Valorant

I checked this out as soon as it ported over to Xbox and spent around 4-5 hours playing. While I enjoy shooter games, the most important aspect for me in gaming is that the games are fun. Valorant unfortunately seems uninspired, bland and tedious to play.

The match format is too slow, before the plotted matches even complete half the players on either side have dropped out of the game. Reducing the game to 5 wins per side would likely fix many of those issues. The map design is below expectations. There are no destructible environments, it's in essence a corridor shooter with very minimal bells and whistles. The characters are balanced the gun play is subpar. This feels like a game that very well could have been released in 2010-2012.

This game has too many mistakes that make it more irritating to play, the community is the most disgusting and toxic, better play CSGO, that community is not so rotten and the game is better.

Valorant is a really good game and a really bad one at the same time, for now in 2020 and 2021 it is the best of PS games like CSGO you can play on the market, I got a combination of two games CSGO and overwatch, you can agree and disagree with this point that's fine, but I feel the The spraying while walking it's kind of over powered in this game press super enjoyable to play with your friends even though you're getting hit shot by a Walking man , I honestly recommend people to play this game but be patient with it to learn the game you need to have patience because the game my piss you off.

I'm going to be drawing some comparisons from CS:GO for this review because that's what this game is trying to be.

This point might have been debunked, I'm honestly not sure, but Riot's Vanguard has full rights to your computer and can do basically anything to it. Vanguard is always running unless you tell it to quit, which will need a restart if you wish to play again. This becomes an issue if a hacker manages to get into Riot's database. Be aware of this before installing incase you have any sensitive files that need to be protected.

Now, how I feel about the gameplay. I think this game has a lot of issues. While it is fairly balanced in it's characters, much more than a game like Overwatch, the game suffers from poor gunplay, movement, and map design. The gunplay is rather clunky because the spray is pretty random and unpredictable, unlike CS:GO where skill determines how well you handle recoil and spray. If you move just a little while using a rifle or an awp even while crouching, the spray is random. Gun damage makes little to no sense. 3 shots from an AK-47 to the body does not kill but one shot to the head from a revolver is an instant kill. Movement is definitely not as snappy as it should be, and bunnyhopping is too easy.

The map design is quite bad. There are so many angles and random spots that someone can be or hold. So simple but so problematic. This way, you can play in a "dumb" manner and be rewarded for this. I feel that CS:GO is better in map design by a lot, at least with maps like Inferno and Mirage.

I would also like to make a point about abilities. Mostly flashbangs. Many of the flashbang abilities in this game are overpowered. You have little to no time to react, and they can be spammed. Sometimes an ultimate from Brimstone or Viper can easily win the match with little to no risk or skill required.

I will say I enjoy this game with friends, otherwise I would not play it at all. I'm not sure how many hours I have as Riot doesn't include that as a feature as far as I know, but I played most in the beta and this review is a product of how I feel now.

I hope that my review is in some ways helpful. This game is not bad but it is not good. It does not accomplish what it is trying to be and therefore gets a 6 from me.

I always liked the look of CSGO and was a fan of overwatch and Destiny 2 So the trailer made this game look like the perfect mix.

Well

Gunplay is Clunky and boring, every gun feels super unreliable, like the winner of a gunfight is usually whoever isn't looking the other way or has better RNG. Absolutely awful movement with a mechanic that slows your movement speed by 70% for getting shot, basically removing all chance of dodging even on the movement characters using abilities its just impossible. Speaking of, most abilities can feel just so weak I have to consider even buying or using them. Many abilities that are meant to be used or do better mid fight often get me killed because I go to use it at the same moment my enemy peeks, while this can be my fault from just poor planning there are countless moments where im just being punished for trying to play the game.

The only map I enjoyed was removed, Skill based matchmaking just doesn't seem to exist as the quality of team mates is never the same. This wouldn't be a huge issue if it was at least consistent across the teams. Its okay for the game to put me in a game where the average skill level is a bit higher or lower than my own for the sake of queue times, but for god's sake make it even on each team so that the game is decided before anyone's even picked a character. I have never before seen a "team game" where teamwork is basically optional to win. You have to hard carry to rank up. I cannot tell you the amount of times I have had to hard carry against players way above me in skill level with a team full of seemingly brand new players who dont even have audio turned on, and yes this is both unrated and competitive.

Maybe I'm being to harsh on a free game, I mean the developers are only the highest grossing company in the world of game developers and they aren't making a great deal of money only, roughly 20-40 million dollars per bundle, which is actually a ridiculous amount- and no wonder, the price for skins is absolutely unbelievable and it shocks how many people still buy them. You can easily buy 5+ far, far, far better games for the cost of the cheapest bundle.