Concord (Early Access Beta) impressions for PS5, PC

Last weekend saw the release of upcoming hero shooter Concord’s Early Access Beta on PS5 and PC. Developed by Firewalk and being published by Sony, Concord hopes to etch its name on the wall next to other popular hero shooters like Overwatch, Valorant, and many others. Having spent some time last weekend with the game on PS5, I’d say that Concord didn’t exactly blow me away with its first impression, but I also felt compelled to play more of the game as we approach the upcoming launch on August 23rd. Thankfully, I’ll be able to do just that, and so will you, as an open beta is due to start today the 18th, and will run through Sunday the 21st, giving even more PlayStation and PC players the opportunity to check it out. 

On the surface, Concord is pretty much what you’re expecting it to be. It’s very much in the vein of other hero shooters, offering up 5 vs. 5 matches with a big starting roster of characters to pick from. There’s some underlying story elements to help propel the game along, but there is no “story mode” with the focus entirely on multiplayer. 

The beta featured just a small number of modes, with other modes locked out for the full release. For the modes available, they were all familiar to anyone that’s played online shooters in the past. There’s a standard Team Deathmatch mode, a mode that’s awfully similar to Kill Confirmed from Call of Duty, and then two objective focused modes that also featured no respawns. 

It’s a little early to talk about maps and how well structured they are, but I did enjoy the ones featured in the beta, which had virtually no issues with bad spawn locations or notable balance problems. Granted, my time with the game was limited, but I found this glimpse at what the full game could offer to be pretty promising overall.

As far as the actual characters go, I was surprised at how many were available from the start. Each character falls into a particular class archetype, which Concord names as Haunt, Ranger, and so on, but in reality they’re pretty much the standard FPS/RPG style classes like defenders, DPS, healers, etc. It doesn’t take long to figure out which class specializes in which mechanic, so again, if you’re even remotely familiar with the hero shooter concept you’ll have little trouble figuring out who you want to play. I will say I struggled to find good combinations between different characters, but that’s something that’ll likely become more evident over time.

One aspect of Concord that did feel unique to me was the concept of building a roster of characters you can choose from when either starting a match or respawning. At the onset of the game you’re given a default roster of characters, and then 4 randomly selected characters. So when you start a match or respawn, you won’t necessarily have full access to the entire list of characters in game. Instead, the game is designed around swapping out different character class archetypes each time you start a round or respawn. Doing so can bestow additional bonuses which will stack with each subsequent round or respawn you have.

So instead of picking one or two characters to main throughout your time with Concord, you’re incentivized to choose from a larger number of characters to learn instead. As you level up, you’ll also unlock the ability to create your own roster, so you can then focus on the characters you like. It’s certainly a unique idea and I’m curious to see how the community handles this concept going forward.

I’m definitely interested in seeing and playing more of Concord as the launch date approached. I’m not necessarily enamored with the game just yet, but it’s won me over more than the initial reveal trailer managed to do, and I think it’s worth downloading and checking out the open beta this weekend if you’re curious. I’m sure there’s more kinks to iron out with the network and balancing between now and August, but I’d venture to say that the version of Concord you play this weekend is likely to be pretty similar to the final launch product, so this beta should give you a good idea of what to expect.

Concord – Gameplay Trailer | PS5 Games: