It’s been hard to stay positive about Concord’s chances of success after a disastrous debut earlier this year, a beta that – while fun – struggled to capture enough players’ attention, and early access numbers that were worrying to say the least.
In fact, this review wasn’t ready last week because pretty much everyone that was already playing the game failed to find matches of its round-based mode, which is unlocked past a certain player level. That’s how rough it’s been out there. But hey, player numbers aside, is Concord actually fun and compelling as a competitive online shooter? Well, kind of. And that’s its biggest issue. Sometimes, everything clicks and results in something that might just have the juice needed to grow and evolve, but the true moments of joy are just far too rare.
Let’s address the elephant in the room first: Concord reportedly took eight flippin’ years to fully develop, which sounds absurd to me. Even at its best, and taking into account the lofty (and clearly unnecessary) production values on display, Concord isn’t huge. At launch, there are 16 characters, 12 maps, and 6 modes (in three totally separate playlists). On top of those, the ‘solo’ experience is limited to a practice range, a general tutorial, and five pretty basic time trials, all built with the same assets seen in the main multiplayer experience.