Features of Valorant. Resemblance to CS:GO, Economics, and Characters

A new game by Riot Games, Valorant, has been keeping its lead according to the number of viewers on Twitch. The owners of the League of Legends brand understood that there was no better way of promotion of a free game. Apex Legends and CoD Warzone have already made this way, now it is Valorant’s turn. The game is still being developed but many gamers can already participate in the beta-test or at least watch the game by popular streams on Twitch.

Is Valorant a CS:GO clone?

Before the launch of the major beta-test, Valorant had been considered to be the main CS:GO’s opponent. Riot Games did not hide that their new game was a kind of a clone of Counter-Strike. From the very beginning, the developers had been trying to do everything to make CS:GO fans like Valorant. They started the servers with high speed of processing the information, took care of the right hit registration, and also added reliable software against cheaters. CS also has everything from this list but not on the same level the fans of the tactic shooter wanted to see after all these years of development. The gameplay of Valorant is not a secret anymore, the game is on the beta-test stage without a ban on the online streams. It is obvious that it copies CS:GO mechanics but it adopts only the best sides from the game.

Game Mode

The main conception of the matches in Valorant was taken from CS (at least, we can see it during the beta-test). Ten people split into two teams to take part in one match. The teams have different roles on the map: attacking (that has to plant the bomb – Spike) and defending (does not let the other team plant a bomb and detonates it if necessary). The main difference from CS is three dots on the map for activating the bomb which gives the players more opportunities for maneuvering.

Peculiarities of Weapons and Armor

Buying weapons and armor is another element of gameplay adopted from CS:GO by the developers of Valorant. If we are speaking about the armory the big part of heavy and light weapons is almost identical in Valorant and CS: a shot-gun, two powerful rifles with optics, machine guns, snipers. Their look is different but the recognition of any kind of weapons is not lost. The armor conception in Valorant is different. The players may buy two kinds of armor that are able to take up to half of the damage (in CS its effectiveness is much lower).

The game has purchases (including charges for characters’ abilities) before every round. You will have to think in advance what to buy and when you should buy it. The economic system is a little different from CS. The most powerful snipers and machine guns cost less than guns so you will not be able to buy them at the beginning of the match. But there is a distinctive feature for the game - return. If you buy something by mistake, you may take it back to the store and get the full value back.

Valorant has a strong resemblance to CS:GO due to weapon behavior. It is much easier for Counter-Strike fans to master the gaming mechanics of the shooter by Riot. Bullet dispersion is similar here as well as the influence of the weight of the weapons of the character (yes, running with a knife will be easier like in CS), and headshot system. 

Valorant Characters

Charactes are something that makes Valorant different from CS where the gameplay is built on the reaction, accuracy of aiming, and team interaction. The developers from Riot brought themselves to the experiment and added unique characters to the game. It is clear that unique characters with a set of four skills each influence the balance in the game a lot. Each match becomes more variable. In the beginning, the players choose characters, so-called Agents. Even though Agents are different by their appearance, their hitboxes are similar. The looks of the characters are worked on in order to increase its visibility on the battlefield.

Agents have powers. One of them is the main (little effect), two of them are bought at the shop at the beginning of the round (middle effect, an alternative of the grenades from CS), and the last one is an ultimate (a superability, is long-charged but it can change the power balance on the battlefield). It is a known fact that players will have to buy some characters in Valorant. Today it is a standard approach to monetizing a free game.

The presence of abilities does not turn Valorant into Overwatch. The main part of the gameplay is based on shooting. Agents’ skills will let the player change the situation around just a little to gain an advantage for a period of time: smokescreen, firewall, regular wall, blocking the passage on the map, increasing rapidity of fire, fast-moving around the map, defining positions of the enemy, etc. So the abilities let the player discourage the opponent and the frags are made with the help of regular weapons.

Whether Valorant will be able to oppose such giants like CS and Overwatch in the esports sphere or not will be clear after the release of the final version in the summer this year. Riot Games have already thought about every detail and presented their project to the gaming community in a quality manner. Valorant is unlikely to steal the show from CS:GO. But the new game by Riot will definitely be popular for a long time.