A new game has taken storm: Valorant. This tactical shooter game has been gaining popularity over the past few months since its beta release last April. The game was designed by Riot Games, the same company that created another popular game amongst teenagers, League of Legends, and has many similarities to games such as Overwatch and Counter Strike: Global Offensive.
In Valorant, players are tasked with either planting or diffusing bonds depending on whether they are on offense or defense. The game is set in Earth’s future, during a worldwide occurrence known as the “First Light.” This incident gave supernatural powers to people who became known as Radiants. The game introduces new forms of government, technology, and a group called Valorant that draws together agents with unique powers (both Radiants and agents with Radiant technology).
Each player has their own riot ID and name in the game. Players participate in 5v5 matches in which teams rotate offense and defense. Players are given five agents to choose from with more unlocking as they continue to play and gain XP (experience points). Senior Keith Yeung said that he plays the game under agent “Reyna, because I get a lot of kills.” Senior Amar Maksumic gives a description of his favorite agents Omen and Yoru, and said that one of Omen’s skills specifically “differs from his basic teleport as that only allows him to teleport small distances, while Yoru’s teleport is easily revealed to enemies.”
Players must also choose which weapons, which are based on the number of credits given per game, will be most beneficial for them during their matches. One disadvantage of this game is that weapon skins, which increase the level of ability and skills of the player, can only be purchased with money. Senior Esmond Lau said that he liked the “Ghost, Stinger, Marshal, and Operator” weapons, however, he was “not a big fan of weapon skin[s].”
In terms of modes, many Harrisites like to play in “Ranked Gamemode,” or competitive mode, out of the many available options. However, competitive mode is only offered when a beginner completes 20 games to indicate their proficiency in the game.
Valorant was initially named “Project A” as an uncovered name because the concept and idea of the game were not released to the public until March 2.
Many like freshman Vincent Wyntar-Oo had the chance to test the game out during the beta release, which was available to those who watched the Twitch stream, while others started playing in June when the official version was released. Over the course of the last couple of months, many updates have also been added to resolve any problems that players may have had with the game.
Valorant is a great bonding game, as people of different ages and backgrounds can unite through a screen. Esmond said that the game allowed him to “play with [his] friends online because [they] get to have conversation[s] and have some enjoyment while playing.” He has also played the game with other members of Robotics and said that the experience was important to him since the team “is pretty big and it could be boring if we have a one-sided conversation when we are all together.”
Freshman Annie Han compared Valorant to the game Arsenal on Roblox, but said that “Valorant requires a lot more thinking.” Vincent said that when compared to games like Counter-Strike, “Valorant is easier to play for beginners with no knowledge of fps (frames rate per second) and also offers more options to play by.”
Valorant is not only a platform for people of different ages and backgrounds to connect, but it is also one that allows gamers to put their minds to the test, make new friends, and overall enjoy the game-playing experience.
