Valorant tested: The shooter seems dull – But you will play it

Valorant, the new multiplayer shooter from Riot, is about to launch its first closed beta. We at MeinMMO were allowed to play it beforehand. Our editor Leya Jankowski participated in a digital event where streamers, YouTubers, and journalists had extensive gameplay of Valorant.

Is this supposed to be the new team shooter from Riot? When I watched a gameplay video of Valorant for the first time in March, I had the impression of viewing a prototype. I was quite surprised when I realized that this game is already very close to release.

The graphics of Valorant look like they are from 10 years ago. The concept brings nothing new and strongly resembles CS:GO – with a pinch of Overwatch.

However, after the first professional players got a look at the multiplayer shooter, a hype around Valorant spread in the scene. The first talents even spoke of switching to Riot’s new game even though it hasn’t even been released yet.

Valorant in a quick overview explained:

• The first-person shooter is free to play, for PC, and from Riot
• You compete in 5vs5 matches against each other. One team tries to plant a bomb, and the other must prevent it. Fixed points on the map are marked where the bomb can be placed.
• You have various heroes with abilities available, called agents. The agents are designed for roles, either aggressive or defensive
• Before each round in the match, there is a buy phase. In this phase, weapons, shields, and some agent skills can be purchased and equipped.

I played Valorant before the beta started: From March 27 to 29, a digital event took place for Valorant to which we at MeinMMO were invited. I simply couldn’t understand why the pros were so exuberantly excited about the multiplayer shooter. That is why I urgently wanted to play Valorant myself and get a picture of it.

For three days, I was able to indulge in the team shooter and talk to the developers and also with other participants.

You have to play Valorant to understand the appeal

First, I got a little familiar with the controls in the practice room. Since I’m a huge fan of crowd control, I immediately grabbed Sage.

The agent has an ice wall to block paths. She can freeze part of the ground for a certain period, slowing down opponents and allies walking on it. That’s just my thing. It’s also practical that Sage can heal herself and others, and as an ultimate ability, she can resurrect a team member.

After my first round, it finally clicked: I must admit, it’s been a long time since I played Counter-Strike. I played a lot of Overwatch and Paladins, and expected that I could somehow sneak by using the champs’ skills. My lethargic reaction and semi-good aim shouldn’t be a problem.

Match one, round one. I bought my first weapons and my first skills. There is a cooldown only for one of the agents’ skills, in Sage’s case, it’s her healing. The rest of the skills must be purchased, and I can use them only 1-2 times per round. The ultimate ability slowly charges over several rounds. This is different from the hero shooters I know.

Together with my team, I set out to plant a bomb. We are the attackers. I sneak around the corner, and there I have my first duel! The plan: I take my ice ball, place it under his feet, slow him down, and – BAM. Dead. Well, I am. The opponent hit me with a headshot in seconds, which has a damage multiplier. Damn.

I gradually understand that:

• Valorant is very different from Overwatch
• The agents’ skills are only a strategic extra layer
• The gameplay requires a lot of skill, aim, map understanding, skillful movement, and concentration

What can I say? Among all the shooter pros I played with, I was hopelessly lost. I often kissed the ground. But I noticed that I was making small progress and my old Counter-Strike memory was slowly dusting off. Although I was so bad compared to my colleagues, I couldn’t help but stay motivated to jump into the matches and wanted to improve.

I was fully in the flow. By that, I don’t mean the game flow. I mean the phenomenon of games that suck you in so much that you feel one with the game and can fully focus only on the game.

About the author: Leya is an enthusiastic shooter player, even though she isn’t very good at the genre. She plays shooters in various forms, from first-person to third-person, in competitive and cooperative modes. Counter-Strike is a long time ago for her, but in recent years she has dived into team shooters like Overwatch and Paladins. Cooperative shooters like Borderlands or Warframe are also among her favorites. Leya has also played League of Legends for many years and is very familiar with Riot’s development policies.

A pro explained to me what makes Valorant better than CS:GO for many

Since I am not deeply embedded in the CS:GO scene and was still burning with curiosity about why so many pros have so much trust in the game, I sought help. I played a few rounds with the CS:GO streamer Nooky. He was kind enough to talk with me again about Valorant after the event.

I asked Nooky why so many CS:GO players are turning to Valorant. I wanted to know why pros are even switching and what makes Valorant so good for them.

It has a lot to do with CS:GO itself. The game has many issues and bugs that you don’t necessarily see as a layman. People are weary of how little changes there are. There is the weapon “War”, which is so powerful that it is only played. It can even take out sniper weapons. Many are calling for a nerf, and even though I like playing the weapon, I also want the nerf because it’s just too powerful. But nothing happens. Valve is not very responsive or doesn’t listen to the criticism. […]

Sure, you make a lot of money from it, and the top teams and players will probably stay with CS:GO. But many in the mid-tier, or even casual gamers I know, say they just don’t feel like playing CS:GO anymore. The matchmaking system is poor, you only have 64-tick servers, there are so many cheaters, and all that stuff. 

These players [who are frustrated now] will have a lot of fun with Valorant. You still have the basis of buying weapons and the 5vs5 shooter. You eliminate opponents with weapons, contrary to what many believe. They see the small videos and clips online and think it’s Overwatch in a different form. But it’s really not. Valorant is much closer to CS:GO than to any other game.

Valorant is CS:GO in a different style and for me personally also more exciting and interesting. Because of all these characters you have, with all their abilities. It brings many more tactical aspects into play. We still don’t know how many maps will come. How many characters will there be later? The variety of tactical possibilities is just much greater in this game.

But you still have the basics: You have to be good at movement; you must act as a team; you need to have a plan for the team and, at the end of the day, eliminate the opponents.

CS:GO pro Nooky to MeinMMO about Valorant

Nooky has been in the shooter scene since 2014, starting with CS:GO 1.5 and quickly becoming a pro. He played for teams like mTw for a long time. Now 34 years old, Nooky has stopped playing professionally and dedicates himself to streaming. On Nookyyy’s Twitch channel, you can soon expect gameplay of Valorant.

Valorant offers more tactical possibilities

Nooky further explained that the appeal lies in the fact that Valorant is also something fresh. The gameplay principle is familiar and feels comfortable, but the thinking muscles are exercised differently than in CS:GO:

We don’t know yet how everything will develop. Which characters will be stronger? What tactics can be played? But even just by having these 9 characters with different abilities and classes, you already have a completely different pool of options.

You can set up a team with classes and characters that are very aggressive. […] Or you could make a completely different setup of characters that have more map control and perform better in defense. You also don’t know how the individual characters will harmonize together. Can you make counter-picks against the opponent? That’s all missing in CS:GO. It adds something to what you already have in CS:GO.

Then Valorant also introduced maps with three bomb sites or teleporters. Who knows what else is to come?

CS:GO pro Nooky to MeinMMO about Valorant

In summary, the situation looks like this:

• Some players are currently dissatisfied with the development of CS:GO. There are bugs, poorly balanced weapons, and cheaters making life difficult for players.
• Valorant is a new hopeful that looks promising. Because even if much appears almost identical to CS:GO, there are enough gameplay differences that make Valorant a bit more exciting.

Riot uses its own system against cheaters

Another advantage for Nooky (and for every honest player in the world) is Riot’s anti-cheat system. If you want to play Valorant, it can only be done in combination with Vanguard – an anti-cheat software developed by Riot itself. Once a player cheats and is recognized by the system, the game ends immediately for all participants. The cheater is banned right away.

How harmful cheaters can be in a competitive game was recently proven again by Call of Duty. An immortality cheat is currently ruining CoD: Warzone. This causes frustration among all honest players, which in turn damages the longevity of a title. Players lose interest.

How effective the Vanguard system will ultimately be and whether Riot will win the fight against cheaters remains to be seen. But they are already making a clear statement that they take the cheating problem seriously and want to nip it in the bud from the start.

The marketing through streamers is well thought out from the start

Those who see Valorant aren’t immediately blown away. It is intentionally kept minimalistic because the developers prioritize gameplay above all else. They told us during the event that they find it distracting when maps are full of gimmicks. In their experience, these maps are often perceived as exhausting when played hundreds of times.

However, this also results in boring gameplay trailers, which are not very appealing. I felt the same before my own play session.

That’s why numerous streamers were invited to the play event: Soon Twitch and YouTube will be full of Valorant. High-profile influencers were invited to the event.

Among the streamers were:

• Summit1G (No. 3 on Twitch)  is an established and respected Twitch streamer, originally from CS:GO.
• Gotaga is also there  – he is number one in France
• Dizzy was the star of Apex Legends when the game took off in February 2019.

As soon as the streamers are allowed to show Valorant on their channels, there will be a big wave on the internet about the game. Similarly cleverly thought out by Riot is the fact that whoever wants beta access to Valorant must watch a Twitch streamer play the shooter.

We have already reported in detail about the plan here:

More on the topic

Valorant starts with great hype on Twitch – Riot’s plan is working

von Schuhmann

Twitch has now become indispensable in gaming marketing. Others know this too. The upcoming open-world MMO New World will also rely heavily on Twitch.

Also clever: It’s possible to turn off blood effects and displayed corpses in Valorant. This allows Valorant videos on YouTube to be monetized. That’s not possible once there are 18+ contents visible in a video. This also makes it more attractive for YouTubers to show videos of Valorant as they can earn money from it.

There isn’t a big buzz around Valorant yet, but it should come at least with the streamers and YouTubers.

Even your mom can play Valorant on her old laptop

The new multiplayer shooter from Riot has incredibly low entry barriers:

• Valorant is free
• You need hardware that could almost be compared to a potato

There is another reason why Riot has decided not to shine in graphics. Valorant is designed to be as accessible as possible.

The minimum requirements for your PC are as follows:

• CPU: Intel i3-370M
• Graphics Card: Intel HD 3000
• RAM: 4 GB
• Operating System: Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit)

With this, you can still play at 30 FPS. So you can smoothly play Valorant with any PC that can run a web browser.

This is naturally interesting for younger players who can’t always buy the best hardware.

Once Valorant is out, you will play it

With free-to-play and the low hardware requirements, almost anyone can try Valorant. You don’t have much to lose if you check it out for a few hours.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many releases planned for 2020 are now delayed. For example, The Last of Us Part II was recently delayed – and is not alone in this. The developers are also at home right now. I asked the developers of Valorant if they might be delayed. They assured me that Riot has managed to keep the work running fairly normally. Valorant has been in development for about six years now. Everything happening now is just finishing touches. The release in summer 2020 is expected to remain unchanged.

Once you play it, it is fun. Of course, this assumes that you generally enjoy this type of game. Riot has already proven with League of Legends that they know how to give a game a long life. There are currently few reasons why they shouldn’t also achieve longevity for Valorant. It is already planned to regularly release new agents and maps.

Do I believe that Valorant will completely displace other shooters like Apex or CS:GO? No. Do I believe that Valorant will soon rank among the top of others? Definitely.

There isn’t a big buzz around Valorant yet, but it should come at least with the streamers and YouTubers.

Even your mom can play Valorant on her old laptop

The new multiplayer shooter from Riot has incredibly low entry barriers:

• Valorant is free
• You need hardware that could almost be compared to a potato

There is another reason why Riot has decided not to shine in graphics. Valorant is designed to be as accessible as possible.

The minimum requirements for your PC are as follows:

• CPU: Intel i3-370M
• Graphics Card: Intel HD 3000
• RAM: 4 GB
• Operating System: Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit)

With this, you can still play at 30 FPS. So you can smoothly play Valorant with any PC that can run a web browser.

This is naturally interesting for younger players who can’t always buy the best hardware.

Once Valorant is out, you will play it

With free-to-play and the low hardware requirements, almost anyone can try Valorant. You don’t have much to lose if you check it out for a few hours.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many releases planned for 2020 are now delayed. For example, The Last of Us Part II was recently delayed – and is not alone in this. The developers are also at home right now. I asked the developers of Valorant if they might be delayed. They assured me that Riot has managed to keep the work running fairly normally. Valorant has been in development for about six years now. Everything happening now is just finishing touches. The release in summer 2020 is expected to remain unchanged.

Once you play it, it is fun. Of course, this assumes that you generally enjoy this type of game. Riot has already proven with League of Legends that they know how to give a game a long life. There are currently few reasons why they shouldn’t also achieve longevity for Valorant. It is already planned to regularly release new agents and maps.

Do I believe that Valorant will completely displace other shooters like Apex or CS:GO? No. Do I believe that Valorant will soon rank among the top of others? Definitely.