So...does anyone actually care about Valorant?

[Dirty Hipsters]

I've been seeing Valorant content all over youtube. Youtubers seem really excited about it, but every time I see some gameplay it honestly just looks like a CS:GO mod.

It doesn't look like anything new or original, all of the abilities look kind of boring and samey, and none of the characters look like they feel all that distinct.

It really just looks like a Chinese Counter Strike knockoff, and I'm seriously questioning whether anyone would care about this game if it wasn't being made by Riot. If the game looked exactly the same, but was being made by some random developer from eastern Europe would anyone even bat an eye for this thing?

So are people actually excited about this, or is Riot just giving a bunch of youtubers money to play their game and pretend it's the most revolutionary thing ever, like EA did with Apex Legends?

Is anyone here excited? If so why? What makes this better than the myriad of other competitive shooters on the market?

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I'm not a fan of Counter-Strike (not since my Source days) and I'm not a fan of Paladins, so Valorant is basically "two meh tastes that taste meh together" in my book. And all of Riot's assurances that their ring-0 rootkit is totally trustworthy and they'd know within hours if it had been compromised are absolutely hollow to me, since it sounds exactly like what Tencent wants them to say.

And to be fair, while I'm not a fan of Apex or BR games in general, Apex did make some pretty innovative strides in streamlining that genre's experience.

 

[sXeth]

Youtube flavor of the month/week, probably. And likely backed up by some level of sponsorship money. I believe the previous one was Escape from TArkov, and there's a long history of similar flashes in the proverbial pan.


Apex (while I'm not being too disposed to the RNG dictates your odds of ever succeeding BR mechanic), did have a basic, but well executed composition to it. Take elements from two popular thigns (PUBG and Overwatch), combine into one thing, let developer who have proven competence at such things execute the thing. Thats really a pretty obvious route to success (also having the budget and/or creativity to carve out some sort of style, vs PUBG looking like it was made out generic eastern europe war sim asset store).

 

[Zeraki]

This is my first time hearing about it so I can't say I'm excited... hang on let me look up some gameplay.

...

Meh, it's definitely not up my alley as far as interest goes.

 

[Dalisclock]

Kinda reminds me of when I kept seeing Ads for ARC KNIGHTS all the time on you tube. Apparently it's a pay to win Tower Defense game with furries, so not something I was really interested in.

 

[BrawlMan]

No, first I heard of it. And sounds less interesting from what you described.

 

[laggyteabag]

Not really, but then again, I don't really like Counter-Strike.

It looks well made, but also bland as all hell.

I guess we will wait and see if it does take off, or if it just ends up as another "flavour of the week" kind of thing - but I imagine that it will retain at least some following for a while, because people like the kind of game that it is.

 

[Elfgore]

Well, from the gameplay I just watched, it looks really low quality. Those animations are rough and aren't nearly as smooth as a game with cartoon graphics should have.

 

[Chimpzy]

Not really. It's Counter-Strike + MOBA. I haven't been into the former for years and I've never cared about the latter. 0 + 0 = 0

 

[Yoshi]

never played Counter Strike and never plan to. so i don't really care about whatever the hell this is.

 

[Adam Jensen]

Nope. The problem with these types of games is that they're always trying to dethrone a title or two by appealing to the audiences of those games, without realizing what makes those games good in the first place. And Valorant looks like a pathetic combination of Counter Strike and Overwatch or Paladin, in a sad attempt to steal their audiences by providing something that is similar to both by being less original. It's honestly disgusting.

 

[Zeraki]

Nope. The problem with these types of games is that they're always trying to dethrone a title or two by appealing to the audiences of those games, without realizing what makes those games good in the first place. And Valorant looks like a pathetic combination of Counter Strike and Overwatch or Paladin, in a sad attempt to steal their audiences by providing something that is similar to both by being less original. It's honestly disgusting.

That's my exact problem with games like this.

Their sole purpose is to be a game to "kill" another game.
Instead of making a game that is actually unique and fun, we just get more of the same.

 

[Dalisclock]

That's my exact problem with games like this.

Their sole purpose is to be a game to "kill" another game.
Instead of making a game that is actually unique and fun, we just get more of the same.

It's basically the WOW thing from years back. All those MMOs which wanted to make a fraction of that WOW money....that now fill MMO graveyards. It doesn't stop, just changes genres every few years.

Literally my favorite take on this.

Experienced Points: We’re Going to be Rich! - Twenty Sided

www.shamusyoung.com

 

[Elfgore]

Literally my favorite take on this.

Experienced Points: We’re Going to be Rich! - Twenty Sided

www.shamusyoung.com

Well that was just amazing. Trend chasers rarely do well, you think people would have realized this by now.

 

[Dalisclock]

Well that was just amazing. Trend chasers rarely do well, you think people would have realized this by now.

I think the dollar signs tend to blind them. Until they're looking at a sea of red ink, that is.

If you're chasing a trend and trying to do the same thing the trendsetter did in response, you're already 2 steps behind, because you don't look like you have anything useful to contribute besides imitation. Take notes, improve on what they did and then make it different.

But people would rather play it "Safe", and almost inevitably being forgotten in the long run.

 

[PsychicTaco115]

"The X Killer" will always be long-forgotten because it's already using the thing they're trying to kill to market itself...

Hail to the King

 

[EvilRoy]

Its absolutely a CS mod. Now, that's not terrible - CS was a halflife mod and it made itself into a hell of a thing, but throwing down on a champ like CS:GO is the Mohammad Ali/Mike Tyson problem. You MIGHT win. Or you might end up with water on the brain for the rest of your life. The one on top is there for a reason, and they don't take kindly to people thinking they'll just waltz in and win.

It practically set the OW and Paladins forums on fire, but that's already died down. Streaming numbers are good, but there's a difference between a game that's fun to watch and a game that's fun to play. Valorant is mildly interesting in that its made by a big company with big money, but it looks like warm trash. It makes me think that this has more to do with drawing in high profiles and making money on advertising rather than actually selling gangbusters. I doubt that its going to unseat the other standby's this way, but it could turn into a decent long term ATM.

I think the dollar signs tend to blind them. Until they're looking at a sea of red ink, that is.

If you're chasing a trend and trying to do the same thing the trendsetter did in response, you're already 2 steps behind, because you don't look like you have anything useful to contribute besides imitation. Take notes, improve on what they did and then make it different.

But people would rather play it "Safe", and almost inevitably being forgotten in the long run.

Assuming this game is intended to sell to players as a simple moneygrab rather than pulling twitch numbers, I actually think its a really smart play. The game looks like crap. And it was based off of two or three other games so there wasn't a pile of brain power used in producing it either. Most of the abilities are the same or similar to eachother, and its all cooked up off of a really tried and true formula.

This all translates to low investment with high potential returns. Jump onto the scene, make two million bucks for the cost of half a million and run. You won't set the world on fire, but you will walk away with a tidy profit. There are cinema groups that do exactly this - pump out 5 million dollar movies one after another, make a 100 million hit every five to ten moves and you're good for another five plus profit. Its not about winning the gold medal, its about consistently taking the bronze and pocketing the prize money.

Where these things fail hard is when the come in with oceans of money right out the gate, spend it all, and then can't keep it rolling. Those guys don't make a dime and they can't afford to take a second try.

 

[Dalisclock]

Assuming this game is intended to sell to players as a simple moneygrab rather than pulling twitch numbers, I actually think its a really smart play. The game looks like crap. And it was based off of two or three other games so there wasn't a pile of brain power used in producing it either. Most of the abilities are the same or similar to eachother, and its all cooked up off of a really tried and true formula.

This all translates to low investment with high potential returns. Jump onto the scene, make two million bucks for the cost of half a million and run. You won't set the world on fire, but you will walk away with a tidy profit. There are cinema groups that do exactly this - pump out 5 million dollar movies one after another, make a 100 million hit every five to ten moves and you're good for another five plus profit. Its not about winning the gold medal, its about consistently taking the bronze and pocketing the prize money.

Where these things fail hard is when the come in with oceans of money right out the gate, spend it all, and then can't keep it rolling. Those guys don't make a dime and they can't afford to take a second try.

I didn't think about it that way, and I can see how that could work. It's okay if you get 4 flops if the 5th is a hit. Which could be good if it also encourages creativity in the medium(which it probably won't but we can hope)

 

[Kuplung]

It is Riots' take on the fps genre, as Yahtzee would put it:

They certainly approached the subject with enthusiasm.

It doesn't offer anything new to me. Plus comes with the super-duper anti-hack kernel root which was proven to be useless in just 2 weeks.
Go play Apex/ warzone, whatever, let the Chinese Government out of your life.

 

[DeliveryGodNoah]

It seems like a lot of the youtube channels that did Overwatch content are trying to hop aboard the Valorant train, I guess because it apparently contains elements of OW, while being much less colorful and interesting.

As someone who still plays Overwatch almost daily, I can't say I'm interested. If I wanted something like Overwatch, I'll just keep playing Overwatch? The game's not so dead that I can't find matches, so there's no reason for me to leave at all.

As for the Counter-Strike aspects? I'd rather never subject myself to anything related to or similar to Counter-Strike ever again in my life.