At the start of Valorant's beta, over 1.5 million viewers are watching Riot's new multiplayer shooter on Twitch alone. Everyone wants to know: How good is Valorant??
With us in the editorial department, opinions differ, and Phil on the one hand thinks that Valorant will be THE new star in shooter heaven, but on the other hand editor-in-chief Heiko finds that the beta is missing something crucial. Prominent streamers and genre experts also provide even more opinions and criticism. We have summarized the most exciting statements from Shroud, DrDisrespect, Hand of Blood and Co. for you.
Why is Valorant "lighter than CS: GO"?
The comparison between Valorant and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is very obvious simply because of the look of the two titles. Streamers also see the parallels and draw the conclusion: Riots Shooter plays like a light version of CS: GO.
Michael "Shroud" Grzesiek summarizes the reason for this in a livestream. In his opinion, there are more distractions in Counter-Strike, including many objects on the map – Valorant, on the other hand, would hardly have superfluous elements.
This would make players jump in the eye much faster and make it easier to target them. According to Shroud, Valorant's rather minimalistic graphics are more reminiscent of CS 1.6, a predecessor of CS: Source and CS: GO.
However, the developers of Riot Games had declared weeks ago that they intentionally keep their maps simple. This should make their game "easy to learn but difficult to master".
"I thought I was playing a CS: GO mod"
The German Youtuber Hand Of Blood also has an opinion on Valorant. He definitely speaks to the new shooter great potential to become a popular esports title.
Otherwise, Riot's game would make everything too easy and resemble the great model Counter-Strike too much. Hand of Blood even thought he was "playing a CS: GO mod" while playing a tweet.
Valorant will probably become a good e-sports title, or perhaps because of it. CSGO is the undisputed e-sport shooter Titan. With adjustments such as a proper launcher or smart skills (not like in OW), Valorant definitely offers a good alternative.
– Hänno (@HandIOfIBlood) April 5, 2020
Twitch superstar DrDisrespect, who is known for his always very balanced opinion, finds less positive words for Valorant. According to him, the shooter is "difficult to watch." Meanwhile, Riot would have offered DrDisrespect $ 150,000 if he streamed Valorant for it – but he declined and preferred to gamble Destiny 2.
But there is also a lot of praise for Valorant
But far from all prominent streamers see Valorant so critically. Many want to give the shooter at least a chance. Matt "Nadeshot" Haag explains in a talk with Jack "CouRage" Dunlop, for example, that no doubt great similarities between Valorant and CS: GO exist, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing.
After all, Counter-Strike would have been one of the largest video games on the market for almost 20 years, and Valorant would have what it takes to do the same. Purely playfully, one of the biggest differences between the two is that in Valorant you can simply aim with a lot more weapons via ADS, which is a clear advantage over CS: GO.
Since April 7th at 2 p.m., the closed beta for Valorant has also been open to some of you. Have you been able to play a rehearsal yourself? Then write us your opinion to the great shooter hope of Riot Games like in the comments.
