8 takeaways from Sony’s big FPS reveal.
I was on vacation last week, so I got to experience the reveal of Sony’s new multiplayer FPS like everyone else: forgetting a State of Play stream was happening, tuning in 15 minutes late, then rewinding to the beginning thanks to the magic of modern live streaming.
Sony only had two big games of its own to showcase—not unexpected, since “slowly” seems the permanent pace of big-budget game development—but I was surprised that while everyone around me was hooting and hollering about Astro Bot, I was the only one who wanted to see more Concord. I keep seeing variations of the same three reactions to Firewalk’s debut game: That it’s an Overwatch clone, or another dead-on-arrival service game, or a multiplayer game that should be singleplayer.
That’s not what I saw. The cynicism around service games is earned, but when I look at Concord, I see heroes that I don’t recognize from other games, intricately designed guns I want to shoot, and a format of FPS that we rarely get outside Call of Duty these days. We’ve barely gotten a glimpse at Concord so far, but I have some thoughts about the reveal:The ex-Bungie folks at Firewalk know a thing or two about shooters
There’s a reason Concord’s cosmic mysticism and floaty characters ring a bell: Firewalk was founded by Bungie vets who worked on Halo and Destiny. Pedigree only goes so far when we’re talking about a newly-formed team, but I believe design director Josh Hamrick (who was also a gameplay designer on Halo: Reach and both Destinys) when he says Firewalk is focusing on “building a strong gameplay foundation of tight core movement, tight, visceral shooting, and expressive abilities.”Concord’s heroes remind me of Overwatch, but Firewalk is clearly making an arena shooter
It’s natural to see a plucky crew of characters with varying heights and one-word names and think Firewalk is making Sony Overwatch, but my gut says that impression won’t hold up once we’ve actually played it. Everything I saw in that gameplay trailer—circular maps, haphazard movements, three-to-four shot kills—suggests Concord is an arena shooter. In the trailer and in a PlayStation Blog post, Firewalk describes both round-based modes and modes with respawns.
In other words, Concord doesn’t appear to be a “shooter MOBA” in the Overwatch style, with its prolonged group fights, strict role adherence, and linear maps. We should expect something closer to Call of Duty or Destiny’s Crucible—a mix of traditional FPS modes both casual and competitive. This is a core reason Concord has my attention. Firewalk seemingly understands that there’s no more room for battle royales, extraction shooters, or Overwatch clones (we’ll see how Marvel Rivals works out), but there is an opening for arena shooters to make a minor comeback.
