Valorant - What do you make of it?

[PCG Evan]

Interested to hear more thoughts at this early stage on Valorant, the first FPS from a big, successful developer in Riot. In many ways its the first major attempt at duplicating the pace and style of game that CS:GO is: its movement, fragility, weapon recoil design, buy system, map design, and other signature elements.

But in other ways it's massively different: ultimate abilities (including healing!), unique characters, and a map with three bombsites. Many of my Counter-Strike skills and instincts are transferrable, but yesterday I dropped an orbital laser on two enemies stuck behind an ice wall. If you're playing it or watching it, what do you make of it?

My and Tyler's early thoughts here: https://www.pcgamer.com/11-thoughts-on-valorant-so-far

 

[Dan]

I'm not generally a fan of hero shooters, because once I stop playing for a while I end up not having a clue what the characters abilities are (last time I played Rainbow Six Siege there were way too many new operators that I didn't know). In that sense, I find CSGO much easier to return to.

I played a few games yesterday, and I have yet to get used to the recoil system, but that will just come with time and practise. It seems like the time of game that I would enjoy if I put some real time in it, but so far everyone seems to have killer reaction times (or maybe I am now just used to playing slower games like Squad).

I think it will be interesting to see how the meta develops once people get used to the abilities of all the characters and know how to use them to their advantage.

 

[XoRn]

I disliked it more than I expected, given how much it pulls from Counter Strike for its core gameplay. I ended up giving my account away after playing for a couple of hours to someone else who still hadn't gotten access.

The variable powers ranged from almost completely useless or incredibly situational on some characters to insanely powerful in ways that were not fun to engage with. Sage for example has an incredible kit all around while characters like Brimstone need a teammate to be of any use at all.

Since the powers of the character are a large part of their influence in a given map, it's also possible that you're locked out of playing any of the particular ones you enjoy since there's a limited selection of them, and the process of earning more after your first two unlocks is quite cumbersome. Because the characters have the utility that grenades provide in Counter Strike, it feels like a particularly egregious way to add "progression" by locking out essential gameplay options. Imagine if Counter Strike required you to play for 15 hours before you could buy flash bangs or smoke grenades.

The maps themselves were also quite bad in ways I didn't expect. Each one has a "gimmick" that is meant to shake up the game play but two of the gimmicks just weren't particularly fun or engaging. One map, Split, has Ziplines that let any character ascend or descend specific vertical surfaces. I don't know about anyone else but I'm not particularly blown away by the concept of... ladders.

 

[randyl]

I've really gone off Games as a Service, especially those with invasive client side anti-cheat which I consider especially lazy. MMOs have been providing server side anticheat checks for 2 decades now. I'm not interested in playing yet another lazy game designed to bleed my wallet.

 

[Frindis]

I have not played it myself, but if find it strange and not that fascinating, to be honest. I think it has something to with the fact that it resembles a reskin of Counterstrike with a dab of Overwatch. Maybe that is why it is popular amongst a lot of streamers right now because it caters to nostalgia (not that Overwatch is that much nostalgia I would think)

I don't see me playing it in the future and I find it hard to see how it will maintain it's popularity for a longer period of time. Maybe I am wrong, maybe I am getting old and to narrowminded. So be it