Valorant is an amazing shooter that combines elements from several different popular games to create something unique in its own right.
When Counter-Strike: Global Offensive released in 2012, it quickly became the dominant shooter of its time, rising to the top of the Steam charts and helping spawn the modern era of competitive shooters. In the years since we've seen the rise of more ability based shooters like Overwatch and Apex: Legends, both of which quickly rose to stardom right out of the gate. Overwatch now has its own competitive league with some big money backing it, like New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
Developed by League of Legends creators Riot Games, Valorant has taken up the mantle as the newest must-play shooter and its celebrating its 1-year anniversary. Released on June 2nd, 2020, it hit at a time when everyone was cooped up inside with nothing else to do but download the latest free-to-play shooter that everyone was talking about. I had recently built my first PC and was so wrapped up in catching up with everything else that I missed the initial buzz so I put Valorant on the back burner. I picked it up late July of this year and have found it hard to put it down.
The gameplay is fundamentally the same as CS: GO. You have your spike, which you need to plant on an objective to win, generally on A or B site though there is a map with three sites. The gunplay is similar as well. As long as you are standing still, your first shot is almost always guaranteed to hit where your reticle says it will. After that, you'd better be ready to drag your mouse down. What makes it different from CS: GO are the different characters and their subsequent abilities. You and four others pick a variety of characters from a shadow spitting specter from another world to a calm healer that puts up an ice wall to block off lines of sight or create bottlenecks to funnel your enemies. Its not hard to see why the game is often said to be a mix between CS:GO and the ability heavy Overwatch.
I have found myself picking the energetic Brazillian explosion junkie, Raze, more often than not. Her abilities allow her to do just about everything but smoke out an objective. Her Boom Bot can be deployed in a straight line and bounces diagonally off obstacles. If anything gets in its way, it goes pyscho mode and charges the enemy, resulting in it jumping in the air and exploding, killing anyone who didn't get away in time. Most players won't be caught off guard and will simply shoot the bot and move on. Still, she now knows where the enemy is coming from and what type of gun they are using. Do you hear the familiar booming of a Vandal, which looks like a futuristic AK-47? It has high recoil, but a headshot is an almost guaranteed insta-kill. If its a Phantom, a silenced weapon with pretty significant damage drop at distant, maybe you back up and force them to try and hit the headshot.
There is just so much versatility to the game that while an avid player knows the strategies and best positioning by heart, you never know exactly what's going to happen until you see it.
Valorant's newest update dropped today and with it a new season and a new character, the robot KAY/O. Riot Games describes KAY/O as a "back to the basics" type character whose abilities are primarily focused on disabling the abilities of other characters. ZERO/POINT throws a knife that when it lands, detonates and disables the abilities of other characters caught in the blast. FLASH/DRIVE is a grenade that quickly explodes and blinds other players, adding some versatility to the character. FRAG/MENT is another grenade that deals more damage when it explodes depending on how close the enemy is to the center when it detonates. Finally, KAY/O's ultimate, NULL/CMD, emits a pulse that suppresses any enemy agents caught within it. If he’s killed while this is active, KAY/O will be downed and can be revived by teammates if they get to him in time.
A new battlepass is also available and while it isn't as consumer friendly as Halo: Infinite, it still offers some nice customizable goodies for 1,000 VP (or about $10). There are some great cosmetics available in the pass. Between June 22 and July 6, players can work to complete a free Event Pass. It contains the Year One Gun Buddy and Card, Ep 3 Reflection Card, YR1 and Year One titles, and 20 Radianite Points, which are used to unlock premium content. Everything you can buy is just cosmetic, there is no pay-to-win elements to the game. Unless you consider paying for new Radiants to be pay-to-win.
New characters, or Radiants, are unlocked by selecting their contract and simply playing until they are unlocked. Or, you can buy VP to unlock their levels. $10 will unlock all the levels of their contract and allow you to use them. You can then continue on with the contract to unlock cosmetics or pick a new Radiant to work towards. So far, I've played enough to unlock the dimensional side-stepping Yoru and the go-to hard ass Radiant pick of the game, Reyna, who can absorb the essence of the enemies they kill to heal and blind her enemies with a blinding purple eye that looks like Sauron went Fabulous. Most of the time, whoever is playing Reyna is at the top of the leaderboard and I hate her, so of course I must become her.
Hard-ass Reyna's aside, I'm having a lot of fun with Valorant. The game feels great to play and I can foresee myself playing it for a long time. Raze is going to be my go-to for the foreseeable future, but I'm also interested in KAY/O so I'll be working on unlocking him soon after I finally snag Reyna. If you want to play with me, you can join the Filthy Peasant Discord here. You can also watch us play it on YouTube here if you want to see how the game plays or just want to watch us be terrible at it. Just keep in mind, I'm a tiny bit better since we posted that video. Not much better, but better.
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