Bright colors, fun shooting, heroes with strong characters, complex maps and a bunch of skins: this is how multiplayer shooters have dominated the video game market for years.
If you listen to the gaming community, you might think that live service games are dead. After all, people are constantly complaining that there are fewer and fewer big single-player titles and that multiplayer games only serve the greedy mouths of the big publishers.
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In reality, however, Games as a Service sell much better, last longer and bring in more money than a single-player adventure ever could. So it is no wonder that major publishers like Warner or Sony announce that they are turning to the segment. Especially for the Japanese company, Helldivers 2 provenhow incredibly successful live service can be. It is now the fastest-selling game of Sonyeven before any of the Spider-Man films, Horizon or God of War.
Source: Sony
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It is only natural that this formula would be repeated in a similar way. We are not talking about a Helldivers clone that sets itself apart from the competition with PvE and friendly fire elements. Instead, we can expect Concord (buy now 39,99 € / 35,99 € ) from Firewalk is a hero shooter that, at first glance, doesn't seem to be doing anything new.
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A five-on-five first-person shooter set in a colorful sci-fi universe – that doesn't sound particularly different from other games of its kind, but Concord wants to stand out from the crowd with special adjustments.
Almost like a story mode
The developers told us that a big focus is on the backstory surrounding each playable hero. Starting when the game launches on August 23, a new clip of around two minutes will be released every week, revealing more about the plot. It's about the crew of the Northstar, a spaceship full of space mercenaries who are part of the so-called Freegunners and thus have access to secret maps that enable travel through space.
Source: Sony
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The crew is very reminiscent of the hero squad from Guardians of the Galaxyboth in terms of appearance and their personalities. One reason why, after the first gameplay clips, some are talking about a multiplayer version of the popular film and now also game franchise.
During the actual gameplay, however, you don't get to see any of the plot. There is no story mode and in the current version the characters don't shout any special sayings at each other. Instead, the game consists of classic matches in which different goals must be achieved depending on the mode.