When Riot Games first announced Valorant in October of 2019, it was clear that the game was meant to be Riot’s response to Overwatch.
Similar to Blizzard’s latest hit, Valorant is an objective-based first person shooter with a variety of playable heroes, each with their own unique abilities. However, as more details were released, the gameplay turned out to more closely resemble Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, meaning that the game ultimately lands somewhere in between the two. Naturally, fans began to wonder how it will stack up against those and other competitors. According to professional streamer Pokimane, Valorant may very well end up becoming an “Overwatch killer.”
This opinion was expressed in the latest episode of the Offline TV podcast, which Pokimane hosts alongside her fellow streamers/housemates that make up the Offline TV group. In the episode, Pokimane and co. were discussing the viability of Valorant to be enjoyable by casual fans—a mark of its viability as a title with long term potential, rather than one that appeals solely to hardcore gamers.
Co-host Scarra pointed out that casual players may indeed have an easier time playing Valorant than other, similar games due to the ability of one skilled player to carry the rest of their team. Where Valorant most closely resembles CS:GO is in its quick kills, meaning that an elimination resulting from a single well-aimed shot is common. Therefore it’s possible that a single player could face off against the entirety of an enemy team and have a chance at winning.
Overwatch, meanwhile, is contingent on coordinated team play. Losing even one team member most often results in any team members who don’t immediately retreat being eliminated too.
For both this reason and a decline in the popularity of Overwatch in general, Pokimane explained, Valorant could very well take players away from the Blizzard shooter’s base. Scarra too agreed, believing Overwatch to already be, more-or-less, on its deathbed. Whether or not Valorant rises to the occasion and takes the team-based shooter community by storm will become clearer once its released in the Summer of 2020.
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