PlayStation and Firewalk have announced the dates for Concord’s promised beta access in July, which will give curious players the chance to see what the upcoming 5v5 character-driven, first-person multiplayer shooter is about before it launches in full on August 23rd.
The beta will come in two phases, with an Early Access Beta phase from July 12-14 for those who pre-order the game (and four of their friends, so they can bring the whole crew), and then an Open Beta phase from July 18-21 where anyone on PS5 or PC can download and try it out, with cross-play enabled between both platforms.
The Concord Beta will feature access to four of the game’s maps at first, with a fifth being introduced during the Open Beta weekend, and similarly will contain three game modes during the Early Access Beta weekend before adding one more during the Open Beta. Players will be able to try out all 16 launch characters, and see the very first of the game’s cinematic vignettes introducing the world and the Northstar crew’s stories.
You can get more detail on all of the maps and modes that are featuring in the PlayStation Blog post here.
Along with the reveal of the beta dates, a number of early hands-on previews of the game have gone live and are largely quite positive about the experience so far.
VGC reckons that first reveal trailer really did the game a disservice, and it’s more than it seems, saying, “Firewalk is saying all the right things. It’s also made a game that, based on our early playtest, feels great. While the recent reveal was arguably a misstep (a sentiment echoed by most members of the media in attendance at our session) it doesn’t portray the high-quality shooter that Firewalk has produced.”
PC Gamer’s preview claims the Overwatch comparisons aren’t entirely accurate, saying, “I’ve now played it and can confirm: Concord isn’t Sony Overwatch, and it’s fun. I don’t know if it’ll be a Helldivers 2-level phenomenon, but if that’s the multiplayer hit of the year, Concord could at least be the multiplayer hit of the summer.”
IGN wasn’t overly impressed with the game’s balancing and controls, but hopes these will be addressed leading up to launch, writing in its preview, “Fortunately, there are still a couple of months to go until Concord’s launch – still a decent bit of time for the balancing and tweaking of every aspect of the game that always happens at this stage of the development process. Fingers crossed Concord is able to tighten up its floaty controls and address its character balancing before it drops on August 23 for PS5 and PC.”
