Our author Jürgen Horn initially had a pretty low opinion of Valorant. But then he got beta access, looked at the tactical shooter, and now can’t get enough of it. The reason for this goes back 20 years and is called Counterstrike.
This was Jürgen’s first encounter with Valorant: One of the most exciting aspects of my job as a gaming editor is constantly diving deep into new titles and learning new information about games firsthand. Those who know me, know that I look forward to most new games with great joy.
So, I was really curious when colleague Leya announced in the office, “I have access to the new 5vs5 shooter from Riot, does anyone want in?” I almost screamed “Yes, here!” because I actually want to play everything new first. But I took a moment to check what kind of game Valorant actually is.
I expected a cool, colorful game like Overwatch or the once highly regarded and unfortunately dead Battleborn. But goodness, was I disappointed. Valorant looked atrocious on the screens and videos! It was dreary, dull, and lacking detail.
The weapons all looked somewhat the same, the effects were poor, and the heroes looked like cutouts from Overwatch. Even clones of Hanzo and Reaper were included.
It all looked so cheap and carelessly thrown together that I had to make sure that this game was indeed the highly hyped Valorant and not a pathetic Chinese clone of Overwatch. Because that’s exactly how it looked!
From “Wow, that’s ugly” to “Wow, what a cool game!”
This is how it went with Valorant: I was so appalled that I graciously declined when it came to the key allocation for the beta of Valorant and preferred to focus on other topics. But since I manage new game releases at MeinMMO, Valorant came back to my table at the start of the beta.
“Wow, this atrociously ugly game again!” went through my mind. “But well, duty is duty and someone has to do it.” So I sifted through initial news and community feedback, watched videos, read comments, and informed myself about the gameplay.
This is how I changed my mind: Something strange happened during this process. I still found the game ugly, but the gameplay fascinated me more and more. The more information I processed, the more excited I became about the game. When Leya approached me again and offered beta access, I immediately said yes and looked forward to the end of work and my first session of Valorant.
When the moment finally came and my wife and child were finally in bed, it was already well past 10 PM. I was tired and exhausted, but I still wanted to check it out for a bit.
Finally 18 again! Valorant reminds me of Counterstrike
This is how the first round went: I never would have believed what followed. Because no matter how ugly Valorant was: It was fun from the very beginning! After a few quick deaths in the first rounds, I quickly got into the game and soon had the hang of it.
That was mainly because I played a lot of the old Counter Strike back in the 2000s. That was basically my first real online game because before I started with Guild Wars and co. I had just finished my training, was in civil service, had my own money for the first time, and a decent internet connection. So, CS was played day and night.
This is why Valorant is so cool for me: The gameplay of Valorant brought back all those old memories, and I quickly got back into the “flow”. This was due to the following reasons:
- The game runs really smoothly. The weapons are all useful, and each gun does what it is supposed to do.
- The maps are well thought out, and you learn them quickly.
- The agents work well as a supplement, and their skills are a pleasant and intuitively usable addition. Even the supposedly overpowered heroine Raze I found suitable.
I had to practically tear myself away from the game and still played way too long on the first night. Not a good idea when you get woken up early by the child the next morning. But it was worth it, I achieved several victories and was even once the frag leader on the scoreboard and MVP at the end of the match. A wonderful feeling of accomplishment that really made me feel 20 years younger again.
By now, I’m not even bothered by the simple graphics, and the exaggerated bright effects at least serve a purpose in the gameplay, as you can see immediately where a skill is deployed and which ability it is.
This is what I like about Valorant as well: Additionally, there is another advantage of Valorant over Counter Strike: I never liked the serious setup of soldiers against terrorists. The special forces were all boring, masked soldiers, and I never wanted to play the terrorists because I found that tasteless back then.
In Valorant, however, you have unique, colorful agents who even have cool sayings and fight over an ominous “Spike”. In my opinion, this fits much better with a fun online shooter than this overly serious terrorist theme from CS.
In any case, I will dive back into the fray as soon as possible, and I’m really curious about what the developers plan to do with Valorant after the beta. If you too have developed a taste for it and want to jump into the game, then check out our article where we explain how the Twitch drops and beta access for Valorant work.
