Freegunners, the Concord Open Beta, launches today, bringing you a weekend of galactic action on PS5 and PC. Hop aboard the Northstar, meet the Freegunners, then take to the planet to take on rival crews in a variety of game modes. The Open Beta gives you the chance to try out a roster of 16 characters and get acquainted with the Crew Builder, Job Board, and more.
You’ll find more gameplay details, tips, and lore in the ‘How to Play’ section of the Open Beta’s main menu. To flesh out that information and arm you with more tips ahead of launch, we sat down with Firewalk Studios’ lead gameplay designer Claude Jerome and lead character designer Jon Weisnewski to dig deeper into the intricacies of the multiplayer shooter’s mechanics and systems.
Freegunner for everyone
Concord’s 16-character roster offers plenty of variety right from the start. But there are certain Freegunners in the lineup that suit certain players based on their experience in multiplayer shooters.
“We actually have a couple of characters that are specifically designed to be entry points for players who are nervous or nervous about getting into a game like this,” Weisnewski said. “For players who have never played a shooter before, I would recommend Lark. Lark was designed from the ground up to be engaging.” [to those players]. Their weapon, the Razor Pod Launcher, fires a small orb that floats in the air. When an enemy gets close to the orb, it explodes and releases small homing projectiles that track the enemy and deal damage… so right from the start, we have a gun that doesn’t require the player to aim precisely.
“One of Lark’s abilities is to drop a Spore Seed. It creates an area that buffs your team and weakens the enemy team – you get faster movement speed, a little damage resistance. The Spore has a long duration, so you can keep planting it. You help your team by running around the map and planting Spore Seeds in key locations. Their other ability is the Implant Pod. When they first activate, they create this little tree, and when they activate it again, they teleport back to the tree. There’s a lot of high-level strategy play, but [for newcomers]They have a weapon that doesn’t need to be aimed, an Ability that always helps their teammates, and if they get stressed during combat, they can teleport out.”
“Kyps is similar,” Jerome continued. “She’s a spy robot that can set surveillance traps, she can turn invisible. [on dodging]. She can be a great help to the team in this less worrying way. Traps can detect people behind walls.
“That feeds into the dynamic of our philosophy – intellect versus purpose. We want both to be important. It’s important whether you have the thumb skills or not, but we also want this intellectual approach to fighting. Think about every move you make, to feel like it’s important to the outcome of the match.”
“For advanced shooters who are very, very good at these games and just want to learn and be effective right from the start, I would recommend Teo,” Weisnewski concludes. “Teo is intentionally designed to feel familiar to people who have played shooters. He has a military-inspired weapon set: a Guild Guard rifle, a swappable pistol. He has Clusters and Smoke Grenades. He has double-dodge. He’s fast. If you’ve played any shooter, he’ll feel familiar right away.”
The role of the crew
Instead of traditional archetypes, each of the 16 Freegunners falls into one of six Roles – Anchor, Breacher, Haunt, Ranger, Tactician, and Warden. Each role is defined and designed around play styles, with even more diversity found in the characters that fall into those Roles. “We have three different Rangers,” Weisnewski explains. “Each one feels distinct. We have a more support-oriented character, a more defensive-oriented character, and a more traditional offensive character… we hope players will end up with a character that really feels like it was made for them and the way they want to play.”
“One of the philosophies we talk about is the concept of recipes versus ingredients,” Jerome explains. “Recipes are something that is composed, crafted, and you have to play with it. this in a way, right? We just give you a bunch of tools and you can choose how you want to approach combat.” You’ll see each Freegunner’s Role displayed on the Character Select screen.
Character abilities and dexterity loop
Each Freegunner has two unique Abilities, mapped to L1 and R1. Not all reloads are built around cooldowns: they vary from Freegunner to Freegunner, and are built around the most fun and effective way to enhance that character’s personality. This is a resource model that Firewalk coined as “Skillful Loops,” or “Sloops” for short. “I think Jabali was the pioneer of sloops,” Weisnewski said, a concept that was successful enough to inspire the studio to adopt for all Freegunners. “Take a character like Lennox, who’s a precision shooter. A character who relies heavily on his thumb skills will have incredibly high DPS compared to others. So that’s the skill we’re trying to encourage, train, and reward. So Lennox will get his Throwing Knife ability back when he kills a target.” In contrast, 1-Off’s Trash Bomb will recharge by draining ammo or items from the world. Learn more about the Ability conditions for each Freegunner in the Character Select screen or in the Freegunners section of the main menu.
Crew Combo
“It goes back to the recipe-versus-ingredient analogy,” Jerome says. “Combos are implicit combinations of actions and status effects” with Freegunner’s combat options working well together. “DaVeers’ Burnite grenade launcher leaves purple chemical trails where its bullets hit. If they hit those trails with an Ignition Dart, they’ll ignite and explode. But if another character like Haymar uses her fire ability, it’ll also ignite those chemicals.” Start experimenting in matches and get a feel for the complementary skill sets.
Support items
Some of Freegunner’s Abilities are permanent, deploying an item into the battlespace that can help your crew or hinder your opponents. Examples include Daw’s Heal Pads to refill an ally’s energy bar or Duchess’s Construct Walls to block paths or provide cover. These will remain in place between rounds or until the enemy team does something about them. So for multi-round matches, there’s value in long-term strategy by filling the map with useful equipment. “It allows you to take advantage of characters beyond their lifespan [during a match]Jerome explained.
Crew Builder and Role Perks Conversion
Each of the six Freegunner Roles has Crew Bonuses. For example, Rangers have Improved Weapon Recoil, Tacticians, and faster reload speeds. In Concord, if your next deployed Freegunner is in a different Role, the previous character’s Role-specific perks will overlay their perks, ultimately allowing you to play a much more capable fighter infused with the powers of the 6 Roles. This is an additional layer of strategy that is implemented during a match as you play through Freegunners to adapt to the situation at hand. Crew Builder, selectable in the Freegunners option on the main menu, allows you to build custom squads, deck-building style, to take on specific modes. More details are available in the “How to Play” menu.
Get the job done, get paid
Freegunners are mercenaries, gun hunters for hire, who roam the galaxy and do high-stakes jobs to make a living. “We want every match [feed into that fantasy]”, Jerome said. “So that comes into our progression system. The job board shows all the different things that you can be rewarded for doing in that match. That could be encouraging Ability usage, killing combos… as you complete those jobs, those challenges, that gives you XP. Your payout. That unlocks more options, more customization for your characters.”
Concord’s Open Beta will be available on PS5 and PC from July 18-21. You can listen to the extended interview with Firewalk on the Official PlayStation Podcast, with a new episode dropping tomorrow.
