It's hard to complain about “hero shooter fatigue” when Concord looks this good

Lina PortmanJune 4, 2024

0 5 minutes read

I was on vacation last week, so I was able to experience like everyone else the reveal of Sony's new multiplayer FPS: forget that a State of Play stream was happening, set it to 15 minutes late, then go back to the start thanks to to the magic of modern live music. streaming.

Sony only had two big games to show off – which wasn't surprising, since “slow” seems to be the permanent pace of big-budget game development – but I was surprised to find that while everyone around me were hooting and shouting about Astro Bot, I was the only one who wanted to see more of Concord. I keep seeing variations of the same three reactions to the first Firewalk game: whether it's an Overwatch clone, or another dead-on-arrival service game, or a multiplayer game which should be solo.

That's not what I saw. The cynicism around service games is deserved, but when I look at Concord I see heroes I don't recognize in other games, intricately designed weapons I want to shoot, and an FPS format we rarely get outside of Call of Duty. days. We've barely gotten a glimpse of Concord so far, but I have a few thoughts on the reveal:

Firewalk's former Bungie staffers know a thing or two about shooters.

There's a reason Concord's cosmic mysticism and floating characters mean something to you: Firewalk was founded by Bungie veterans who worked on Halo and Destiny. The pedigree only goes so far when we're talking about a newly formed team, but I believe design director Josh Hamrick (who was also a gameplay designer on Halo: Reach and both Destinys) when he says that Firewalk will focuses on “building a strong team”. gameplay base consisting of tight basic movements, tight and visceral shooting and expression skills.

(Image credit: Sony)

Heroes of Concord reminds me of Overwatch, but Firewalk is clearly an arena shooter

It's natural to see a plucky team of characters with varying sizes and one-word names and think that Firewalk is making Sony Overwatch, but my gut tells me that impression won't hold up once we actually play it . Everything I saw in this gameplay trailer (circular maps, random movement, three to four kills) suggests that Concord is an arena shooter. In the trailer and in a PlayStation Blog post, Firewalk describes both round-based and respawn modes.

In other words, Concord doesn't appear to be an Overwatch-style “shooter MOBA,” with its prolonged group fights, strict role-playing, and linear maps. We should expect something closer to Call of Duty or Destiny's Crucible, a mix of traditional FPS modes both casual and competitive. This is one of the main reasons why Concord catches my attention. Firewalk seems to understand that there's no longer room for battle royales, fetch shooters, or Overwatch clones (we'll see how Marvel Rivals works), but there is an opening for shooters to arena make a minor return.

The early success of XDefiant, Ubisoft's free Call of Duty alternative, indicates that people are in the mood for casual shooters again. I am definitely among them.

(Image credit: Sony)

This big robot vacuum gives me hope that the heroes of Concord will actually feel different

If there's one aspect of Concord that I hope for do it feels like Overwatch, that’s the design of the kit. The easiest way to kill my buzz for a hero shooter is to give me heroes that play mostly the same (sorry Apex Legends, Valorant, and XDefiant). It's encouraging that Firewalk wants to embrace the “asymmetry” of its Concord heroes.

“We're very influenced by fighting games and even strategy games in that the asymmetry of their characters makes each match really different,” said lead gameplay designer Claude Jérôme.

“Lying on the asymmetry of the characters, really pushing the possibility space of a collision between two different characters, it's about creating opportunities for improvisation,” said lead character designer Jon Weisnewski. “This is where we can step aside and let the players find their own magic.”

It's a good conversation, and it's supported by moments in the trailer. 1-OFF, the yellow cylindrical robot from the cutscene, literally dominates all the other heroes on the map. He roams the arena like a beacon, placing jump mats and serving as moving cover for his teammates, and his only “gun” is a vacuum cleaner. I so want to try it.

Concord has a huge opening day roster

Concord launches with 16 Freegunners (what he calls heroes). It's a good start, landing on other high-end hero shooters: Apex Legends launched with eight, Overwatch with 21, XDefiant five, Rainbow Six Siege 20, and Valorant 10. I have friends who find this overwhelming to have to learn. a dozen characters right off the bat, but as someone who gets bored when I don't change heroes every few turns, I appreciate the options.

(Image credit: Sony)

Concord is not a free game (as far as we know), and that's very exciting

Did you notice that at no point in the Concord reveal did Sony say “free-to-play”? I had to watch it again to make sure, but it seems Concord is a rare paid multiplayer game. This is potentially excellent news. Paying Concord upfront would be hopefully This means that Firewalk won't be tempting players with glitzy battle pass ads and $40 skin packs at every turn.

The standardization of free-to-play gaming (along with old-fashioned greed) has led to games that are best described as storefronts with video games attached to them. Sony shouldn't lose sight that Helldivers 2 (a $40 game) has gained a lot of goodwill by prioritizing free updates and making its premium skins store an afterthought. Its 12 million sales suggest that people want to pay for multiplayer games if it means they actually get a full game.

If Sony learns the right lessons from Helldivers 2, I'd like to see a few elements of Concord:

A price between $30 and $40
Each character can be unlocked at a reasonable pace without extra money
No randomized cosmetics
A remote store tab
Progression trees that never expire (battle passes)

This Sophisticated Cinematic Trailer Backfired

In retrospect, the Concord reveal was never going to ignite fans, starting with that fancy cinematic trailer. Firewalk was probably aiming for a Blizzard-style cutscene that tells a self-contained story and sets the stage for the world of Concord, but that's not what fans thought they were watching. The hundreds of thousands of people watching Sony streams were waiting for its next open-world single-player adventure, and what they saw in Concord was a trailer for a game they weren't getting.

Concord's week-by-week storytelling seems ambitious (in a bad way)

Firewalk's has a new plan for storytelling within the confines of Concord's PvP. Each week, Firewalk will release “brief cinematic vignettes” that “feature ongoing story arcs that develop character stories and relationships and reveal the wider Concord galaxy.” It looks cool, but difficult to achieve. Producing 52 cutscenes a year is a huge task for an ongoing game where schedules can change, and if they're only a minute or two long, will fans care?

(Image credit: Sony)

Is “hero shooter fatigue” real?

Before you dismiss Concord as a shooter designed in a long-gone era, I'd like to challenge how “outdated” hero shooters we really are. Apex Legends and Rainbow Six Siege regularly appear in the top 10 most played games on Steam. Valorant has millions of players, and even Overwatch 2 still draws crowds.

All of these games manage to coexist without rubbing shoulders with each other, and that's because, despite sharing a character design methodology, they are completely different versions of the FPS. Apex Legends and Overwatch 2 both have heroes who turn invisible, create bubble shields, and mark enemies through walls, but we don't consider one a clone of the other. This is the lens through which I view Concord, at least for now. It's about applying heroes to a flavor of shooter that we don't often get, and I really want to play this beta in July to see how it goes.