While Riot’s upcoming shooter Valorant may be starting out life as a Counter-Strike-like shooter, the studio isn’t ruling out exploring different modes with the game in the future.
Speaking to IGN Nordic, game designer Trevor Rolemski has said that Valorant won’t be constrained by the team-based search-and-destroy format it’s launching with. The development team is “completely open to exploring new modes post-launch,” he says, adding that the plan for now is to put out the strongest game as possible. “We have this experience that we really want to craft and make sure that it is as good as it can be,” he says.
As it stands, when it launches this summer Valorant will be a 5v5 tactical shooter that uses bomb sites, with matches that play out in best-of-25-rounds format. There’s a lot of similarity between it and CS:GO, and given that that’s a long-standing titan of esports and multiplayer gaming in general, it’s smart for Valorant to diversify as it goes on and develop its own niche.
Other potential game modes that Valorant could diverge into are respawn modes like Team Deathmatch or fast-paced objective modes like Capture the Flag, perhaps?
Valorant has already got its first pro in former CS:GO hot-shot Brax, who signed with Korean company T1 as the company’s first major tactical shooter signing.
Riot’s multiplayer shooter has received some strong praise since it was revealed, and will be playable to all come summer 2020.
