My thoughts on Valorant

So…after watching streams for almost two weeks, easily over 100+ hours of streams watched, I finally got a drop and got access to Valorant.

This happened on Wednesday, needless to say I’ve already logged about 20-25 games of Valorant. Going into the game, it sounded like it was a mix of Counter Strike and Overwatch, and watching it for so many hours, it looked like it too. Does it play like it? In my opinion, yes and no.

Yes, it plays a lot like CSGO, way more that than Overwatch. You sound like an elephant when you run, so walking and crouching are very critical to the game. If you don’t walk and crouch, they will know basically exactly where you are. Gunplay is fairly similar to CSGO as well, where your guns will spray if you autofire, and you need to control your recoil and namely burst fire if you want accurate shooting. The purchasing system is nearly the same as CS as well, but with more bells and whistles to help you and your team out. In my opinion, it takes the foundation of CS and modernizes it and makes it better pretty much all around.

I’m on the fence about whether or not it’s really like Overwatch. I mean it sort of is, but really only because of the addition of abilities. I’d say that’s truly where it begins and ends with the similarities to Overwatch. Even still, I’d argue that the abilities are more often than not more like purchasing equipment in CSGO. A large portion of the abilities equal out to be utilities, i.e. smokes, flashes, stuns, vision, grenades, etc. That being said, there are some ultimate abilities that hit like an absolute truck. I’d say the largest difference is that a lot of the abilities in Overwatch were to power your personal hero, in Valorant, the abilities are more team oriented.

So what are my thoughts on Valorant? I think it’s the making of a GREAT game, one that has the potential to kill the CS and OW scene. Even in beta, it’s polished and well made, with an addictive air about it. I played 9 games as soon as I got it. To be honest, if it wasn’t late at night and if I didn’t have to work the next day I’d have played another 9.

The game is just so smooth and polished, which comes to no surprise to me. Hate them if you will, but Riot Games knows how to make a polished game. You may find it unbalanced and irritating, I know I surely rage, but League of Legends is a dominant game for a reason. Riot knows how to work esports as well, and I have a very strong feeling that Valorant is going to come out swinging with it’s robust rated system and a very, very strong esports scene.

I have a good feeling about this game, I think it’s going to become one of the next top 5 esports games, if not the reigning leader. That being said, Riot Games has enabled drops to get access to the beta on ALL streams for Valorant, and I will be streaming it myself soon.

Tune in at twitch.tv/martimusss and chat along with me and hopefully get a drop!