One Month Into Valorant and Players are Not Impressed
We looked at the reception of Valorant a month after its release. User reviews are polarized, and the average player rating doesn't give Riot Games reasons to be satisfied.
Today marks a month since the release of the full version of Valorant, the online FPS from Riot Games, the studio known from League of Legends. This is a good time to take a look at the game's reception in the community.
On Metacritic Valorant has an average user rating of 5.4/10. Interestingly, opinions about the game seem to be very polarized. At the time of writing this news, positive reviews were given by 1144 people and negative reviews by 1085. Only 224 considered the title as average. It can be seen that the latest work of Riot Games raises extreme emotions.
Examples of positive user reviews
"Valorant is one of the best games I've played in a while. It's plenty fun (more so with 4 friends), while preserving the competitive edge of CS. During my time of playing I've encountered no bugs. I've seen a lot of people complaining about the graphics but I actually like the look of it. The world is simple yet detailed. Most of the agents are very viable but some balancing is needed. The weapons, while all decent, kind of lack identity and look pretty similar (mainly the Phantom and Vandal). Some other mechanics also need work but other than all of this, Valorant is a good addition to the competitive FPS genre," writes Skelemont and gives the game 8/10.
"I don't understand the hate. This game isn't perfect but it's a good game. It's not CS:GO. It's not Overwatch. Some issues but overall I like it and that's from someone that hates Riot," writes OfficialYung in 8/10 review.
"Valorant has dethroned CS:GO as the best esport and shooter. (...) Valorant's gun-play mechanics are easy to pick up for people new to the genre and there is an agent that fits everybody's playstyle. A lot of people feel the game doesn't have enough content (4 maps, 11 agents) which is true, but Riot is constantly adding new characters and maps to the game. Valorant has some charm about it that can't be explained that makes it feel like a fresh experience even though its really just a combination of multiple formulas. This game has been review bombed, so please don't take the user score seriously," writes Denvers and gives 10/10.
Examples of negative user reviews
"Piece of crap I feel like I'm playing a cheap clone of Overwatch and CS:GO. The game is so slow and you don't feel the weapon at all. Gameplay is boring," writes Yahel84 and rates 0/10.
"As a CS:GO player with more than 3000 hours on the game that grew tired of the broken state of CS:GO, I was excited for Valorant because it was offering a cheater free experience. Sadly, Valorant is absolute garbage and it made me miss getting spin botted on CS:GO," writes moondog255 and gives 0/10.
"3/10. I feel empty when playing it. Stupid map design, unbalance weapon, broken character skills and hitboxes," writes Mightyrex rating the game at 3/10.
As you can see, the reception of the game is very mixed. The industry media reviews are more balanced, with an average rating of 81%. Our editor gave the game 8/10.
It is worth noting, however, that despite such mixed opinions Valorant is still very popular. This is best illustrated by Twitch data. At the time of writing this news, 65 thousand people followed streams from the game. Only two giants in the form of League of Legends (157,000 viewers) and Fortnite (91,000) are ahead of it.
Valorant is available only on PC. The project uses freemium model.
