Concord First Hands-On: Plenty of Balancing Left to Go, and Not Much Time

ign.com:

Concord was originally teased last year with a simple video that showcased a ship cruising through space. I think a hamburger was involved. Anyway, after seeing that short teaser, I honestly expected to see a story-driven FPS – this is a first-party Sony game, after all – but maybe it’d be something like an MMO, a la Destiny. I was on board for a new experience regardless, but then I was somewhat surprised to learn that Concord is, in fact, a 5v5 shooter.

And now that I’ve played it, I’m very glad that Concord does plan on keeping up with its world lore and ongoing storyline, since some of my favorite FPS games like Overwatch and Apex Legends do this seasonally as well . Additionally, each season that releases will be free to all players, who only have to purchase the game and enjoy future updates to come.

While I enjoyed my time in the limited hands-on preview overall, I have several concerns for the longevity of Concord and what it has to offer. Concord’s meat-and-potatoes formula is a pretty standard 5v5 set up, with two teams choosing their preferred character before diving into an objective-based team battle.

During the preview, I was able to play three of six modes that will be available at launch: Trophy Hunt, Cargo Run, and Clash Point. Trophy Hunt was the only one that featured respawns in the match and was basically Kill Confirmed team deathmatch.

Cargo Run, meanwhile, was a single-life match where the objective was to run to the center, steal a Blue Buddy package and plant it at one of two sites. If planted, the enemy team could go and stand on the package to diffuse it and take it back. And finally, Clash Point was a round-based single-life game mode with the objective being to control the only capture zone in the entire map multiple times to get the victory.

The single-life modes were tough to warm up on while still getting to know the game, as failure obviously means you’re out of the action for a bit. And while Concord is a fairly straightforward FPS, I