Concord's Open Beta Proves the Importance on One of its Most Unique Features

Highlights

Concord need to emphasize its plans to tell a robust story after lackluster player numbers in recent Open Beta.
Weekly cinematics could be Concord’s selling point to keep fans invested.
Concord needs to integrate its cinematics with gameplay to set itself apart in a saturated market.

Still set to release at the end of August, Concord has had a rather divisive reception already. One of the few PlayStation live-service games to actually see the light of day, Concord‘s cinematic reveal was met with some harsh criticism when it debuted a few months ago, with some gamers chastising the game’s “MCU-like” tone, and expressing their lack of interest in another Overwatch-like hero shooter hitting the market.

The perception surrounding Concord has, unfortunately, only continued to grow more divisive in recent weeks, with its initial Closed Beta drawing in a sizable player-base and evoking some encouraging previews, but its more recent Open Beta struggled to find popularity, only managing to bring in a peak active player-count of 2,388 on Steam. It’s going to be incredibly difficult for Concord to succeed in just a few weeks’ time, but there’s one unique selling point that it could use to its advantage.

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Concord Needs to Double Down on Its Story Content

Concord’s Beta Only Gave Players a Tease of Its Story

When Concord resurfaced earlier this year, it did so with a pretty lengthy cinematic trailer. This trailer proved to be pretty divisive, but Concord developer Firewalk stuck to its guns and confirmed that the game would have a stronger narrative focus than some of its multiplayer competitors. Firewalk eventually confirmed that this narrative focus would come in the form of weekly cinematics that would play automatically after booting up the game.

Fans got their first glimpse of this intriguing narrative approach with Concord‘s recent Betas. Along with a lengthy introductory cinematic that established Concord‘s core group of Freegunners and the game’s general premise, fans were also treated to two additional, much shorter cinematics that were released during the Beta’s first and second week. These shorter cinematics didn’t offer any groundbreaking dramatic moments or major story beats, but continued to flesh out Concord‘s universe and cast in a pretty fun way, balancing world-building dialog with bite-sized jokes and back-and-forth banter. For fans of Sci-Fi team-up movies and shows like Guardians of the Galaxy and Firefly, these cinematics are sure to feel familiar, and hopefully in a positive way.

Concord’s Story Could Be Its Greatest Selling Point

Firewalk’s current plan for Concord is to keep releasing one cinematic every week, with each one continuing to explore the characters’ various backstories, flesh out the universe even further, and potentially progress an ongoing narrative that changes each in-game season. If Firewalk can stick to this plan, then Concord‘s cinematics could be a good way to keep fans invested in the game and keep them interested in any new additions that come to the roster post-launch.

Though its gameplay certainly has plenty of unique qualities, Concord is currently being viewed by many as just another hero shooter. Concord is in desperate need of a defining feature that sets it apart from the rest of the market, and its high-budget cinematics could be just that. But if Concord‘s cinematics are going to be its standout feature, then they’re going to need a bit of an overhaul. Rather than be just short introductions to characters, Concord‘s cinematics should focus on developing some kind of ongoing storyline that ties in directly with its gameplay, as there’s currently a bit of a disconnect between the story in its cutscenes and the title’s actual gameplay.

Concord

Concord is a sci-fi multiplayer shooter from new studio Firewalk Studios, part of the PlayStation Studios stable, launching on PS5 and PC. It features two teams of five Freegunners, each with their own abilities and personalities.

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