Looks like the cat has been officially released from the bag. Valorant, the CSGO-like multiplayer FPS that was hitherto known as Project A, has been officially unveiled with some new details shared by the devs.
Information available now confirms Valorant as a 5v5 competitive FPS with gameplay beats similar to CSGO in that one team has a bomb (here called a Spike) and the other plays defense. Attackers must plant the Spike and defend it while it explodes, while defenders have to wait out the clock.
The bigger wrinkle that Valorant has is the character aspect, with characters having their own unique single-use abilities that do things like create smoke screens, blind other players, revive and heal allies, or even scout an area. Before each round, players can buy both new weapons (unless they didn’t die, in which case their loadout carries over) as well as abilities. Time-to-kill in the game is described as fast, with most targets able to be taken out by a well-placed headshot with the right weapon. The entire thing reads like a mixture of CSGO and Overwatch. All of this effectively confirms a number of leaks that dropped in February.
Valorant will be a free-to-play game when it releases, with monetization focused on gun skins that players can purchase directly or in packs. There will not be any lootboxes in the game, and there are no plans for character skins for the time being. A closed beta is planned for sometime in the future, while full launch is expected at some point in the summer of 2020. There’s some gameplay footage available below, as well as a number of leaked screenshots that accidentally were unveiled by IGN.
IGN has just accidentally revealed several screenshots from Riot's shooter Valorant (Project Ares) including several of the characters and maps for what looks like to be an embargoed hands-on play test by journalistshttps://t.co/IBoIgcgYSG pic.twitter.com/zh6xZFXhEZ
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) March 1, 2020
