Summary
- Quake's influence is felt in Concord's fast-paced gameplay and multiplayer mode, offering a familiar experience for fans of the classic shooter.
- Concord's hero shooter mechanics, like Roka's rocket launcher, provide a unique twist on the traditional arena shooter experience.
- Despite low player numbers, Concord's potential to attract Quake fans lies in its unique gameplay and fast-paced combat mechanics.
Released in 1996, the first Quake was one of the pioneers of the first-person shooter genre, dropping three years after the first Doom and featuring a wealth of improvements from id Software's already-strong formula. While Doom shared Quake's fast-paced gameplay, the addition of an extensive multiplayer mode in the latter essentially created the online arena shooter genre as the gaming industry knows it today, laying the groundwork for modern games like Firewalk's Concord.
The latest live-service experiment from Sony, Concord is a 5v5 hero shooter that unfortunately isn't performing too well, at least on PC. At the time of writing, Concord has just 114 players online according to tracking site SteamDB, and an all-time peak player count of just 697. But there's some strong gameplay hidden beneath Concord's public image, and it's gameplay that Quake fans should have on their radar.
Concord Could Give Quake Fans What They've Been Searching For
Concord's Fast-Paced Arena Shooting Gameplay Will Feel Familiar to Quake Fans
Concord is home to three separate multiplayer playlists, with each one containing two game modes. While a good portion of these game modes are objective-based modes that encourage teamwork and strategic play, a few of them are not, instead offering a more traditional arena shooter experience. In Concord's Brawl playlist, Quake fans might be able to find a familiar experience, with the modes Takedown and Trophy Hunt simply requiring teams to kill as many enemies as possible, as quickly as they can.
Naturally, this leads to some pretty fast-paced gameplay, with players splitting off from their team early to frantically scour the map for opponents. Concord's map layouts evoke some familiar Quake vibes, with them often featuring a few different planes of elevation, some sneaky vantage points, and plenty of open spaces that can lead to all-out carnage. Of course, Concord's time-to-kill and respawn rate are much slower than those found in a game like Call of Duty, but they're generally faster here than they are in contemporaries like Overwatch 2, giving the game a unique pace.
While Concord might offer a fun new experience for Quake fans, if its player base keeps dropping then fans might have to make do with the ongoing Quake Champions, which has a very low player count (297 at the time of writing), but one that's still higher than Concord's.
Concord's Roka Plays Like a Quake Character
A hero shooter at its core, Concord is currently home to 16 playable Freegunners. Each Freegunner comes with their own unique set of active abilities and passive powers and a distinct weapon. While quite a few Freegunners can offer a fast-paced, Quake-like experience, it's Concord's Roka who probably best fits fans' needs. A faceless rocket launcher-wielding astronaut with a jetpack, Roka delivers explosive justice from the sky.
Though every Quake game has given players a vast arsenal of weapons to frag their enemies with, the rocket launcher has become a staple of the franchise's multiplayer component, with players being able to leap and dash across a map, blasting at enemies below and using that ensuing explosion to propel them further. Though Roka's jetpack and double jump passive aren't quite as fast-paced as Quake's rocket movement, skilled players should still be able to land some satisfying hits at high speed using the Freegunner's toolset.
Concord
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 64 /100 Critics Rec: 23%
- Released
- August 23, 2024
- ESRB
- t
- Developer(s)
- Firewalk Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Multiplayer
- Online Co-Op, Online Multiplayer
WHERE TO PLAY
Assemble your crew of Freegunner space outlaws and team up online with friends for thrilling 5v5 PVP modes across the galaxy in Concord.
Concord is a new team-based first-person shooter for PS5® and PC*. Handpick your personal roster of Freegunners from the crew of the Northstar – a group of outlaws and adventurers working as guns-for-hire.
ASSEMBLE YOUR CREW
From powerful mystics to skilled gunslingers and helpful healers, each Freegunner brings their own unique skills, personality, and abilities that cater to a wide-range of playstyles.
Create your own custom squads of Freegunners with Crew Builder to bring an arsenal of different role types to the match or focus on your favourite characters to master their gameplay and unlock unique modifiers, cosmetics, background lore, and more – you decide when to play your characters and how you impact the match.
PLAY. PROGRESS. PERSONALIZE.
Earn and unlock a wide range of character customization items and learn more about the characters, worlds, and factions in the Concord Galaxy with the Galactic Guide.
You’ll also be able to progress toward and unlock Freegunner Variants—versions of each of the 16 Freegunners with added Combat Trait modifiers to their base abilities. As you learn and master the characters, Combat Traits empower you to tailor each character to your playstyle.
