Valorant

Fresh ideas and playful abilities prove that Valorant is way more than a copycat.

Valorant is the most fun I've had with a multiplayer FPS since Valve's Team Fortress 2. The flexibility of its magically-infused cast paired with a deep arsenal makes for a magnificent competitive canvas, if a tricky one to initially pick up. I'm already pondering new strategies to pull off with my friends in the future, and that joyous daydreaming won't stop anytime soon. It may not be the prettiest modern FPS around, but its visual simplicity enables excellent clarity in every fight. With its teeth sunk in this deep, Valorant makes me want to keep playing until there's nothing left to master...

Riot Games has been assembling different ideas for a long time and created a shooter like the Frankenstein's monster. But it worked out a little better for them.

With Valorant, Riot Games has completely nailed its concept of shooter-meets-hero-play to produce a fantastic gameplay experience that you can't get anywhere else. While it's a little light on content at the moment, I can see it making a big impact on the competitive FPS scene moving forward.

Riot Games' foray into FPS territory is solid, even if it's slim at the moment.

Valorant delivers as a highly competitive FPS. From a pure design standpoint, Riot’s shooter stands tall on excellent gunplay, diverse agents, and balanced maps. This alone is enough to capture the attention of hardcore fans of the genre. It’s been clear in Riot Games communication that they are committed to responding to player feedback and using that to shape their development path. Valorant is already an insanely good game, but it’s poised to become a superstar of the medium in the years to come.

Valorant is not original. Rather, it's a successful interpretation of and expansion on its inspirations, with impeccable gameplay, well-designed maps, and a dev team eager to refine it further.

If you enjoy competitive tactical shooters, but also wish you could show some flair with spectacular abilities, then Valorant has what you're looking for. It requires precision aim to win duels but allows a lot of room to get creative with the agents' varied skills. Sloppy play gets punished harshly, but when a plan comes together it's immensely satisfying.

Riot Games has grown into more than just the DotA-inspired League of Legends studio in recent years. Their recent push for new titles has seen the publisher evolve into a studio that's working on card games, 1v1 fighters and now their first hero shooter. Valorant is a heroic effort to give the studio their first action title while trying to retain the esports lineage that the studio has been developing over the years. Is Valorant the next big thing in esports, or has Riot Games already spiked the launch?

Valorant hooks you match after match with tight, tactical gameplay, albeit in rather barebones fashion.

Valorant's an excellent shooter with a lot of depth brought down by an intrusive anti-cheat program, limited game modes and characters, and mediocre art design.

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 dedicat...