Riot Games is the developer behind one of the biggest MOBAs in the world, that being League of Legends. As such, the company seems to know what it is doing in putting together a well-crafted and team-oriented online experience. So when it announced a closed beta for Valorant, a single-life first-person shooter, many were excited to see what Riot Games would come up with. Thus far, Valorant hasn't disappointed, as the game seems to be a wonderful mix of multiple other shooters, while still being its own unique game.
Players all over the world are extremely interested in the brand new shooter, as Valorant is routinely the number one watched game on Twitch and other game streaming platforms. That could be because the only way to get into the closed Valorant beta is by watching Twitch streams, but many battle royale enthusiasts, military shooter fans, and even MOBA mavens are trying out Valorant and loving every second of it.
How Valorant is Similar to Other Games
The first game that many will compare Valorant to is Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, a game that recently beat out DOTA 2Â for peak concurrent players on Steam. CS:GO was released in 2012 by Valve. The Counterstrike series was originally a modification from Half-life and CS:GO is the fourth game in the series.
In CS:GO, there are are two teams of five pitted against each other, this is identical to Valorant. One team defends a bombsite while the other tries to plant and blow it up, again this is the goal in Valorant. Even the shooting mechanics in Valorant are very similar to CS:GO. In both games, the shooting patterns of the guns take time to master but can be memorized over time. Movement is slow-paced, unlike a game like Call of Duty, as accuracy decreases the more a player fires their weapon. Players of CS:GO often whip out a knife to move faster, and this same trick applies in Valorant, although some characters like Jett have added speed.
In between each round of Valorant, players can purchase a primary, a sidearm, and shield. The weapons that are available can easily be compared to CS:GO. For example, the "Frenzy" in Valorant looks just like the "CZ-75" from CS:GO. The "Phantom" looks like an "AK-47." And so on and so forth. Some may say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, others would say that Valve uses variations of real-life weapons, and Riot Games just uses those same guns, but spruces them up with a bit of and fantasy and imagination.
The second game that comes to mind, when comparing Valorant to any other video game, is Overwatch. Riot Games' brand new shooter doesn't share Overwatch's gameplay mechanics or gunplay, as it does with Counter-strike: Global Offensive, but the Valorant and Overwatch have some things in common.
The big similarity between Blizzard's Overwatch and Riot Games' Valorant is that both titles use heroes or agents, and this is truly what sets Valorant apart from CS:GO as well. Just as Overwatch added MOBA-like elements to the shooter genre, which has then since been copied by the likes of the Call of Duty series, Paladins, and more, Valorant is now continuing that trend by adding it into the single life-team-oriented shooter.
Each Agent in Valorant has unique abilities that set themselves apart. There are four different types of Agents in the game: duelist, initiator, sentinel, and controller. However, since there are 5 players on a team, there will be at least one type that will be doubled up. In a game like Overwatch, abilities are used nonstop and often to get kills, as lives don't really matter and the objective is to do as much damage as possible to try to move forward with the goal. In Valorant, however, gunplay still comes first, and the Agent abilities are really used as a complementary piece.
Overwatch is also one of the titles to universalize loot boxes in games. Riot Games has confirmed that it won't be selling loot boxes in Valorant, which is assuredly something that will delight many fans.
Valorant is revolutionary in many ways for a lot of gamers, but one other title has combined a lot of Overwatch's hero abilities in an FPS with Counterstrike's one life bomb planting and defending gameplay. Rainbow Six Siege is one of the best shooters of the past decade and is still going strong after five-plus years. While the game doesn't at all have over the top hero abilities like Overwatch or even Valorant, each operator has its own unique set of skills, like being able to bash through walls with a hammer or plant explosive traps on doors, to get the job done and players have one single life to plant and defuse a bomb.
How Valorant is its Own Game
Even with all the comparisons, Valorant is absolutely still its own unique game, one that players have to experience for themselves to truly enjoy. The closed beta is starting to open up more over time, which is great news as additional players are able to enjoy the game together. Riot Games has confirmed that Valorant may come to consoles and mobile, which would also already set the title apart from CS:GO.
Valorant's tick-rate is an impressive 128hz, which is double CS:GO and Overwatch, and way more than Apex Legends (20HZ), Fortnite (3ohz), or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (12). Many players, especially professional gamers, appreciate the smooth and responsive feel of a high tick rate, and a 128hz will allow for games to feel fair and lacking in the "how did that guy just hit me when I'm behind the wall" type moments.
In between each round players are able to take a few moments to strategize and think about the round. This is different from some of the games in the direct genre as well. One could argue that this is something that is taken from Overwatch or Paladins, but it allows for planning and communicating between teammates that is definitely helpful.
Valorant also feels like a perfect esports game. While a game like CS:GO has had success, perhaps its simplicity has held it back. There's something about the "pop" of Valorant that makes it so exciting to watch, as even ESPN has announced an upcoming Valorant invitational. It's a hyper-competitive game that gives players the one-more-round feel and is ultra-colorful, exciting, and unique.
Valorant absolutely shares the DNA of games from before it. But that is something that can be said about darn-near every game pre-1985ish. Doom inspired so much of the FPS genre. Grand Theft Auto III set the tone for the sand-box era. Super Mario 64 showed developers how to make platformers in 3D. Many say that Uncharted copied off of Tomb Raider, and then Tomb Raider copied off of Uncharted again. Valorant may be refining a sub-genre and making it its own right in front of the eyes of millions of gamers, and that's a splendid thing to behold, because it means that a fun video game is being played by a lot of people.
Valorant releases this summer on PC.