The Freegunners Open Beta, Concord, launches today, bringing you a weekend of galactic action on PS5 and PC. Board the Northstar spaceship, meet the Freegunners, then head to the planet to take on rival crews in several different game modes. The Open Beta gives you the chance to try out the 16-character roster and get to grips with Crew Builder, the Job Board, and more.
Additional gameplay information, tips, and story information can be found in the “How to Play” section of the Open Beta main menu. To back this up and provide you with additional gameplay tips ahead of launch, we sat down with Firewalk Studios’ Lead Gameplay Designer Claude Jerome and Lead Character Designer Jon Weisnewski to dive deeper into the intricacies of the multiplayer shooter’s mechanics and gameplay systems.
A Freegunner for everyone
Concord’s 16-character roster offers plenty of variety right out of the box. But some Freegunners on the roster are a good fit for certain players depending on their experience in the multiplayer shooter genre.
“We actually have a number of characters that are designed specifically to serve as entry points for players who feel anxiety or stress when they jump into a game like this,” Weisnewski says. “For the player who has 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, projects a small sphere that floats in the air. When an enemy approaches this sphere, it explodes and spawns small homing projectiles that will track the enemy and deal damage… So, right from the start, we have a weapon that doesn’t require players to be precise in their aim.
“One of Lark’s abilities is to drop a spore seed. It creates an area that strengthens your team and weakens the enemy team. You’ll get faster mobility and a slight resistance to damage. This spore has a high lifespan, so you can plant it constantly. You’ll help your team by roaming the map and planting spore seeds in key locations. His other ability is the transplant pod. On the first activation, he creates this little plant, and on the second activation, he teleports to it. There’s a lot of high-level strategic play, but [for newcomers]they have a weapon they don’t need to aim, an ability that always helps their team, and if they get stressed during combat they can teleport.
“Kyps is similar,” Jerome continues. “It’s a spy robot that can set surveillance traps, it can go into stealth mode [on dodging]. It can be an effective aid to the team with this low-anxiety method. Traps can spot people behind walls.
“It fits into a dynamic of our philosophy: intelligence versus aim. We want both to count. It’s important to have good thumb control, but we also want that cerebral approach to combat. Pay attention to every move you make, so that it feels like it matters to the outcome of the match.”
“For very skilled shooters, someone who is already very, very good at these games, who just wants to jump in and be effective right out of the gate, I would recommend Teo,” Weisnewski concludes. “Teo was intentionally designed to be familiar to people who have played shooters. He has a very military-inspired loadout: a guild guard rifle, a shoulder pistol that he can switch between. He has frag grenades and smoke grenades. He has dual dodge. He’s fast. If you’ve played a shooter before, he should feel immediately familiar.”
Crew Roles
Instead of traditional archetypes, each of the 16 Freegunners falls into one of six roles – Anchor, Breaker, Haunter, Ranger, Tactician, and Guardian. Each was defined and designed around playstyles, with more variety in the characters that fall into those roles. “We have three different Rangers,” Weisnewski explains. “Each one has a distinct feel. We have a more support-oriented character, a more defensive character, and a more traditional offensive-oriented character…we hope that players will gravitate toward a character that feels like it was created specifically for them and the way they want to play.”
“One of the philosophies we talk about is this concept of recipes versus ingredients,” Jerome explains. “Recipes are written, elaborate things that you have to play with This “That’s just the way it is, right? We’re just giving you a set 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 Skillful Loops
Each Freegunner has two unique abilities, mapped to L1 and R1. Not all cooldowns are based on cooldown time: they differ per Freegunner, and are based on the most fun and effective way to build that character’s personality. This is a Firewalk resource model known as “Skillful Loops,” or “Sloops” for short. “I think Jabali pioneered sloops,” Weisnewski says, the concept being successful enough to inspire the studio to roll it out to all Freegunners. “Take a character like Lennox, a sniper. A character who is very confident in their thumb skill will have extremely high DPS compared to others. So that’s the skill we try to encourage, train, and reward. So Lennox gets his knife throwing ability back by getting a kill.” In contrast, 1-Off’s trash bomb recharges by sucking up projectiles or objects in the world. Learn more about each Freegunner’s ability requirements in the character select screen or in the Freegunners section of the main menu.
Crew Combos
“It goes back to the analogy between recipes and ingredients,” Jerome explains. “Combos are implicit combinations of actions and status effects,” with the Freegunner’s combat options pairing perfectly. “DaVeers’ Burnite Grenade Launcher leaves these purple chemical splatters where his projectiles hit. If they hit them with their ignition dart, they ignite and explode. But if another character like Haymar uses his fire abilities, he’ll ignite those chemicals as well.” Start experimenting during matches and discover complementary skill sets.
Supporting elements
Some of Freegunner’s abilities are permanent, deploying an item in the battlespace that can help your crew or hinder your rivals. Examples include Daw’s healing pads that recharge an ally’s energy bar, or Duchess’s building walls that block paths or provide cover. These abilities will remain in place even between match rounds or until the enemy team does something about them. So for multi-round matches, it’s worth taking a long-term strategy by filling the map with useful gear. “This allows you to leverage characters beyond their lifespan.” [during a match]explains Jerome.
Crew Generator and Role Perk Renewal
Each of the six Freegunner roles has a crew bonus. Rangers, for example, have improved weapon recoil, tacticians, and faster reload speeds. In Concord, if your next deployed Freegunner is a different role, the role-specific perk of the previous character stacks with theirs, allowing you to play a much more capable fighter with buffs from all 6 roles. This is an added layer of strategy that comes into play during a match when playing with Freegunners to adapt to the situation. The Crew Builder, selectable from the Freegunners option on the main menu, allows you to create custom, deck-builder-style team compositions for use in specific modes. More details can be found in the How to Play menu.
Complete your tasks and get paid
Freegunners are mercenaries, hired guns who travel the galaxy and carry out high-risk missions to continue to survive. “We want every game [feed into that fantasy]”, explains Jerome. This is reflected in our progression system. The task board shows all the different things you can be rewarded for in this match. It can encourage ability usage, kill combinations… When you complete these tasks, these challenges, it gives you XP. Your reward. It unlocks more options, more customization for your characters.”
The Concord Open Beta is available on PS5 and PC from July 18 to 21. You can listen to a lengthy interview with Firewalk on the Official PlayStation Podcast, with a new episode dropping tomorrow.