Valorant

A tactical multiplayer first-person shooter developed by Riot Games, the creators of League of Legends, focusing on the esports aspect. The game resembles a mix of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (gameplay and map design), Team Fortress 2 (visual style), Overwatch (unique characters, active use of abilities), and the studio's own solutions.

The world of Valorant is not part of the Runeterra multiverse and develops separately, although it has many references to LOL. In the updates that followed the release, players learned a lot about the game world and the opposing sides.

The action takes place on Earth of the future, where a rare substance called radonite has appeared. It is a source of energy, and under its influence, the game's characters (agents) gained their super abilities. The Kingdom organization is very interested in its collection, while players must stop them.

The maps are designed as enclosed arenas, small in size, and the action unfolds on streets and open spaces, with no entry into buildings. Besides the layout, they also differ in their setting: a research base, a temple, a village in the desert, a European city, and so on.

The map development was inspired by CS: GO and Overwatch. Players can engage in active firefights at short and medium ranges, and there is room for sniper duels. There is a degree of "verticality," allowing players to take more advantageous positions, spot enemies earlier, and gain other tactical advantages.

Each round starts with teams at their bases, which occupy 45% of the map area and are located at opposite ends. At the beginning of the game, the paths to the enemy's base are blocked by barriers, but players can move freely within their base and take tactically advantageous positions. There is no destructibility in Valorant, but many corners and objects on the map can be easily shot through.

Two teams of 5 players each fight until one of them wins 13 rounds, switching roles based on attack/defense. To win, a team must eliminate the opposing team or blow up a designated point on the map using explosives. If the bomb is planted, even if the attackers are killed, the defenders still have to defuse it.

Valorant offers very intense firefights in a constantly changing environment, with matches lasting 30-40 minutes and each round lasting 2-3 minutes, during which the first 30 seconds are allocated for purchasing weapons, armor, equipment, and agent abilities. The first three items are the same for all players, regardless of the chosen character.

In battle, players have three types of weapons: primary, secondary, and knife. Firearms are represented by pistols, submachine guns, shotguns, assault and sniper rifles, machine guns, with 2-4 "barrels" for each group. All weapons in the game differ due to various characteristics, such as shooting range and accuracy, and find application in combat situations.

The roster of futuristic heroes is the foundation of Valorant; victory depends not only on shooting skills but also on the right selection of agents in the team, as well as each player's skill in playing their character correctly. The character is chosen before the match starts and cannot be changed during the fight, plus there cannot be two identical heroes in the squad.

All agents have their own roles:

Heroes use up to four abilities, acquired at the beginning of each round for the same resources as weapons and equipment. You can choose: buy cool "guns" and remain without abilities, invest in powerful abilities and reduce firepower, or be a "solid average" in everything.

Each agent has one basic ability, received for free at the beginning of the round, two purchasable abilities, and one ultimate ability, which charges during the fight through kills, handling explosives, or collecting energy spheres. Abilities are also divided into passive (for example, quick movement, slowing down or blinding enemies), active (dealing damage of a certain type in one way or another), and ultimate (revealing enemies, allowing resurrection after death, etc.).

Abilities expand the range of tactical options; opponents do not know what tricks their opponents will pull this time — whether they will soar into the air, close off with an ice wall, launch a fire grenade, etc., unlike CS: GO, where everything is predictable.

Industry veterans, consulting with esports players, made Valorant a shooter with incredibly precise shooting and a whole range of subtleties and nuances when shooting on the move and from a standstill. Hitscan shooting mechanics are used: a bullet hits the target at the moment the button is pressed, instead of calculating its flight trajectory. In practice, this means that most weapons instantly kill an opponent with a single accurate headshot.

From the very beginning, Valorant has a powerful anti-cheat system; the developers do everything to protect it from hacking, especially from cheats like wallhack and aimbot. There is also a good network code, allowing players to enjoy shootouts without being distracted by ping and the reliability of the connection to the servers (which are located all over the world).

The game's servers update the data provided to the player (tick rate) at a frequency of 128, which greatly improved the gaming experience and helped avoid situations like "killed around the corner" or "damage didn't register."