The Concord Early Access Beta came and went over this weekend and the players that decided to check the game out were not impressed by what they played. On top of the poor reactions, what little interest the game had seemed to evaporate over the weekend as the player numbers plummeted.
A screenshot from Concord (2024), Firewalk Studios
The Early Access Beta ran from July 12th through the 14th and based on Steam DB data the game’s peak concurrent players capped out at 1,124 around 10:00 pm ET on July 12th. From there it significantly declined dropping to 671 just 24 hours later. By Sunday the peak concurrent had fallen to 479 at 10 pm ET.
In fact, much of the weekend saw the number of concurrent players below 700.
Concord Early Access Beta Steam DB charts
READ: ‘Concord’ Early Access Beta Draws Less Than 1,200 Concurrent Players
The game is ranked #946 on Steam DB’s Most Wishlisted Upcoming Steam Games chart.
Steam DB’s Most Wishlisted Upcoming Steam Games chart
On top of the player base evaporating throughout the weekend, early reactions to the game were not good. YouTuber DreamcastGuy shared, “It essentially feels like Walmart brand Overwatch. It’s a hero shooter that doesn’t really have any of that spark of crazy originality.”
He did share some positives, “I do appreciate the art style, the coloring, the way the characters look, even the environments and stuff. This has a very Guardians of the Galaxy vibe that I absolutely eat up. The problem is that this cool coat of paint doesn’t actually make the game fun.”
A screenshot from Concord (2024), Firewalk Studios
He later noted, “The balancing is just radically ridiculously bad. … There are characters that feel like they are powered up beyond the necessary amounts.”
Still later in his video stated, “It never actually feels that thrilling it just feels like another basic match of Overwatch. Something that you can just do mindlessly without any real thrills or enjoyments I never had like a nail-biting victory or anything like that.”
He even commented on the lack of players noting he had over five minute queues.
YouTuber Angry Joe also noted he was unimpressed by the game. He said, “How is the game? It’s mid. It’s not worth $40. Everybody’s saying this and it’s true. It would be great as a free-to-play game because to be honest it does have its moments. The graphics actually look good. It has some great character animations, some good facial expressions. There are high quality cutscenes even if the story is not all that interesting.”
He later added, “The maps are not memorable. Pretty much every single other hero shooter has better maps: Overwatch, Marvel Rivals. These maps aren’t very good. So that’s a problem. And then finally, I didn’t feel much of a sense of progression.”
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YouTuber Skill Up also was unimpressed by the Early Access Beta. He began with positives, “By far and away the biggest strengths of Concord are its solid mechanics and its innovative class kits, some of which are borrowed wholesale from Destiny, but remixing them in ways that feel like iteration rather than plagiarism. In these aspects Concord really distinguishes itself and does make a compelling case why you might want to play this over Overwatch, or Fornite, or Apex, or Valorant, or whatever.”
“But games like these are not measured by one or two of their elements alone, but rather by looking at the whole package: visuals, level design, game mode, structure, progression, and monetization. In almost all of these areas Concord does very little to distinguish itself except in the fact that it’s daring to charge $40 for a game that many consumers would expect to be able to play for free at this point.”
A screenshot from Concord (2024), Firewalk Studios
He then roasted the game, “Concord’s levels are functional to the point of being rather lifeless. The game modes are highly derivative and do not seem to properly leverage the strength of the sandbox that Firewalk have built. The progression is slow and wholly uninteresting centered on generic cosmetics like weapon charms and emblems.
“Most alarmingly, for a game out in just over a month, there’s some seriously unfinished systems rolling around in here like a character selection variant and team loadout system. All of which are so messy to understand and utilize and that really feel like things that are designed to constrain your fun rather than enhance them,” he added.
READ: Rumor: Firewalk Studios “Shrugging Off” Criticism Of ‘Concord’
YouTuber Endymion shared his thoughts on the game on X and noted that “graphically it looks nice in cutscenes.” However, the negatives piled up. He added, “Character movement feels sloppy & slow. Maps feel lifeless & boring. No character felt ‘good’ to play. Customization is basic. Ugly character designs ( Daveers, Duchess & Daw are horrendous looking ). Feels like an add on that would be attached to a more complete game. Fights can snowball in one teams favour too easily – Pronouns?”
He continued, “Overall not impressed at all not sure what Sony is going for here with this & genuinely concerned if this game will do well or flop. IMO if they want ANY chance of survival in today’s market this HAS to be free to play at launch. $50 for what feels like a side mode in a more complete game is asking too much. Really worried about this one.”
So I tried the CONCORD beta to see if it could win me over here’s the positives & negatives imo
Positives
– it was a free beta
– Graphically it looks nice in cutscenesNegatives
– Character movement feels sloppy & slow
– Maps feel lifeless & boring
– No character felt “good”… pic.twitter.com/gh3CAzewQX— Endymion (@EndymionYT) July 13, 2024
Given the poor number of players for the Early Access Beta, the lack of people wishlisting the game, and the negative reactions to the Early Access Beta, it’s unlikely this game will be a success by any kind of metric.
What do you make of these negative reactions and the lack of player interest?
NEXT: ‘Concord’ Developer Addresses Massive Backlash To Game After Character Design and Pronoun Reveal
