Valorant: Why You Should be Excited About the New FPS from Riot Games

Agents

Riot revealed the abilities of eight Agents, who will each have four abilities: two basic, one signature, and one ultimate. From Polygon’s breakdown, it looks like most of the signature abilities are those zone-control ones that we discussed previously, while signature abilities tend to be high-impact fighting abilities and ultimates tend to be abilities that make your character unique.

One other unique quirk is how you get those abilities. Ultimates work like Overwatch abilities, where you charge them by getting kills across multiple rounds. But while the signature ability is granted for free at the start of every round, the other two basic abilities need to be purchased just like you would purchase guns or equipment in CS:GO.

Here’s a very brief list of all the Agents Riot Games revealed:

• Pheonix: a fire-thrower who can drop a flame wall, throw fireballs, and respawn himself if he dies during a round.
• Jett: a nimble and agile fighter who can throw down fog, dash around fights quickly, and fire daggers that can kill instantly.
• Viper: a chemical specialist who can throw pools of acid, poison clouds, and drop one cloud area that lets him see enemies within the fog.
• Sova: the scouting Agent who can fire a shock bolt, has two recon drones, and mark enemies with her ultimate that does heavy damage.
• Cypher: also heavily scouting-based, but whereas Sova marks enemies for her team, Cypher drops traps like tripwire, a spycam, and a remote cage to trap enemies.
• Brimstone: a fighter with an orbital arsenal that he can use to buff up his team, drop smokescreens, and launch an orbital strike.
• Sage: a healer who can also create slowing fields and walls to block off enemies and revive fallen allies.
• Omen: a lone-wolf who hunts in the shadows, dropping obscuring abilities and teleporting around the map.

Gunplay is King

From those who have been lucky enough to get their hands on Valorant, there has been nothing but praise for the gunplay. The time-to-kill is apparently quite low, even while players may have healing abilities there are no high-health tanks. Each Agent also has identical health and hitboxes, so there is equal opportunity for each side.

On the plus side, while those Agent abilities can be important, those who have played Valorant say it won’t decide the round. The gunplay is still the most important part of the game and having good abilities will not help you if you’re not precise with your shots.

Combined with a low time-to-kill this means that rounds should feel much closer to the pace of CS:GO than Overwatch, with players needing to be very deliberate and precise with their actions. You’re not going to be able to go full Leroy Jenkins and climb very high on the ladder, from the sound of things.