you’re not bumbling around with a bunch of beginners.
“What we wanted to introduce is a targeted pace for the
game,” Romleski says. “We didn’t want the first round to
be this crazy explosive moment where tons of agent
abilities are flying out, and we wanted some of the things
that you [buy] in the game to be meaningful. So if you die,
that actually impacts your economy.
“You may have to compromise on your weapon to get
more abilities or vice versa. So we think that just enriches
decision-making when you play, but ultimately it serves as
a pacing mechanism for us where total ability use goes up
as more money is introduced.”
All the character designs follow a clean, athleisure/
streetwearaestheticthatstaysfirmlygroundedcompared
tothelikesofFortniteorApexLegends.Thediversityof
TOP:Standstilland
crouchtokeepyour
aimundercontrol.ABOVE:Bomb:
armed.
RIGHT:Characters’
hitboxesarecarefully
designedtobefair.body is deliberately simple in design so as to draw the eye
upwards, and the colours and shapes of their torsos,
clothing and hair are all tuned to frame the head so that
every character, and every player, is on an even footing.
That may be common practice for FPS designers these
days, but it ties into the common theme everyone at Riot
spoke about when showing off Valorant: fairness. The big
pitch wasn’t that Valorant has bold new ideas, that it’s
going to be flashier or more creative than any other
shooter. The big pitch is that Valorant is going to be fair.
So fair that it bursts into flames if it goes outdoors without
sunscreen. So fair that even the feistiest referee won’t find
any excuse to throw a yellow card. And it’s going to
accomplish that with really, really good netcode, and
top-notch anti-cheat software.the cast I got to see – eight out of at
least ten who should be available at
launch – was great, and Riot’s artists
are clearly talented.
But Valorant has a not-quite-
comfortable combination of urban
cool and real military (including
bland gun models and real weapons
like the AK-47) that ends up
disappointingly restrained.
That aesthetic, like the rest of
Valorant, seems to have gone through
an agonising amount of
consideration. Each character’s lower
THE BIG PITCH IS
THAT VALORANT IS
GOING TO BE FAIR