Review | Valorant

In October, Riot Games shocked the world with a livestream announcing multiple titles to join League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics. Almost all of them revolved around the realm of Runeterra — except Project A. Project A, Riot’s First Person Shooter became Valorant, and in April was released into closed Beta. After two months of slowly increasing the playerbase, Valorant was released to the public on the 2nd of June. I was lucky enough to catch the tail end of the beta and thus have played both the beta and final version of the game. 

Firstly, let's squash the talk of Valorant being a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Overwatch killer. While Valorant shares aspects with both games, and has significantly improved certain parts, it is in no way a “killer”. Overwatch plays completely differently due to its gamemodes and focus on ability management over accuracy, and CS:GO has too much history to ever lose its playerbase. Some will come from both games as the Valorant community forms, but all three will flourish. And if the popularity of one of those games dies out, Valorant certainly won’t be the main culprit.

With that said, the inspiration from other games is clear, Valorant uses the same economy and weapon format that CS:GO fans have come to know and love. Anyone who has played CS:GO will understand this system - earn money each round based on how well you perform to purchase equipment for the next round. It also has two welcomed tweaks - the ability to sell your equipment before the round in case you have a change of heart, and the ability to buy weapons for your team without having to drop them on the ground and waste time. However, the tutorial doesn’t mention this system in the slightest and thus can be a little confusing for new players to the scene. The tutorial itself was okay - it took you over the main shooting mechanics and that was it. To be fair, I was having some lag issues going through it, so I was more relieved to finish it after twenty attempts.

Whatcha’ buying, stranger?

The guns are well balanced and priced. One difficult thing for new players is that most of the guns have a way of one-shot killing, be it in the head or up-close shooting, which can cause your premature death when learning the maps and abilities. Despite having nearly 1000 hours in CS:GO, my first game I dropped four whole kills in a twenty round game. The phrase “timing” - where you are watching an angle for an extended period of time, just to look away for a brief moment and get shot in the head - happens a lot in Valorant. While frustrating, and sometimes being pure bad luck, it makes you think about whether you need to peek that angle or run with your knife out. Some fine-tuning still needs to be made; the Guardian feels too good for 2700 credits (200 less than the preferred Phantom and Vandal). I’d up the price, but I see why it’s lower with its slower rate of fire, high recoil and small magazine.

Valorant’s main hook is the Agents and their abilities. From a Russian scout, Sova, to the Reaper-esque, Omen, each Agent has their own unique abilities and personalities. As a Game Writer, I love the personality injected into the characters. Similar to Overwatch, each character has voice lines for when you pick them, when you start a round, use an ultimate, etc. Additionally, they’ll have interactions with other characters on your team, and some on the enemy team too. It would be wrong to not mention Phoenix here. Seriously, his voice lines are world-class. Just remember that “staying OUT of the fire is a super high-level tactic, yeah?”

You start off with five agents—Sage, Sova, Brimstone, Jett and Phoenix. You unlock two more of your choice after the first few levels of the game, but past that, unlocking new agents can be tiring and will take a long time. Riot themselves said it would take 100 hours, but I’ve played around 30 hours so far, and I’ve not unlocked my first agent yet. Valorant also has a battle pass system, with both a free version and a paid version that costs £10. The battle pass provides you with cosmetics such as calling cards, sprays, skins and “buddies” (little keyrings that you can place on your gun). Both systems work by gaining XP for playing games, winning rounds and doing daily/weekly challenges (which normally aren’t that difficult). But the sheer amount of XP needed just for one character is insane, and I’m only on tier 20 of the battle pass, having played at least two hours a day since launch and doing all challenges. It’s a grind.

Pro Tip: Reyna will use an ‘eye’ to cast “Nearsight” on anyone who looks at it. It will blind you and make you an easy target. However, this eye can be shot. Shoot it quickly and expect her to peek you at the same time!
TL;DR: DON’T DIE!

The agent’s abilities are pretty well balanced for the most part. There are some exceptions, such as Reyna, the newest Agent, and her ultimate. Her ability to fire and reload faster, heal instantly when she kills an enemy and her Dismiss passive that allows her to become temporarily invisible and/or invulnerable all feel like they can tip the balance a little too much in her favour. However, there has yet to be a patch since Reyna’s release, so she may get some tuning in patch 1.1. Sage’s resurrection also has the power to turn the tide, and Sage herself is seen as a must pick with her being the only character who can heal teammates. Honestly, I don’t see this as too much of a problem, but I can see how this frustrates others.

While the game is full of positives, that is not to say there aren't drawbacks. As many other reviewers have stated, one of Valorant’s biggest flaws is the minute map pool available to players. Shipping with only four maps - Haven, Bind, Split and Ascent - sometimes you do feel like you’ve been playing the same game for hours, despite being in different matches. The length of matches compounds this as playing Bind for two games in a row, with both games being over twenty rounds is tiring. However, the maps themselves are good. I wouldn’t say they are great—there is no “Mirage” or “Hanamura”—they are just solid maps. Each has a unique element to them - a site C, portals to either site, jump ropes or doors that you can shut (and shoot down) respectively. These quirks allow for some fun emergent gameplay, and I hope maps in the future also have unique elements. The game is also colourful and while some have criticized the graphics, I don’t see them as a huge focus point in a first-person shooter, designed to run on almost any computer. Hell, tell me CS:GO looks any better.

*Record scratch*
Sage: You might be wondering how I got here?

Valorant’s gameplay itself feels smooth and kills feel rewarding. The only negative I have is the speed penalty of being shot. I understand that in real life, being shot would cripple you. But holy moly can you not move after being shot in Valorant. In the beta, I distinctly remember being killed from 80 meters by a submachine gun because I couldn’t hobble behind cover. The slow badly needs to be reduced, and it needs to be reduced quickly.

There is one major sticking point that needs to be discussed—Vanguard. Vanguard is Riot Games’ anti-cheat software that ships with Valorant and has caught a lot of flak with how ‘intrusive’ it is on your computer. I, personally, have no problems with it being installed at the Kernel level. If that’s going to stop cheaters, then I am all for it. But to not only hear that Vanguard was (supposedly) not auto-detecting cheaters in the beta but that it closes other programs on your computer for no reason and without your say? That’s not great. I have faith in Riot to sort this mess out, but they better do it quickly, because Vanguard is by far the biggest downfall of Valorant thus far.

Overall, Valorant is a fun, free, first person shooter that I am, to quote Raze, “having a blast on”. Its guns are balanced and the kills feel rewarding, especially when you clutch a 1v3 or ace the enemy team. The maps are solid, but not spectacular and the agents are - for the most part - balanced and fair. And other than some small gameplay and server issues on the first day, I have had no technical problems playing the game. Valorant isn’t a CS:GO or Overwatch killer, but a fun game to play alongside those tentpoles of the competitive shooter genre, which I can see quickly forming a dedicated playerbase of its own.