Concord Review: Peaceful, as No One is Around

Concord is a hero 5v5 action shooter that looks amazing and has gripping lore to support in-game. But does it truly do anything unique from pre-existing hero shooters, and is it prepared to tackle future hero shooters backed with a scaled franchise?

Let’s dive into our official review of Concord!

Concord is based on a futuristic space setting with various misfits now joined together fighting for freedom in the galaxy. The galaxy is currently governed, and normal people are restricted from travel. Moreover, people were left out of a map that showed how big the galaxy is. This is where the heroes of the game pick up, making crews and being rebels in the galaxy. Are you taking down the threat with this new-found roster? Well no, you are fighting between other crews. No, it doesn’t make sense to me either.

You also get to discover more intel after each match and you can know about planets, paths and a wall which seems to be a form of big disaster event inside the game and could be the primary source where the narrative would be driven. But is any of the slightly intriguing lore connected with your gameplay experience? Nope.

The Firing Squad!

As a 5v5 shooter, you for once, do not have to take up a designated role. You can play as any hero and swap out after each death with a selected roster that may get to add other characters in the future. Added, you get to stack passive perks with each hero you play as, making your game slightly more interesting if you’re bringing in a diverse roster. But sticking to one hero will not impact much if you’re playing casually.

The roster build does directly hint that that each season there would be new characters joining the game. The characters individually are amazing to discover, however, only a few of them pack a unique individual ability compared to other hero-shooter games. But those who do, make the game stand out in respect to the other things it does absolutely right.

Each character comes with their own arsenal, some even pack a secondary weapon, absolutely crucial when you run out of ammo. But the way the weapon works is essential to your gameplay. A fast-running agent with a Mac 10 is a dream for all cod players, but a tank with a machine gun may strong-arm the entire site for the entire game if played right.

But what truly makes hero-shooters fun is their abilities. Some characters may have wrecking abilities, but some are just good for support. For a game which does not focuses on chemistry in a team in most of the game modes, that does not do well at all. While you may see some abilities that are never seen before, the impact overall remains the same and nothing new is happening in the game ability-wise.

The most important feature of a hero-shooter is the ultimate ability. It helps change the momentum of the entire game. Unfortunately, the game has no ultimates in any characters. I really do not get the point of this. Without this, the game still manages to function well. However, the focus is now on individual fragging and not teamplay.

The Visually Striking Build

One department of the game has excelled in all matters in its visuals and designs with OSTs to top it all off. The crisp design with even more powerful galactic entries into the planet in each game opening is simply mind-blowing. The character designs are incredibly unique and very realistic, making them look a part of something new and promising. The attention to the character’s personality and look has been executed flawlessly.

The maps themselves are easy to understand you don’t require many games to know the know-how of each map. It’s easily divided into sectors with multiple approaches, absolutely removing chokeholds to have a fair fight in each phase of the game. Personally, the atmosphere of all the games perfectly matches the tone of constant fighting and chaos.

The sound design is also well executed, overall as a bundle making by making sure it upholds the next-gen quality of game titles in terms of graphics and designs.

Performance-wise, it does not stutter or drop FPS on the PlayStation 5.

A signal into the Void?

Performance-wise it may not stutter on the console, but how can I judge it, when it takes me over three minutes to find even one match before, during and after release dates? And even if I do find matches, my ping is always flashing red and therefore, I am guaranteed to lose fights which are fast-paced and require precision.

There has not even been one match which was near my region and if I could get a green bar. For some game modes, I could not get even one match in 6-7 minute-long searches. Therefore, the news of the game’s low steam concurrent numbers might be true, but it’s all the same on the console as well.

Verdict

A visually striking hero 5v5 shooter does everything right to be a next-gen shooter only failing to do something to stand out. It brings out extremely well-detailed characters and an interesting arsenal but does nothing out of the ordinary to keep players hooked or try mastering a new form of the battlefield. It’s all the same, but just in a next-gen world.