Valorant is a popular new shooter from Riot Games, creators of the Esports juggernaut “League of Legends”. It’s a tactical shooter focusing on smart, methodical gameplay with the shooting, in-game economy and game modes ripped straight from “Counter-Strike”. However unlike it’s more aim-intensive sibling, Valorant isn’t solely focused on putting your aiming chops up to the test. Instead, the game’s more interested in putting your ability to plan and create scenarios that put you in ideal situations to succeed. One of Valorant’s greatest strengths is that it’s free and has a lack of high system requirements to play the game. If you are an aspiring, quarantine gamer lacking some hardware, Valorant can be played on most typical laptops with a solid internet connection and any mouse.
Gameplay
Valorant’s base mode is a 2-team mode where each round one team of Defenders tries to defend multiple areas from having a bomb placed on it and one team of Attackers tries to plant the bomb in one of the defending team’s areas. The objective for each team changes based on if you’re Attackers or Defenders. Attackers want to plant and successfully allow the bomb to explode after 45 seconds and Defenders want to prevent the bomb from being planted at all and are tasked with defusing the bomb if it is planted, with the option for both teams of simply eliminating every member of the opposing team before a bomb is planted at all. If you’re eliminated during a round, you’re dead for the rest of that round unless you’re revived, but that won’t happen often as there is only one character that can revive characters. If you’re familiar with the base mode of “Counter-Strike”, it’s basically the same thing.
Valorant’s claim to fame is it’s addition of “Agents” to the Attackers and Defenders formula. Valorant has 11 agents to choose from each with their own specific abilities and roles. For instance, Brimstone, a typical, American, tough-guy soldier, is a Controller, meaning his abilities are focused on sectioning off areas of the map and basically making it easier for teammates whose roles are more geared towards eliminating the enemy. Brimstone accomplishes this with a variety of area control-abilities like smokes (globes of sand-colored smoke-screens which cut off sight lines and prevent enemies from wandering through choke points without the risk of being picked off immediately) and a fire grenade that incinerates the ground harming enemies who walk over.
If Brimstone doesn’t sound appealing, all of the other agents have their own play style they adhere to. If you want a more damage-dealing, in your face role, there are characters focused on dishing out damage and securing kills called Duelists. You can further customize your character by buying weapons, armor or abilities every round with money acquired based on your performance and your team’s performance the previous round. The agents in Valorant are all fun and reward players for effectively utilizing each character’s respective abilities.
The main character I focused on playing was Sova; he’s an archer focused on slowly scouting out areas and learning the positioning of enemies without risking death. Often I would follow my teammates as the second or third shooter, scouting out the area ahead giving important, tactical information and marking enemies to be seen through walls to give my teammates that opportunity to get that ever-important first shot off and kill an enemy. My contribution was often the difference between taking rounds and even though I wasn’t collecting as many kills as my other teammates, it’s about contributing what you can to the situation.
Valorant’s tactical gameplay is excellent; the maps allow for a wide variety of gameplay situations to play out. If you want to rush in and surprise them there are a number of spots to ambush enemies in. If you want to dig in and let the enemy come to you that’s a viable strategy too. The game is more focused on rewarding your cleverness and your creativity as opposed to just your ability to put bullets in targets. Can you fool another player into walking into your sight lines? Can you place a well-timed wall to shield your teammates and cut off backup? Valorant wants to reward your team for great planning and smart execution. As someone without a high amount of technical ability regarding aiming, it’s nice to see that I can still contribute greatly to my team despite my potato aim.
Overall, Valorant is an exciting game that grips me with the many challenges and possibilities it presents me. It presents you with all the tools to be as creative as you can be. I’ve played about 30 hours with a group of friends and there’s nothing like you and your friends coming together and being solely focused on showing the opposing team how garbage they are compared to you. If you’re new to mouse shooting games or tactical shooters in general, Valorant is a fantastic place to start.
