I’ve always thought there was something presumptuous about hero shooters. Building an entire game around a bunch of characters I’m expected to like purely on vibes is a big ask. Even BioWare, with its decades-long legacy of character-driven storytelling, recently got dinged for assuming players would immediately buy into Dragon Age: The Veilguard‘s new party in the game’s misguided initial trailer.
Sure, Blizzard got away with it back in 2016. But putting aside the fact Blizzard gets away with a lot of things it probably shouldn’t, the developer had two big advantages with Overwatch. First, the hero shooter was a new and shiny concept following a decade of playing with toy guns as faceless military men (with the exception of Team Fortress 2, although that’s a slightly different kettle of fish). Second, Overwatch was a masterclass in mascot manufacture.
Sadly, neither of these things are the case with Concord. Firewalk Studios’ hero shooter arrives several years after the bandwagon departed, boasting a roster of characters that, while not entirely without their charms, certainly wouldn’t be Nick Fury’s first choice when assembling the Avengers. Which is a shame, because there’s a decent multiplayer shooter here, one that’s lithe and snappy and highly rewarding of teamwork. But that doesn’t change the fact that it misses its own brief, leaving it struggling to stand out elsewhere.
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