Review Valorant. “Old” does not mean “bad” – review

You know, it’s even somehow strange that no one had thought of making Counter-Strike the “spiritual heir” before. In an industry that at the speed of a vulture strips every more or less good idea to the bone, Contra has always stood apart. What is this Valorant? Who dared to encroach on the sacred, and why does this impostor look like the fruit of a vicious union of all the popular shooters on the market? Only the most desperate Asian developers can dare to such blasphemy …

… Ah wait. Riot Games is part of Tencent. This explains a lot.

Counter-Watch: Weaboo Offensive

Okay, jokes aside. If you imagine a scale where Counter-Strike is located on one end and Overwatch is on the other, then Valorant definitely lies closer to the first. Although “closer” is perhaps a little wrong word: the structure of the gameplay follows the formula of “counter” to the last letter. One team defends the dots, and the second tries to break through to them and plant a bomb. If she explodes, then the attackers win; if it is neutralized, then the defenders. Between rounds, players buy weapons and equipment earned for frags (and not only) money, and in the middle of the match teams change sides. The courtesy exchange continues until someone scratches out thirteen victories.

In addition, Valorant manages to spy a few ideas from the exact opposite end of the scale – that is, for hero-shooters. So, here you are not playing for abstract operatives, but for full-fledged characters with unique abilities. True, some of them – about half – look suspiciously like Overwatch heroes. A brutal archer with a foreign accent, a teleporting masked killer, a Mexican girl with purple strands and a dashing native of Brazil who lacks just a couple of roller skates to complete the look – headphones and a colorful outfit are already included.

In a way, Riot Games can even be congratulated. Only a studio that clearly understands what it is doing is capable of releasing not just a secondary, but a doubly secondary game. This in itself, of course, is not a sentence, but the problem is different: Valorant borrows other people’s ideas, but at the same time it looks (I emphasize – looks like) is almost unforgivably cheap. It is commendable that the developers tried to optimize the client even for the weakest machines, and I have no questions for that – deliberately sketchy effects like “spherical” smoke do not hurt my eyes at all. But the visual design … It’s not cartoony enough (so as not to alienate the “serious” gamers), and not realistic enough (so that the game can be paired with a young audience like Fortnite). He’s just tasteless like diet soda.

If you put all this together, then, at first glance, Valorant looks so fresh that it is basically difficult to talk about it. And to interest a person from the outside in an already very crowded market is even more difficult. But, suddenly, this is one of those cases where the first impression is misleading.

It turns out that Riot Games really understands what it is doing.

Before the start of the round, the exits from the respawns are closed – so that it would be possible, in which case, to make a permutation. For this, it is shown that teammates bought

Gg no re

Counter-Strike is the embodiment of the idiom “easy to play, difficult to master.” It is extremely demanding on the mechanical skill of the player, and this largely follows from the features of the Source engine. How he processes hitboxes, shooting physics, geometry. Hence the need arises, for example, to cram the patterns of scattering bullets and throwing grenades for each card, or to climb into some places exclusively by jumping in a squat.

Valorant has many similar (and in some places the same) nuances: it can hardly be called “casual.” Skirmishes, as a rule, begin quickly and end even faster, sometimes from the very first hit in the head – there is often simply no right to make a mistake. And in conditions where only one stray bullet can decide the outcome of the round, recoil control is incredibly important – this is not a conditional Modern Warfare, where some rifles hit with laser precision. Shooting on the run (or even on the go) is almost pointless here, and enemy fire greatly reduces the speed of movement: it’s not possible to take and rinse out of trouble.

The arsenal is small, but there are practically no (with one exception) useless options. If the weapon didn’t look like the nerf ghans painted by cosplayers, it would be just wonderful

But Riot Games went even further – in Valorant, most guns have a fully functional scope. Moreover, he does not just give a small “zoom”, but changes the properties of weapons. For example, it increases accuracy in exchange for rate of fire in order to more effectively hold a position at a great distance, or switches automatic fire to short bursts. And all these factors must be taken into account.

In other words, the game appreciates the mechanical skill, but does not focus on it – here the heroes and their abilities come into play. In theory, they do not really fit into this gameplay: it is too elegant, it can easily be overloaded. Or inadvertently shift the focus from shooting and tactics to the brainless exchange of “ults.” However, the developers approached the issue wisely – they themselves saw these risks. In Valorant, the elements of hero shooters do not attract too much attention and do not replace “skill”, but add another variable to the equation.

It’s good that the authors immediately decided to add a shooting range to the game. Here you can look at the behavior of weapons, and exercise a little on the built-in simulator

Wombo combo

First of all, screaming that Riot Games pulled this idea from Overwatch is unfair. Let the character design and balance on the verge of a lawsuit. In my opinion, a comparison with Rainbow Six: Siege is more appropriate, because the abilities here are rather one of the items of equipment. By default, only a crown skill is available to each hero (for example, a ball of fire leaving a puddle of lava) – the rest, like weapons, must be bought. Moreover, their “ammunition” is quite limited, each can be used a maximum of two to three times per round – no free reload. And, as a result, no “spam on CD”. Therefore, even on public servers, no one squanders abilities in vain – everyone understands that this can substitute a team at the most inconvenient moment.

Fun fact: many abilities also work through walls (sometimes only through walls). You do not get used to it right away, but over time, such “backache” becomes a habit

Moreover, many skills in Valorant, in principle, do no damage. They either block oxygen to the opponents, or create opportunities for the player and his allies. Healer Sage, for example, knows how to erect a small crystal wall: in defense, she can block the passage, and in attack, on the contrary, can be used as a springboard. Nimble Jett with his jerk can quickly escape from enemy fire or fly in one fell swoop on a long corridor without fear of snipers. My personal favorite is Brimstone; he is able to charge a whole battery of smoke grenades at different points on the map: they can close uncomfortable corners or go into a bluff and make the defenders wonder where exactly to wait for the attack.

Everything, including “ults”, helps a lot, but only in certain situations – and they still need to be noticed and in time to figure out how to tip the scales in their direction. In Valorant, the most apt one does not always win. A well-honed reaction is, of course, important, but often the ability to quickly think and process information is even more important. This is the whole charm of the game, all its depth. Here, the usual debate about who will go where at the beginning of the round really makes sense – especially in defense. For example, Cypher, a local hacker, knows how to set stretch marks that highlight caught enemies through walls – you can place them on the approaches to one point, and you can go to another. Poisonous Viper, if she has an ult, can keep the plant alone, just covering it with a giant cloud of toxic gas.

If you see something similar before going to the point, it makes sense to turn around and go the other way. Well, if you do not want to become a Darwin Award nominee

No less decisions must be made in the attack. Where is it better to go, whether to sneak “on ciphers” or take by storm, whether to cover the rear: you always need to be prepared to immediately change your plan and rebuild tactics. For everything about everything – a few minutes. This is the very dynamics for which Counter-Strike is loved, and competitive games in principle. Valorant squeezes into each two-minute round a miniature story arch with a string, climax, unexpected triumph and bitter defeat. Emotions, though not always pleasant, sometimes whip over the edge. The match seems to have just begun, looked at the scoreboard – and it’s already 10-10, the match point is approaching, and in general it’s time to pull ourselves together.

Lose at zero

Alas, everything is not as cloudless as we would like – even if you close your eyes to the controversial visual design. Riot Games was clearly in a hurry to get Valorant out of the beta phase of the release – now the game, to put it mildly, is far from a full-fledged product. Eleven characters, two game modes (three, if you count private matches) and, most offensively, only four cards. Yes, each one has some interesting detail, like armored doors that can be used to block the way for attackers, or teleporters that change the tactics of movement, but … There are few of them, and they are in random rotation. Want to choose where to play? Sorry, not fate.

You can open characters without microtransactions in only one way – a grind. Not too annoying, but a rather long grind

However, this is not the main trouble – sooner or later, the base of players will be enough for the studios to get their brains. Much worse is that now in Valorant it is physically impossible to play relaxing, for your pleasure. It’s not about a high (at least above average) entry threshold, everything is just fine with it. It’s just that even “regular” matches here often last about forty minutes, like in some MOBA, and work according to the same rules as “ranked” ones – only without stuffing imaginary numbers. And if you don’t have the time or mood to sweat for forty minutes in a row, then the only alternative is the so-called. “quick game. The match lasts seven rounds, all abilities are available to the characters by default, and weapons are issued to all players randomly – you get a mixture of familiar rules and an “arms race” from CS: GO. The mixture is funny, but it takes Valorant to a completely different steppe, but I would like to see the middle ground.

Here it can be argued that Rome was not built on the same day, and the League of Legends also did not immediately become an e-sports mastodon. Fair. In fact, in this regard, Valorant has already taken a low start – it is full of small amenities that communities of many other shooters would have been asking for for years. Detailed adjustment of the sight, map interactivity (markings can be left right during the match, as in LoL), a convenient weapon purchase menu, match history with a bunch of schedules and other information. However, at the same time, the game still lacks some necessary things. For example, replays or at least some way to warm up before the match while sitting in line. Of course, some things will probably be added later. But others, like user servers, are unlikely to ever appear.

Despite the agreement that you must accept when you first start the game, you can immediately suppress the general chat in public games. In terms of toxicity, it is almost not inferior to LoL here, and in some places even overtakes

The future of Valorant depends entirely on post-release support, which is likely to be colossal. For an example, again, there is no need to go far: League of Legends has inconceivably changed since the release. But, frankly, I’m not quite sure that in the case of Valorant everything will develop in the same scenario – the Counter-Strike formula drives the studio into a rigid framework. Obviously, maintaining interest in the game is easiest with the help of new characters and maps, but the studio will have to reckon with the balance at every step.

Experiments like those that developers regularly conduct on heroes in the same LoL run the risk of getting too out of frame and breaking down the entire ecosystem – the last of the added characters, Reina, already shows this problem. She goes into invisibility, and is treated, devouring the souls of fallen enemies (Reaper, log in), and blinds opponents – she knows how to do everything in the world. Like the worst, most overloaded with abilities champions in League of Legends like Afelia or Senna. And if you try to get by with a little blood, then what? Constantly inventing characters with a new smoke grenade variation? You can’t get enough of them in Valorant. Controlled fumes, orbital fumes, toxic fumes, grape-flavored purple fumes …

Oh, I forgot – there is still slowing smoke. Now everything seems to be.

However, a start has been made. Valorant is unlikely to win the hearts of millions in record time, but Riot Games has already bolstered its ambition with a good bid for success. No matter what they say, the studio approached the game competently: there have been no such competent shooters for a long time. In addition, it’s nice that for once the curious online project will not be bent in a couple of months.

But how developers will reveal its potential in the future is a separate issue. Who knows: maybe then we will tell our grandchildren that we found Valorant even before it became the most important Olympic discipline.

Pleased

• aggressive ganplay;
• surprisingly interesting characters;
• large scope for tactics;
• server stability;
• high entry threshold and skill ceiling.

Afflicted

• dubious art design;
• secondary nature;
• modest set of cards;
• too long matches;
• infrequent, but extremely offensive bugs with shooting.

How we played

What: How: the game is downloaded for free.

On what: PC.

How many: just over 30 hours.

Editors Achievement

“Bad habit”

According to old memory, hollow on Q to change weapons. Instead, spend the newly purchased ability tied to Q.

About localization

Full translation into Russian. It is not even clear which version of voice acting is worse: original or localized. You can choose according to your taste, but playing English is probably still better – tongue-tied sentences often pop up in Russian.

Verdict

A strong shooter that has every chance of becoming excellent after several years of patches and content updates. Valorant does not offer original ideas, but mixes the old with great attention to detail and in the right proportions.