At the latest State of Play, Sony also showed some of the projects in development at PlayStation Studios that will hit the shelves shortly and, among these, there was also I agree. Until a few hours ago the title signed Firewalk Studios it was a mystery: it was known that it was a futuristic shooter, but nothing other than the setting, the logo and the launch window was known to the public. The gaming giant has now removed the veil from its new exclusive, whose release date is much closer than one could have imagined. Seen the generous amount of material released at State of Playlet’s try to analyze all the details of the hero shooter while waiting to be able to try it firsthand.
The Mercenaries of the Galaxy
There is one element that immediately makes Concord different from other multiplayer productions seen recently such as XDefiant (by the way, have you read our review of XDefiant?): the title by Firewalk Studios places great emphasis on lore and is particularly keen not only to contextualize what happens on the screen, but also and above all to characterize each individual character.
Concord is set in the future, in a galaxy that gives its name to the PC and PlayStation exclusive. The imagery of the title in question is evidently the result of numerous influences, since we find the ironic vein typical of the Guardians of the Galaxy, the frenzy of the clashes seen in anime and a pinch of western, which comes out above all in the sequence set in the restaurant of the CGI film.
In the Concord universe, the figures of gods are incredibly widespread Freegunner, which is the name given to these crazy space mercenaries who, for the right compensation, dedicate themselves to more or less dangerous activities. And this is where the beauty comes in, since the matches that are the basis of the game consist precisely in the clashes between Freegunners, who usually work in groups and travel aboard huge space ships. Precisely because of this element, we believe it is more than possible that there is a central hub in the title that can act as an alternative to the menus. It would be very interesting if our ship was freely explorable and customizable, so as to also give us a pretext to discover further details on the various characters.
A truly frenetic hero shooter
But what kind of game is Concord exactly? Many users were misled by the Reveal Cinematic Trailer, so much so that they thought that it was a new single player along the lines of God of War and The Last of Us, that is, an adventure strongly focused on the narrative plot. In reality we are talking about something completely different, since the Firewalk project is one of the many live service productions in progress at PlayStation Studios and is one shooter with first-person view exclusively PvP and with a typical hero shooter setting.
They compete against each other in matches two teams made up of five Freegunners and each player can freely select one of the sixteen elements that make up the initial roster. However, the new PC and PS5 exclusive should not be considered a normal FPS, since here there is no possibility of selecting weapons or equipment with which to take to the track: just like in Overwatch, each of the characters is a world of its ownas he boasts a fire mouth, skills and characteristics that differentiate him from all the others.
It’s also easy to imagine that our space mercenaries belong to classes specifics, given that already in the gameplay trailer you can see Freegunners acting as tanks, supports or attackers. The blue-skinned giant we saw in the cinematic trailer, StarChildcan harden skin and make it temporarily bulletproof, so it can resist damage and shield allies.
Haymar, the warrior with oriental features, presents herself as an excellent support for DPS, in fact she can hover in the air and sow chaos with incendiary spheres: on the one hand she can shoot them with a crossbow to hit single targets, on the other she can throw them by hand to create barriers of fire, so as to prevent the enemy from advancing. There are also more classic characters such as Lennoxthe green-skinned alien who holds a revolver and can throw knives, so he’ll be lethal in the hands of FPS enthusiasts with good aim.
Composing the team in the right way will be essential to face the challenger with all the means to attack and defend. However, it remains to be understood what the objectives of the game aresince the gameplay trailer only shows the frenetic eliminations with weapons and abilities, but the device that also appears in the CGI movie will almost certainly be an objective to contend with. The only certainty is that the pace of the game is very fast and most of the heroes are able to move with great agility, so much so that they can also perform rapid somersaults that allow them to dodge any incoming attacks. There isn’t much to say about it though gunplay, which will have to be tried pad in hand. Simply viewing the video seems to suggest that it is a solid shooter and we hope that these impressions will be confirmed when we have the opportunity to take on the role of the Freegunners.
Graphics and post-launch support
First impressions on the technical sector are positive, between a good overall level of detail and characters that seem to be animated effectively, even on an expressive level. Even the arenas appear to have been carefully designed on a purely aesthetic level, with many elements that make them recognizable such as piles of purple sand or the carcass of an enormous alien monster. No less relevant are the warrior designsome of which become familiar after just a few seconds of watching the trailer, with the Freegunners who if well characterized could make users fall in love just like what happened in Blizzard’s hero shooter.
As for the distribution model we can limit ourselves to hypotheses, since Sony has not declared anything specific in this sense. Putting the dots together, however, everything points in the direction of the premium game, whether it is sold at full price or at a reduced cost. On the official PlayStation blog it is expressly said that the PS Plus subscription is necessary to play online and, as we all know, free-to-play games don’t need it. This does not mean that the Japanese giant cannot try another path and repeat what it did with Destruction All-Stars, that is, immediately insert the game into the catalog of its subscription, perhaps keeping it just for a few months in the PlayStation Plus Extra library.
In any case, there will be some monetization system through the sale of cosmetic items or Battle Passes, given that it has already been confirmed that all post-launch content will be distributed for free.
Obviously ours are only guesses and to find out more we will have to wait for the next few days, given that pre-orders will open on June 6, 2024 and at that time further details on production will be revealed, including the price. In short, there are still many questions, but we are sure that many of the questions in question will be answered shortly, given that it may not be long until the arrival of the Beta which will precede the definitive release, scheduled for August 23, 2024 both on PC than on PlayStation 5.
