With most people now having to stay at home due to COVID-19, most people are now looking forward to video games. Since they cannot step out due to nation-wide lockdowns, they will have to spend time on their favourite consoles and controllers. Much to the delight of fans around the world, gaming industry legend Riot has come out with a new video game. Here’s a look at what Riot’s Valorant offers and why it has got fans excited.
Beta Release of Riot
Valorant is unique and unoriginal at the same time, being a first-person shooter that opened to a massive reception on Twitch. Riot also has a deal with the gaming platform, along with streamers a chance to test out the beta version of the new game. Other streamers also got an opportunity to watch popular streamers play and test out the competition. Valorant is a super-competitive game that offers various playing styles and experiences. However, for now, the game will release only on PC, and Riot has not released any announcement regarding a console release. The game looks like it has all that takes to become the next big gaming sensation. Though it is hardcore, it borrows components from different styles, making it highly playable and enjoyable.
Timing is Perfect
Valorant, in its beta form, is coming at a critical point of time for the competitive gaming scene. Much of the Esports scene has to do with online multiplayer battle arenas, called MOBAs. Popular games in this genre include Valve’s Dota 2 and Riot’s League of Legends. While there are peripheral communities, such as fans of Psyonix’s Rocket League, MOBAs reign supreme at the end of the day. Only games of companies with immense resources have been able to make a name for themselves in this field. Such games include the legendary Call of Duty League, Overwatch League and Fortnite.
The most significant exception to this rule being Counter-Strike, which is a tactical shooter game, from which Valorant borrows heavily. Counterstrike remains one of the world’s most popular FPS games, while the industry around it has changed and evolved much. The game is so popular that it enjoys a far-flung fan base that even Call of Duty lacks. This has helped Counterstrike remain the most-watched title on Twitch, and it continually remains in the most-played lists. While it has been eight years since the game released, even now over one million people play Counterstrike on Steam.
Highly Popular Characteristics
Maybe this popularity is why Valorant borrows so heavily from Counterstrike when it comes to gameplay and characteristics. The game brings together superpowers like from Overwatch and the high-intensity tactical shooter gameplay copied from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. In many ways, it seems like Riot is building a more modern Counter-Strike. Riot’s aim appears to be to create a modern version of Counter-Strike that will appeal to MOBA fans around the world. From what was visible on Twitch, Valorant seems to be able to attract both the streamers and pro players equally. Valorant’s beta broke the record for the most-viewed game within a day, with 34 million hours and 1.7 million viewers, second only to last year’s League of Legends Championship.
A New Era
Another interesting fact being that Valorant is not a battle royale game, but rather a tactical shooter. Since PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds came out in 2017, Battle Royale games have become the most popular type when it comes to the shooter market. Fortnite is one of the most famous examples of this type of game, with several other developers coming out with their own BR games, such as Respawn’s Apex Legends and Activision’s Call of Duty: Warzone. However, with so many companies pushing out BR games, the industry is feeling fatigued by the large number of such games out there. Therefore, Valorant seems to be a whiff of fresh air in an industry that honestly has enough and more BR games.
Valorant Gameplay
Valorant has both team-based and skill-based components wrapped in a hardcore shooter gameplay, removing the luck factor associated with BR. The basic premise sees one team plant a bomb and try to protect it, while the others race against time to defuse it. Since everyone has just one life, it makes the game extremely fast-paced and exciting. Whichever team wins 13 rounds wins the match, with this taking somewhere between 30 and 40 minutes to complete. The hero abilities, which Valorant resemble Overwatch, help add some flair and flamboyance to the otherwise skill-based game. While such superhuman skills make things more exciting, the game requires you to communicate and collaborate with teammates to succeed. More than anything else, Valorant is a tactical game that is less chaotic than a standard MOBA. As Counter-Strike proved simple tactical shooter games require just a community to become successful. Instead of having over 100 million players, such games grow in time thanks to the effort of dedicated fans.
Though Valorant has a long road ahead, experts believe that it will come out somewhere between late summer and early fall. The game’s success and early interest raised makes it evident that the game has all it takes to go a long way. With enough potential for lasting entertainment, Valorant is a game people will enjoy playing themselves and also watching others play. With enough potential to be the company’s next League of Legends, fans are excited to see how the game will pan out.
Being a cinephile with a love for all things outdoorsy, Athulya never misses a chance to chase inspiring stories or poke fun at things, even when the subject is herself. Currently pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering, she is someone innately interested in technical and scientific research. Music reviews and op-eds define her as they allow her to explore different perspectives. Though sometimes she thinks she makes more sense playing the guitar than she does while writing.