Valorant

A tactical multiplayer team-based first-person shooter developed by Riot Games, creators of League of Legends, with a focus on esports. The game feels like a mix of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (gameplay and map design), Team Fortress 2 (visual style), Overwatch (unique characters and frequent use of abilities), and the studio’s own ideas.

The world of Valorant is not part of the Runeterra multiverse and develops separately, though it contains many references to LOL. Updates released after launch have revealed a lot about the game world and the opposing sides.

The action takes place on Earth in the future, where a rare substance called radianite has appeared. It is a source of energy, and its influence gave the game’s characters (agents) their superpowers. The Kingdom organization is very interested in collecting it, and players must stop them.

The maps are designed as enclosed arenas, are small in size, and the action takes place on streets and in open areas; players cannot enter buildings. In addition to their layouts, they also differ in setting: a research base, a temple, a desert settlement, a European city, and so on.

The maps were designed with CS: GO and Overwatch in mind. Players can engage in frequent firefights at short and medium range, and there is also room for sniper duels. To some extent, the maps have verticality, letting players take more advantageous positions, spot opponents sooner, and gain other tactical advantages.

Each round, the teams start at their own bases, which cover 45% of the map and are located at opposite ends. At the start of the game, barriers block the passages into enemy territory, but players can move freely within their base and take up tactically advantageous positions. Valorant has no destructible environments, but many corners and objects on the map can be shot through.

Two teams of five players fight until one of them wins 13 rounds, switching roles between attack and defense. To win, you need to eliminate the enemy team or plant an explosive at a designated location on the map. If the bomb is planted, the defenders must still defuse it even if they have killed all the attackers.

Valorant offers intense firefights in an ever-changing environment. A match lasts 30–40 minutes, and each round takes 2–3 minutes. The first 30 seconds are for buying weapons, armor, gear, and agent abilities. The first three items are the same for all players, regardless of which character they choose.

In battle, a player has three types of weapons: a primary weapon, a sidearm, and a knife. Firearms include pistols, SMGs, shotguns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, and machine guns, with 2–4 weapons in each category. All weapons in the game have different stats, such as range and accuracy, and are useful in different combat situations.

The roster of futuristic heroes is the foundation of Valorant. Victory depends not only on shooting skill, but also on choosing the right agents for your team and on each player’s ability to play their character well. You choose your character before the match starts and can’t change them during the game. Also, a team can’t have two of the same hero.

Each agent has a role:

Heroes use up to four abilities, which can be purchased at the start of each round with the same currency used for weapons and gear. You can choose: Buy cool guns and end up without abilities, invest in powerful abilities and reduce your firepower, or be a jack of all trades.

Each Agent has one basic ability, granted for free at the start of a round, two purchasable abilities, and one ultimate ability. Ultimates charge during combat through kills, dealing with explosives, or collecting energy orbs. Abilities are also divided into passive (for example, moving quickly, slowing or blinding enemies), active (dealing some type of damage in one way or another), and ultimate abilities (revealing enemies, letting you revive after death, and so on).

Abilities expand the range of tactical options, and opponents never know what their enemies will do next—they might take to the air, hide behind an ice wall, launch an incendiary grenade, and so on, unlike in CS: GO, where everything is predictable.

Industry veterans, working with esports pros, made Valorant a shooter with incredibly precise gunplay and a whole range of subtleties and nuances to shooting while moving or standing still. It uses hitscan shooting mechanics: bullets hit their targets the moment you press the button, rather than having their trajectories calculated. In practice, this means most weapons can kill an enemy instantly with a single well-aimed headshot.

Valorant has had a powerful anti-cheat system from the very beginning, and the developers do everything they can to protect it from hacks, especially cheats like wallhacks and aimbots. It also has good netcode, letting you enjoy firefights without worrying about ping or the reliability of your connection to the servers, which are located all over the world.

The game servers update the data sent to players (tick rate) 128 times per second, greatly improving the gameplay experience and preventing situations like “you got killed around the corner” or “the damage didn’t register.”