Top 10 Things You Need to Know About Valorant

The hero shooter market has already been swamped with titles like “Overwatch”, “Paladins”, and plenty more titles over the past few years, but “Valorant” treats the formula a little differently. It plays a little more like “Counter-Strike”, focusing more on tactical gameplay while blending in hero abilities to make things more interesting. One team must plant a spike somewhere on the map while the opposing team tries to eliminate them and defuse the spike. Needless to say, if you’ve played any of the aforementioned games, you shouldn’t have a lot of trouble jumping into “Valorant”.

You probably already know this if you follow them closely, but “Valorant” is a brand new title from Riot Games. However, there are a few important things to note. Remember when Riot announced that they were working on several games set within the “League of Legends” universe? Surprisingly enough, “Valorant” is not one of these titles and is actually the new IP that was hinted at. While the idea was considered, director Joe Zigler and his team discarded it due to various conflicts in visuals and mechanics. Considering how Riot has dedicated most of its work to the MOBA goliath, it is nice to see the company trying something different with a new cast and setting for once.

The game may seem similar to “Counter-Strike”, but its structure is slightly tweaked to appeal to more players. If you felt that “Counter-Strike’s” “first to 16 wins” rule made games drag out a little too long, “Valorant” might be a nice change of pace. Instead of “first to 16”, the game aims to keep things a tad shorter by making the win condition “first to 13”. The difference may not seem like much, but this number might be more friendly to those who don’t have a lot of time on their hands. Plus, the game swaps teams at a pretty decent pace.

Typical hero shooters like “Overwatch” have characters locked down to a specific weapon. “Valorant”, on the other hand, offers a little more customization. Before every round, you’ll have a brief “buying phase” where you can spend points to equip weapons and assemble your loadout (just like “Counter-Strike”). So, if there’s one character you really like, you can stick with them and use whatever guns you desire - pistols, SMGs, assault rifles, shotguns, snipers, etc. Also, everyone gets a knife at the start. Now, you can all go nuts and stab the air with reckless abandon!

Normally, a game will only offer a few characters up during its beta phase. However, “Valorant” features a hearty helping of ten characters to choose from, each with their own set of unique abilities. Heal your teammates with Sage, teleport around the map with Omen, or spy on enemies with Cypher. One of the more interesting parts about “Valorant’s” heroes, though, is that their ultimate abilities are charged up by killstreaks. You also get a charge when you’re killed. So, if you save that ultimate ability, you may be able to steal the win later on.

Many shooters offer players an aim assist to help lesser-skilled players compete with those who spend countless hours playing a single game. However, “Valorant” has removed aim assist entirely, meaning that the whole game is left up to skill. Where does that leave console players? Well, there may be an extensive waiting period. Because of the reliance on accuracy and skill, "Valorant" may be harder to play on a console. At the moment, Riot Games is currently focused on the PC version of the game only, so it may be awhile before we see "Valorant" pop up on PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo Switch.

When developing an online game (or any game, in this case), it's important that developers keep processing and hardware requirements low in order to get more players in. Riot Games has known that since they first developed "League of Legends", and that design is carried over in "Valorant". Basically, if you have a computer that can run Windows 7, you should have little problem running the game. This is just one of the many reasons why "League" became so successful, and with "Valorant" following the same blueprint, it's looking like Riot will repeat that success.

As with every free-to-play game, not everything is truly free. While "Valorant" will have in-game purchases, Riot is only doing the same thing it has been doing - selling cosmetics. For the time being, "Valorant" only has gun skins available for purchase, and it isn’t looking like Riot is wanting to add character skins. You'll also be able to use a premium currency to unlock additional Agents. ...Or you can unlock them through special contracts - special challenges that will reward you with not only Agents, but additional gun skins as well. Also, no lootboxes! THANK GOD!!

At the time of recording, "Valorant" is scheduled to launch sometime in the summer of 2020. Right now, the game is in a closed beta, but there is a way for you to get in. The first step is in linking your Riot Games account with your Twitch account. Simple and easy! Now, you just wait for that email, right? Well, not necessarily. While most developers would stop there and just give you the code or say "sorry, you weren't selected", Riot is making players jump through an extra hoop, and it may take you a while to clear it… It all depends on how much time you have on your hands.

The only way to get the code after you've linked accounts is to watch livestreams of the game on Twitch. However, you can’t just jump in, watch a few minutes, and bail. You'll have to pass a threshold of two hours of viewing a stream, and the more you watch, the better your chances are of nabbing a beta code. If you're lucky enough, you may even be sent a code while you're offline (again, so long as you've crossed that two-hour threshold). Unfortunately the giveaways seem to be based on luck right now, as some people have reported getting a code after a few hours, while others have reported watching hundreds of hours with still no code. Yeah … not sure how we feel about this, considering it’s also the reason why Valorant is the most watched game on Twitch right now.