As we all know the Closed Beta di Valuing has been released for several days now. This is enjoying considerable global success, given that although the game is not available to all users, many streamers have decided to focus on it, obtaining in various cases tens of thousands of views, then considering the keys to access the beta in palio with i Twitch Drops. A real video game that becomes a mass phenomenon, which for the moment is focused only on the PC market.
However, the criticisms of the title are certainly well present, and mainly concerning the gameplay very inspired by other works, a thesis that is brought up by many users. After having explored the play system of the game in our preview, which you can read at the following link, we decided to consider a comparison between three flagship multiplayer shooter titles: Valorant, CS: GO di Valve (o Counterstrike: Global Offensive), and the timeless Overwatch di Blizzard. What are the points of contact between the three works that are compared, if there are any? Let's find out together in the next few lines!
Three shooters, three universes
The main criticisms aimed at Valorant see him as a child born of CS: GO and Overwatch, but if the first comparison could be quite sensible the second is not really verifiable. To Valve's patented formula, Riot Games yes, he added some skills, but this does not mean that the software house was inspired by Overwatch. The Blizzard shooter presents a completely different ecosystem of characters, such as gameplay and extremely frenetic and light-hearted rhythms for some sides, where the weapons end up in the course of the games in the background to the skills with relative frequency, a concept that Valorant has decided not to marry in any way in its new formula.
The comparison between Overwatch and Valorant isn't particularly bright, but the game takes several factors from Counter Strike: Global Offensive.
Instead, it is an innovative idea, which while taking a lot from the past manages to dust off ideas that are now remote, although still functional and in vogue in today's competitive eSports scene. Let's talk about the mechanics made famous by Counter Strike: Global Offensive, who managed with his peculiarities to forge the foundations of the idea of Valorant. We are faced with an audio sector in the same way cared for, as well as a concern for servers and for the parity of players not indifferent. If there is something really similar it is the shooting system, with recoils and pre-set trajectories as well as technical, which have made CS: GO iconic and it seems to be the luck of Valorant too.
It is a system that does not aim for fun and action, but forextreme reasoning and technical movement in every phase of the game, while trying to position yourself in the best areas to be able to shoot before the opponent given the negligible time-to kill. The need to balance one's movement speed in the best possible way - to move quickly in the map - to the noise that one's footsteps cause, irremediably warning all the surrounding enemies of one's presence, also affects a lot. An idea brought to the best in Valorant and not particularly varied, which however manages to be fully refreshed by changes more suited to today's era.
The key to reading Valorant
To update the aforementioned mechanics there are the skills of the various characters, which always make each game different from the previous one, due to the presence of additional enemies and allies who will be able to exploit their peculiarities to get the better of their opponents, unlike what happens in CS: GO. No, the heroes weren't taken from Overwatch, a game from which Riot Games may have drawn inspiration perhaps for the low-poly graphic sector, but it would be more plausible that the idea came from its flagship title still extremely in vogue and supported: League of Legends. Through the specialties of the Agents, each position and weapon becomes more suited to one character than to another, and choosing where to position on the map is no longer a simple preference, but a calculation resulting from the various abilities and possibilities that will make some of the heroes more suitable for specific points on the map than others, who will obviously be able to excel in other areas.
The Riot Games project revisits the mechanics of CS: GO in a modern way, offering a fresher and less conservative experience: on balance a valid alternative
Furthermore, the shooting system remains the main part of the gameplay, given that the skills do not radically affect the results of the games with respect to gunplay and the ability with their own guns of each player. In this regard, the game store has been completely modernized, made more user-friendly for exchanges between players and the sale of newly purchased items on which you change your mind. The maps are much more capacious and these, at least for the moment, cannot be selected before the game starts as it happens in the Valve title. In this way players are led to learn how to get by on all playing fields present and playable homogeneously, without focusing on a single map. However, we do not know if this feature will be upset in the ranked mode, which we hope will not be particularly long in coming, as it will bring new life blood to the game and the possible presence of friendly fire among allies.
The escape from the old guard
On balance it is clear that Valorant is not necessarily better than Counter Strike: Global Offensive, nor the evolution of the same, but simply a valid alternative to the current titles in force. CS: GO does not receive particularly incisive updates, and it is clear that gamers not involved in the competitive scene can change the multiplayer title to focus on. OverwatchInstead, is being slowly abandoned by Blizzard in preparation for Overwatch 2, and the lack of updates has led the community to slowly shift the attention towards the shooter, channeling it towards the new phenomenon of the moment.
Valorant is a media phenomenon, but even if it will start to die out, it certainly doesn't necessarily have to wither.
When everyone has the chance to try Valorant, many will not be comfortable in the new title of Riot Games, after all this excessive popularity is just a media phenomenon that will soon begin to dissolve. By betting everything on the product, however, Riot Games may be able to create a new progenitor of the genre, which still receives excellent interest from the community and can come face to face with the most launched games for some time, becoming a real global success, as it seems to have all the credentials to be!
