valorant

It's wild how quickly Valorant has captured the collective consciousness of FPS fans. Riot's competitive shooter is just barely out of beta, yet it already stands toe-to-toe with the biggest games in its genre. It helps that Valorant comes from a gigantic studio and that its deviously smart partnership with Twitch streamers to selectively hand out beta access gave it a running start. But that enormous marketing push wouldn't mean much if Valorant weren't also very good.

It's true that Valorant is Riot's best crack at Counter-Strike, but the ways it remixes Valve’s blueprint are what make it excellent. Anonymous gangs of counter-terrorists are replaced by a cast of vibrant agents with talents that match their personalities. In a very Overwatch fashion, agents quip at each other at the start of rounds and break the fourth wall to announce they've eliminated their "imposter" on the other team (the enemy playing the same character). It has the same upbeat vibe of Overwatch that helps every loss feel a little more friendly.

The 5v5 games take place over up to 25 rounds, which can last anywhere from 10 seconds to a couple minutes each. The attackers want to plant the bomb (called the Spike here) and the defenders have to defuse it or die trying. Other games have borrowed Counter-Strike's round-based bomb mode over the years, but far fewer have ever mimicked Counter-Strike's exact shooting style, map design, and weapon economy. Even in 2020, CS still stands out as a shooter that's won with equal parts mechanical skill, strategic frugality, and deep mind games.

Valorant manages to reproduce those great qualities while tossing magical ice walls and drones into the mix. The deliberate detachment from reality also allows traditional support tools like smoke, flash, and fire grenades to become playful abilities with varied uses. Take Phoenix's Hot Hands, a molotov-style fireball that burns enemies while healing Phoenix, or Jett's Cloudburst, a smoke grenade that she can steer through the air after throwing. It's not only fun to use, but inspires skill shots that aren't possible in Counter-Strike.

Using my camera and Trapwires to tag an enemy and wallbang them through a box is reminiscent of the coolest moments in Rainbow Six Siege.

It's been especially cool to see Sova's recon arrow become its own art form. Practiced players are now consistently landing ridiculous shots across the map that bank off three walls before landing in critical chokepoints, where they detect and mark enemies. Abilities give Valorant a lot of flavor. My main throughout the last two months of closed beta was Cypher, an intel expert who can surveil the map with his sticky camera. Using my camera and Trapwires to tag an enemy and wallbang them through a box is reminiscent of the coolest moments in Rainbow Six Siege.

I love the ways Riot has found to add value to the team beyond clicking on heads, but a few powers don't gel with its lethal combat. The most glaring example is Sage, Valorant's only dedicated support. Even after a few nerfs in the open beta, her ability to heal allies (or herself), cut off choke points with her ice wall, slow enemies, and revive teammates has proven to be an essential part of well-rounded teams. It's clear that she has too many useful tools at once, but my real problem is the dominance of her Resurrection ultimate. Losing a hard-fought round because Sage turned a tense 1v1 into a 1v2 is demoralizing and frustrating. Ultimates are supposed to be influential, but Sage skirts too close to being a round decider. Losing a fight to Valorant's brand new agent, Reyna, is similarly frustrating. Even if I leave her with 20 health, she can quickly slurp up my soul like a spaghetti noodle to overheal up to maximum health. Riot wants to make sure that good aim will always trounce abilities, but I'm not sure that squares with an agent that starts every fight with a clean bill of health.