Valorant

Fresh ideas prove that this is way more than a copycat.

It’s wild how quickly Valorant has captured the collective consciousness of FPS fans. Riot’s competitive shooter is just barely out of beta, yet it already stands toe-to-toe with the biggest games in its genre. It helps that Valorant

comes from a gigantic studio and that its deviously smart partnership with Twitch streamers to selectively hand out beta access gave it a running start. But that enormous marketing push wouldn’t mean much if Valorant

weren’t also very good.

Valorant manages to reproduce

Counter-Strike’s greatest qualities while tossing magical ice walls and drones into the mix. The deliberate detachment from reality allows traditional support tools like smoke, flash, and fire grenades to become playful abilities with varied uses. It’s been especially cool to see Sova’s tricky recon arrow that players can bank off walls become its own art form.

I love the ways Riot has found to add value to the team beyond clicking on heads, but a few powers don’t gel with its lethal combat. Striking a balance between Overwatch – where accuracy feels secondary to a well-timed ult – and CounterStrike’s purist weapon jousting is a difficult feat.

The only area where Valorant feels a bit shallow at launch is its map pool. There are four maps so far. It’s slim pickings, but I appreciate the variety in layout and style. Riot says it wants each map to feature something “new and unique” – Bind has portals that connect the two sites, Haven’s mid is a third bomb site, Split has climbing ropes, and Ascent (the new map) has one-way metal doors. For the most part,

Valorant’s map design succeeds at replicating Counter-Strike’s carefully considered sightlines and chokepoints. It’ll take months for the community to fully evaluate each map’s strengths and weaknesses, but I’m having fun wherever I end up. I’d wager that Riot is afraid of overwhelming new players with too many maps.

Valorant is the more accessible

Counter-Strike I didn’t know I wanted. Abilities add an intoxicating dynamism to every round and expand the scope of teamwork for this style of FPS. MORGAN PARK

With intense gunplay and transformative agent abilities, Valorant is an exceptional FPS that everyone should try.