of games that are poorly optimised, or buggy, which seems to be far more prevalent now.
I'd knock it down to a five but I also don't believe this is a terrible game. Just painfully mediocre. You can't afford to be mediocre when your competition is releasing bangers and some of them free. Setting all the discourse of the characters aside, the game just doesn't do enough to justify the price tag and it barely stands out from its competitors.
@Ravix I don't think that will work. I'm sure those kids would rather play Roblox or Fortnite.
@Toot1st It does have other modes beyond Team Deathmatch, including some more difficult ones without respawn. But I agree, it's not massively original in that department.
@13th-UwU There's been loads of good games this year. Astro Bot will almost certainly be good next month. Don't be so dramatic.
@RagnarLothbrok I was getting matches in approximately 15 to 30 seconds when I played earlier. There may not be many people but it's easy to find matches in my experience.
It's still early Sony can still make some moves like making it f2p! but if things stay like this then Sony is looking at it's biggest financial bomb of the company's history. I do wish Firewalk well regardless and hope no one loses their jobs.
Didn't they confirm MTX are coming in the future?
I always felt like the characters were really eh when I watched some gameplay videos, but the gunplay and overall gameplay loop looked fun.
I'm done bashing the game. That said I'm going to continue to vote with my wallet and not support these games as a service from Playstation. It's not why I bought a PS5.
It is pathetic to see some reviews still trying to praise this crap game.
Regardless of the efforts to save the game, it is failing and will be a disaster for Sony just like Bungie and other aberrations from Jim Ryan period.
@Shrek_Realista has there ever been a paid live service game that shut down shortly after release though? suicide squads still going . devs still keep their servers up for a good while , and when it’s shut down hardly anyone is still left
@BlackMagehobbit , jimbo was the best thing to ever happen to playstation ! remember how fast ps5s were selling out on launch ?!?
I'm not surprised this game isn't bad. It never looked bad, it looked generic, which was the real problem. Live service games that are absolute disasters like Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League are entertaining to watch because they keep sinking to levels of awfulness. The only reason people are paying attention to this right now is because of how much money it cost and how unremarkable it is. Because of that it probably won't even last as long as other live service disasters that were able to get by for a bit with streamers showing off just how terrible it all was.
@DennisReynolds I mentioned in the review. They're adding a cosmetics store later.
Reviews like this make me miss Battleborn.
@get2sammyb “A good game with more positives than negatives” yet in the conclusion of your review, the pros and cons are equal…
Pretty much what I expected, I'm enjoying the game so far. You can see why Sony are dabbling in the live service market as that's where the majority of players are at and where's theres more player engagement there's more money to make.
@get2sammyb
I have to praise good work when I see it!
Congratulations on producing a fair and instructive review. I hope they do well, and people latch on.
Is it Jon Weisnevski (sp?) that worked on DESTINY's gun play that helped development the gun play of Concord and how good does running, jumping and shooting feel?
I miss Killzone. K2 was my first multiplayer experience and loved it.
Zero interest in this game, i'm afraid.
@13th-UwU Wukong literally follows the exact cookie cutter format of souls-like games. That genre is in much need of some original thoughts.
Also, politics are totally non existent in Concord.
@LazyLombax You're living up to your name. Read the whole review and not just the summary.
My biggest problem with playing this game is not this game, it's the psn price hike. Whatever mp game I finally go for has to be worth sticker price + online so $130 odd bucks.
We already knew this game had competent shooting mechanics. It's still a generic attempt and massive failure merely because nobody wanted this. That's it, end of story.
600ish peak pc players on day one and after (redfall had 10 times that and suicide squad over 20 times that)?!
Sony needs a much more comprehensive change in leadership. This game should have been canned a long long time ago, and had they stopped their complete ghosting of the player base anytime in the last several years, they would have even more so seen that very obvious writing on the wall for this project. Even that aside, how do you not see the responses and lack of engagement to the beta as a clear signal that this isn't it in its current form.
Granted money would have been lost for sure. However riding this out to release with all the marketing, all the additional dev payroll is just complete Mismanagement and bad business as well as another toxic attempt at predation on the gaming community following the putrid smell of greed wafting from the few successful schemes still operational. Over a hundred mill wasted here, nearly 4 bill on Bungie.......
This is exactly one of the many reasons that Sony's ridiculous 'hide everything until the release window' policy is just idiocy. As is there incessant aims to chase endless growth with as little creativity and effort possible.
Just don't buy into this SH*T, nor make excuses for it. There is a myriad of warnings that Sony and the developer could have paid attention to over the last few years that would have informed them that this was not going to work out.
With 100% sincerity, I hope this game does well and that the people who play it get a ton of enjoyment out of it. Especially after hearing about the long time it took to get off the ground.
That said, for me personally, the bait and switch with the first trailer seemingly showing off a narrative-focused sci-fi game in the veins of a Mass Effect or etc., only to pull that back and show the game was actually a multiplayer FPS, did incredibly irreparable damage for any enthusiasm I would have had.
And who knows, maybe that wasn't a dev team decision but a Sony marketing one. It's just a headscratcher to me. If I was 100% in the mood for a game like Concord at the time, and it was presented more openly at that first reveal, maybe I'd be preordering it now. But I saw what looked like a fun new SP game and then that was swiftly taken away.
But again, I hope it does well. Maybe the book isn't 100% closed on Concord for me, but we'll see what the rest of the PS gaming community think.
Guess what the difference is between Concord and The First Descendant. Or why Overwatch is still so popular.
Anyone who didn't completely hide their head in the sand saw this coming.
@Dunkin I read it @ 1:00 PM EST when it was posted. “Lack of identity, how the game is going to retain players’ interest long-term, unoriginality, and there are only six modes available at launch” are all negatives…
@13th-UwU
All of this just makes me sad for Factions 2. Given how phenomenal Last of us 2's combat was, and how many devs came out saying Factions 2 was the most fun game they'd ever played, the cancellation (because of Bungie of all people) was soul-crushing.
Uncharted 2 made the Sony exclusive template when Sony most needed it and this how they treated their top studio, by cancelling their first online mega-project and firing so many of their devs.
And people often say 'single player devs' can't make a hit live service when they absolutely can if they're not being pressured to do it. I consider Rockstar to be the greatest developer in the world (and Naughty Dog second) and Gta is still the biggest 'premium/entry cost' live service title I can think of.
They should have named the game Flopavision.
I might play this with a nice side of caeser salad.
@13th-UwU I have seen so many comments of these drones saying “a YouTuber told you your opinion”. It’s another deflection instead of providing facts. It’s really just an ad hominem attack.
This game is DOA. If this was MS, the pitchforks and media would have been out in full force to rub the salt in the wound. IGN, Eurogamer, this site saying give the game a chance just because it is Sony. The media bias is unbelievable. For god’s sakes, Redfall had more players than this game.
I miss Resistance
@freddquadros Yesterday, some people were putting Wukong down saying their numbers were high only because it's a Chinese game, Chinese setting. Which to me is a very Eurocentric thing to do against a product in China and focused on Chinese culture (unrelated, but ironic how Chinese players get over tested, although they get much less percentage of cheating athletes, while USA gets tested way less and has a much higher percentage of cheating players - some which still get to compete). Even if the majority of the players are in China, the numbers are still record breaking, and no other game had similar numbers in all other regions combined ever in history, so to me it's a kind of discrimination.
Today they use Wukong as an example that backs their views because it's an undeniable, world wide, record breaking success. Some people even say Wukongs success shows people don't want politics nonsense in games and that is why Concord is failing (but I truly don't understand where the politics resides in Concord). The biggest irony is how political the comment actually seems to be.
@LazyLombax Equal in quantity, yes. Not equal in importance. Come on, I know you’re a Lazy Lombard, but think about this…
@LazyLombax Lazy man cites self. People have been saying that about 7s for ages, man.
@ED_209
A small team inside Naughty Dog created specifically for the purpose of maintaining the game. I don't believe for a second that they couldn't have pulled off Factions 2 and if it meant no single player game from them this gen? Well, the industry is what it is these days. But Factions 2 is a game that definitely would've been worth it, even heavily pro-single player gamers like myself would've bought it.
@Gamer83 same.. I would have 100% given factions a go
Tired of seeing this one given a pass because it was technically competent. The bottom line is that these devs failed to find the fun.
@cburg "Redfall had more players than this game."
More than double to be exact and Redfall was considered the failure of all failures 😅
Unfortunately us PlayStation players have to take the L gracefully here, we might have to take another L with Fairgames too because of Jim panic buying studios.
@Gunnerzaurus what are you talking about? You act like call of duty isn't a full priced premium game with invasive microtransactions, anyone who pays full price for a non tried and true game is a chump.
You've got to love the "don't let the discourse fool you Concord is good and doing well"...source? "I said so" ignoring all the metrics we have currently on this game bombing and generally being reviewed as very average but fun for reviewers who won't touch it after they've posted their review 😆
7.0 btw meanwhile the likes of Ghost recon Wildlands, AC rogue and AC unity get either 7.0 too or less despite being vastly superior games, just seems to me if this wasn't a sony game it wouldn't even be close to a 7.0 which let's face it, it isn't.
8 years to make this when a new killzone could have been made in the battlefield format of large multiplayer battles breathing new life into a franchise abandoned in lieu of horizon. Killzone could easily rip off battlefield in the correct way and people would buy in mass and nobody could whine "playstation not allowed to have multiplayer games" eventhough helldivers 2 is a thing.
The characters are such rip offs too like one looks like Michael rooker in that superhero movie, one looks like a saints row remake enemy npc for the larp missions and the robot is just a complete rip off of the outer worlds cleaning bot. Destined to fail when going up against overwatch which has characters practically for everyone.
@cburg exactly 😂 xbox is held to a higher standard despite being the failing brand behind it's competitors, the favouritism/fanboyism in gaming media has been like this for years despite Xbox as a brand being dead and being little more than an advertisement for people to get a pc especially with how many games they lock to 30fps no option to change.
“ Frankly, we’ll be surprised if it’s able to afford to keep making these beyond the first few seasons…”
I think this game will only last the three contractually obligated seasons, and then be shut down. The player numbers were poor from the start, and I don’t think they’ll improve. Charging money for a PvP only game these days is a bad call, and Concord’s days are numbered. If they included some kind of campaign or other PvE elements, their chances would have been much better.
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@Gamer83 Eh I play SP almost exclusively, and I wouldn't touch that thing, lol.
Still won't be playing this. Beta bored and the hell out of me.
I just don’t care about all the negativity people have directed towards this game.
I bought Concord today & my kids and I’ve really enjoyed it.
Surprisingly, on the PS5, every game has been found in less than 40 seconds. So, there are enough PS5 players for that to happen.
@get2sammyb We knew the comments would get messy, but didn’t think you’d be adding to it 🙄
7/100
Sounds like a fair review!
@get2sammyb you are a true PlayStation OG . I loved MAG & I'm not even into shooters all that much 😝.
I’m not sure why people are complaining about the price when it’s half regular RRP.
This game is not my kinda thing though so I’d pass even at free.
I think that this game will be forgotten about in a month.
@LazyLombax Just for fun I let AI analyze the review and their review policy. The verdict was that the game most like got a 6 not bad, but it also opened up for the possibility of a 7 even with the lack of originality.
66 on metacritic
My work has a scoring system, like how happy you are in the workplace.
9-10 is happy, 7-8 is meh and 6 and below is you're unhappy.
7-8 was the score for those hidden gems, but now it's just meh like everything else.
@DonJorginho No microtransactions and it's only going to sell cosmetic stuff in the future sign me up. Without a base price how do you want to make this make money? I rather have this then the free to play garbage with all kind of timers and things to waste your time.
I think I'll get it looked quite nice the gameplay looked fun I rather would have had this with a massive campaign. But it waste money on worse if it turns out not to be any good.
The gameplay maybe good, the Polish and presentation maybe good.
But it's still a 5v5 hero shooter and not that original at that.
My problem with the game is, this emphasis on oooooo a cut scene a week to progress the story, but your still fighting each other in an arena each time.
And it's a full price game.
I may aswel go and watch a movie, with breaks of overwatch 2.
Helldivers 2 works because everyone is on the same side and your progressing a war and winning or losing together. It's a joint and a united effort. Which anyone really can just jump in as a generic solider and your skills as a player is what matters more against Ai.
You feel more invested because of this and thus making it a legit reason for players to carry on.
I feel like concord is a bog standard 5v5 hero shooter, where your fighting each other in matches, like you do in overwatch and the rest of them, which do it for free.
What you do within the match doesn't determine anything other than leveling or unlocking perks for characters.
Each week there is a cgi episode which will come either way if your losing or winning.
So the story progresses whatever happens, which makes me feel like you have 0 input within the story and your basically just playing matches until the next cutscene hits.
I understand story driven games do this also but the in-between playable parts are the parts in which make you feel like your the one on control, even if it's just an illusion and it's those parts which make or break games for many.
We can compliment the gameplay and presentation all we want but if the immersion isn't there and it's a mix match of cgi trailers and 5v5 matches and nothing more than. It really isn't going to set the world alight or many people bother with it.
People didn't bother when it was free and now they don't going out paying 70 for it.
The player counts really says more about the game than anything else can.
hundreds of millions of pounds wasted making this and buying the studio.
what do they do with Firewalk after this? they wont shut them as they just bought the studio but you cant trust them to make their own game anymore. support studio maybe
@ED_209
There are alot more factors to it why the GT7 community don't like the free updates. First of all: PD put out a patch in the early GT7 days that prevented people from earning decent credits and pushing mictrotransactions. The later reverted this because of the backlash. Still to this day we are still stuck with the same 4 races with a somewhat decent payout.
Second: free updates is just drip feeding content to the consumers that already payed more than 70 (in my case euros) for a game. Meanwhile they can pull out charts to show the shareholders their fantastic player retention. I hate live service games so hard. They are (most of the times) designed to milk the gamers more and more. It doesn't matter if the game is free to play or not.
As for the discussion if people like microtransactions or not: it's impossible to discuss. Gamers these days grew up with this MTX *****, so they don't know better. Look: i'm all for decent DLC and to pay for it. But the DLC needs to add value to a already great, finished! game. Non of this BS FOMO skin ***** for a certain character that is impossible to earn legit.
Also for Concord: the game was in development for 8 years. What the interest was back then isn't necessarily the same these days. They are a couple years to late to release a game like Concord these days.
Last thing i want to say: people want franchises like Socom, Killzone because they have nostalgic reasons + Sony is sitting on these franchises and doing nothing with them.
Sony wants a succesful live service game: should have kept developing TLOU online. People would be all over it. Make anew decent Socom as a live service game. Where is this Horizon online game? Been quiet for ages now.
I had to log in to like some of the comments XD
This comment section is messy and I'm here for it, LMAO
@TooManyBrownies Who said it’s doing well?
How the game having certain or uncertain future is a review criteria? Your review the product in its current state and the sales numbers do not reflect the quality of any product anyway.
Nice try, Sony!
@Realist Glad you like it but only a few care about the game. Capitalist metrics speak a clear language I guess
A 7/10? LMAO! Sure, maybe for people whose favorite games are Fortnite and Overwatch. For the rest of us, not a chance in hell this deserves a 7/10.
@freddquadros we don't hate, we simply don't care, but PushSquare asked for opinions.
@SamMR same haha
@Sanquine I'm a father too and I fully understand you 😊
Sony drunk because of Helldivers 2: we'll get a lot from selling Concord for $40 as well 😆
It's amazing some people legitimately cant fathom some people actually like this game.
I actually agree that mechanically this game is a 7 but Sony made a serious error of judgment when they allowed Firewalk free rein on the design choices.
This game has the complete opposite of mass appeal, someone should have realised the game was being fashioned to just suit an absolutely minuscule target demographic and stepped in and made some drastic changes.
I think the review-score perfectly encapsulates Concord.
It’s good! It just isn’t good enough! It isn’t original enough and doesn’t have enough personality to stand out amongst other hero shooters. Many of them being Free to Play instead of an upfront cost.
And while i personally prefer having an upfront cost, rather then micro-transactions. There is a reason many online multiplayer games do use micro-transactions: When the gameplay is the main hook of a game, you want as many people to try it. The $40 price means only people who are already sold on the game will play it. And Sony spectacularly failed to convince people to buy it.
I was reading through articles, trying to see how much Firewalk cost Sony and I came across this from Herman Hulst “we continue to be impressed by the team’s ambitions to build a modern multiplayer game that connects players in new and innovative ways.” In a press release, he added, “I think fans will be very pleased when they see what Firewalk has in store for them.”
Herman is so out of touch. He was in charge of Killzone and Horizon, so he isn’t a fool, but since moving up the corporate ladder, he is following a very different path.
Concord should have been free to play and I am absolutely dreading the publics opinion when FairGame$ arrives. Whether people like it or not, Sony got to where they are with huge single player extravaganzas. Best to invest in those types of games instead of wasting cash on buying studios to chase a Gaas cash cow that has been tied down by other, better games.
You all can’t be this out of touch to not realise why so few are interested in this game?
The delusion required to not state the obvious is actually disgraceful.
It may upset some people but very few find that kind of nonsense acceptable and are even less likely to want to see it or even have minor exposure to it in fantasy and gaming.
Many play games to escape the lunacy of the real world and never before has our world been so utterly devoid of accountability and reality.
This game seems to embody many things many people simply do not wish to see.
Its entire target audience is less than 2% of the planet and of those the number that do play games is minuscule.
This was expected by anyone with a couple of brain cells to rub together that isn’t delusional.
@KundaliniRising333
There was a lot I didn't like about The Last of Us Part II main story wise but one area that Naughty Dog knocked out of the park (and is the reason no. 1 reason I'd still say TLoU II is a rock solid 8/10 overall), is the gameplay. Since that would've been the focus in an online multiplayer game, day one buy for sure. Such a missed opportunity.
@LikelySatan
Fair enough. To each their own.
Well....I am an old veteran gamer...and I mean Atari years old....and I actually like this game a whole lot better than I thought I would plus it looks great! Sure, there's a few things I prolly would have done different or maybe added at launch but the game has unique enough characters and vert. progression that I will keep playing and I'm sure that since its a Sony game...there is a whole lot more coming! Peeps so impatient and quick to judge these days...even those that don't even try it themselves! .....Hell, I would probably not have any problem paying 10 bucks for a battle pass as well. I spent WAY more..and I mean WAY than 50 bucks on any other f2p shooter I can think of that I have tried (TFD, XD, OW) and I have had about the same amount of fun or more at this point so I have already got my money's worth. I can also appreciate that it wasn't full price at launch and THEN they gouge you with other FOMO stuff like some other games do now! Also..the Q times for me at least haven't been as bad as some are saying. Anyway...bottom line is I am a fan and I will continue to play on!
Once this fails and Astro Bot sells well, hopefully Sony will actually start pushing for more platformers.
Well the poll made it clear 79% of people won't buy it at all and another 9% are not sure, 4% are waiting to make sure the servers don't shut and 7% are playing it. When a multiplayer game can only attract 7% of the player base at best (and how many of them will keep playing it continuously to make enough players to compete in matches, you need a lot of players for one match) and basically no one on steam wants to play it either, it's not looking good.
Definitely not my kind of game. But that goes for the entire genre and isn't a knock against this game specifically. Seems like it's fine for those who like the genre.
@trev666
Most likely the same as London studio, and when the Devs apply for jobs elsewhere Concord will get omitted from their resume.
Usually, before judging a game, i think anyone should try it at least one or two times. Could be interesting to know how many players really played it before giving a vote since nowadays many talk without knowing. I tried it and it’s a good game although surely not a revolution. But I’m having fun with it and that’s the thing for me.
@get2sammyb The first line of your review "Concord is not the disaster the discourse around it would lead you to believe" is literally you trying to let on that Concord is somehow doing ok or well otherwise you wouldn't be writing this line to say "Concord isn't a disaster but it's still doing bad", you're obviously implying no no it's not as bad as people are letting on it's doing ok...when its very clearly not lol
7/10? Pretty cool characters?
Sure, Jan...
Problem was never that Concord is a bad game in any way. Problem is that it is a type of game with loads of heavy competition that is free to play where they charges 40 USD for Concord. And Concord does nothing special in terms of gameplay and with Marvel Rivals coming it faces even stiffer competition!
@Bez87 Full price game? Huh?
How much they payin ya sammy ??
I often wonder why there are so many polls on this site, does the info get sent to Sony ??
I dont know if this game is for me but I have a feeling it isnt. I wish it had a demo or it was "free to start" or something along those lines.
I´ve been gaming since the 80s. My first experience with online games was playing Destiny´s campaing on ps3, it was okay I guess but I kind of hated you couldn´t pause the game.
I was uninterested in online games for the longest time until Fall Guys released and caught my eye. I enjoyed that a lot for a few years but they basically stop creating new maps and seasons when they released Creative. Tried some community maps but its just not the same.
Im among the minority of people who didnt completely hate Suicide Squad´s main campaign. But the post-game? Grind the same repetitive missions again and again without any story or new dialogue just to unlock one boss fight, one cutscene, and one playable character? D@mn, its like they wanted me to stop playing the game
Tried Fortnite when there was a collab I wanted to check out and I didnt get the appeal. Tried CoD Warzone for the same reason (a collab) and didnt get the appeal either. Tried Apex legends when they did a FF7 collab and didnt like it either.
But I kept coming back to fornite every time there was a collab with characters I love: Futurama, The Last airbender, Star Wars, etc. Eventually I ended up liking the game and now I play it almost daily.
My free time is very limited and my backlog keeps growing. You may or may not like microtransactions and/or GaaS, but $40 on a game I probably wont like based on my experience with CoD and Apex Legends? Its a hard sell.
Im not a Sony hater. I have owned every Playstation console 1 through 5. I loved the Astro game that´s included with ps5 so I pre-ordered Astro´s upcoming game because I already know Im gonna love it (and I rarely pre-order games, last one was Tears of the kingdom and I cant even remember what was the last one before that). I have bought many sony exclusives before. Same for Xbox (who has less exclusives everyday but that´s another can of worms)
I will check out Marvel Rivals down the line. I might stick around for that one because it will have so many characters I love. But if you took away those characters, and replace them with generic ones, I probably wouldnt stick around unless the gameplay blew my mind or something.
And that´s the thing with concord: No characters I already love or that seem interesting to me and would like know more about. No big, "blew my mind" innovations on gameplay (that I can tell from trailers or reviews). No demo or free to start. No trailers that caught my eye. No soundtrack that makes me feel something. Nothing.
Just a game I probably wont like based on my experiences with CoD and Apex Legends, that had potential to be so much more, asking for 40 dollars (+ an online subscription I would have to pay in order to play on ps5?) when I have a backlog of exclusive games for different Nintendo, Sony, and Xbox consoles and I can play fortnite for free with friends & families on different consoles, and I have limited free time.
But Im happy for people who are enjoying this game. Good for them. Concord just doesnt seem to be for me.
Great review! It is fair and brings up valid points. I like the pay for the game model. People just don't want devs to get paid it seems like. But then act offended when a studio is closed. I don't get that. This is a model where you can guarantee getting all of the content and future updates, but can later get extras for a few bucks if you want.
Overblown issues were about not getting the full game and about micro transactions. this is a good attempt at doing it different. My wife and I both loved the beta, but with too much going on right now and other games around the time, we plan to get it later.
I wish they'd show a big cool reason to want to get seasonal or unlockable content. I wish they got more creative than some of what I've seen. I wish there was a single player mode of some kind. But, the mechanics are fun, gameplay is smooth, and I like the model. People just need to hate things and go out of their way with it. Plenty of games to not like, so just ignore what you don't like. It's so childish.
@TooManyBrownies No, it's not. It's saying it's not a crap game like some people are complaining. Because, shock horror, despite what the discourse would lead you to believe, it's a totally fine game to play.
The sales performance and success of the game is a whole different topic.
@Jrs1 Oh how I wished publishers cared about sites like ours enough to even consider "buying" positive reviews.
It's really upsetting that Factions and Great Web got cancelled in favor such mediocrity and generic hero shooter that feels outdated.
Typical PlayStation L.
@get2sammyb That would be true...if people were complaining it's a "crap" game, but they're not, most people coming away from the game have said its fine enough when it comes to gameplay it's just not a game that is wanted right now over alternatives. So again yes you are very aware of what you are trying to push here and you're very aware you're arguing a Twitter minority viewpoint to try and justify yourself that you know isn't the case. The real question is why can't you actually write something honest, where you say "Hey I feel like the game isn't that bad to play but realistically im not going to be playing it past the review let alone...it's 8 years of development, a ton of money on marketing being forced down our throats for something nobody asked for or really wants at this point in time, that the discourse around the game is levels of warranted based on that". That would get alot more positive response and actual conversation around it rather than you, like Sony, trying to push this kind of thing down our throats like we're the bad guys for saying its mid but more importantly unwanted just to try and engagement bait people then wondering why game journalism is at its most unpopular (Which apparently is again our fault and problem for disliking pushed agenda's, pandering and double speak).
@TooManyBrownies Exactly. If the game was released in 2017-2018, might've had a fair chance. But it's eight years too late.
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Journalistic integrity took a detour with this article
Fair pros/cons but otherwise I'd say that amounts to a 5/10 then a 7/10. Unless the sound/other parts were that strong of value.
But yeah the kind of review I can see reason in of unoriginal idea which is unfortunate, but like Foamstars they did 2 modes, not expanded their modes or good use of foam/prototyping and make a game that was a waste in the space oh well got my ideas out of it at least that's more for my brain to think creatively.
Characters (regardless of how they look, and other factors) just for gameplay/story sake lack and the lore could be better to be more convincing yet isn't.
I think devs underestimate audience size, whether they will play or not, who the hardcore MP audience are as well PC or PS5. Whether vocal people play games or not, or did the beta and went nah.
Destruction Allstars had fair ideas, but wrong audience to make it for. MMO players sometimes want a more compelling MMO but the few comfortable sure, those that want more they don't see it because devs won't make a risk enough for one.
Concord could be distinct but it said nope we won't. They cram popular aspects into it for 8 years. What a waste of talent.
It isn't only MP hating by PS players it's how lacking of appeal/presentation or gameplay that's compelling regardless of the price tag as a factor and no MTX at launch and probably an ok roadmap I don't remember.
8 years for this. MP games have changed a lot in that time, a lot more failed, succeed and compelled audiences with their wants in games or comfort in that time. I think they should have changed direction. They needed better going on if they wanted a MP game. They can be talented but with a game like this their talent isn't shown highly enough with a game like this to STAND OUT among the rest.
Warhawk, Socom Confrontation, MAG all did things differently as ONLINE ONLY TITLES and probably better and even have people playing Warhawk in their online methods nowadays as a community so it struck a cord clearly.
Besides the of course campaign/MP side content in an Uncharted, Last of Us, Resistance, Starhawk, Killzone and more.
@get2sammyb The review is about what I'd say for pros and cons even without having played it I think I'd come to similar conclusions about it if I did, but the score seems high at 7/10 and I don't know how high their values are for the pros either.
To me that seems more a 4, 5 or 6/10 but it's not my review so they are entitled to how they present the score/what values were as score of that meaning.
Unless the presentation/sound was that good. The gameplay is probably fine. But yeah unoriginal when could be more distinct of identity/inspirations from characters to gameplay to other things, whatever characters gameplay wise were good or bad in the experience or not story relevant enough, lore needing work and so on. Not going to get into how they look at all.
I really don't play much Live Service games, but to get me to play as I do for Fortnite occasionally, the character designs need to be cool. I haven't cared for any of these characters and it cost $40, so I was out immediately. No hate here, just not my cup of tea.
Went back to re-watch the trailers. This game looks like It could have had a solid story campaign.
Its a shame they decided to go in a different direction. Its gonna be though to compete with free multiplayer games like Fortnite, Marvel Rivals, Star Wars Hunters, Overwatch, Destiny, Halo Infinite, Call of Duty Warzone. Etc.
This game Is possibly gonna flop and lose a lot of money. But I hope Im proven wrong, I can only wish the Best.
The title says "Beats the hate", this statement is objectivly wrong. The game debuted on steam with less peak players than Suicide Squad and Redfall. This game is a flop, objectivly.
It's funny that Sony paid millions to buy the studio behind this game, shows you how incompetent Sony's leadrship was under Jim Ryan. I wonder if things will improve under the new leadership.
5.7/10 on the PlayStation store itself from the players says it all
@Whately86 Yes. I fail to see where Concord is "political". It's just another story with a ragtag group of people = sci-fi. Very inoffensive.
I still think someone instruct people to hate a product for invented reasons, and it's a snowball effect.
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LOL and IJBOL
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