Valorant is coming to console, and it feels shockingly good to play

Riot Video games has formally introduced that Valorant is coming to consoles. The announcement of the Xbox Sequence X and PlayStation 5 variations of the tactical shooter got here through the Summer time Sport Fest present on Friday, however gamerjive had an opportunity to take a look at the sport early and speak to its builders about the way it interprets to the brand new platforms.

Bringing Valorant to consoles was a no brainer for Riot, in response to its builders. In any case, within the studio’s opinion, the concept of an viewers that desires a posh tactical sport isn’t distinctive to PC. These sorts of gamers exist on consoles; they only haven’t actually had a sport that matches that area of interest.

“We’re working from the idea that aggressive gamers are aggressive gamers regardless of which platform they select to play,” Arnar Gylfason, Valorant’s manufacturing director, informed gamerjive. “It’s a little bit of a leap of religion… to take this hardcore aggressive tactical shooter to a platform that doesn’t have the identical background and historical past of tactical shooters as PC.”

Picture: Riot Video games

However even when the viewers is there, Riot’s larger problem was ensuring it bought the gameplay proper when translating it from PC to console.

“The guiding mild was at all times that the sport has to really feel good to play on consoles for us to need to make it,” Gylfason stated. “That was at all times true. When the sport didn’t really feel proper or wasn’t enjoyable to play, we had been like, We both want to resolve this or not [make] it.”

The primary large hurdle was determining the right way to translate Valorant’s methodical capturing to a controller. Exact gunplay is the secret for Valorant’s PC model, so the console model wanted to match it with out the advantage of a keyboard and mouse to make that precision simpler. Riot’s reply to that is one thing referred to as Focus Mode, which lets gamers enter a unique, lower-sensitivity mode once they pull L2 or the left set off.

Picture: The Sport Awards/Twitch

In accordance with Gylfason, this mode serves two functions for Riot. It permits for the form of precision that Valorant’s fast gunfights necessitate, permitting gamers to flick their analog stick towards targets in a snap earlier than tapping the set off to finesse their reticles to the goal’s head. It additionally lets Riot hold the acquainted “left set off then proper set off” mechanism frequent in console shooters — the identical one which Name of Responsibility helped set up almost twenty years in the past.

All of this results in an expertise that, in my time taking part in, feels essentially and unmistakably like Valorant. It’s nonetheless a tactical shooter, it’s nonetheless slow-paced and cautious, and virtually no modifications have been made to the core gameplay to maneuver it over to consoles. Gunfights are additionally nonetheless extraordinarily fast and demanding, rewarding headshots above every little thing. And the Focus Mode, blended with some very mild goal help, makes getting these headshots really feel as clean and gratifying because it does on the PC unique, if rather less exact.

Picture: Riot Video games

“It really wanted to really feel like Valorant with a unique enter mechanism,” Gylfason stated in a presentation to journalists and content material creators forward of the console model’s reveal. “We by no means need gamers to really feel like second-class residents simply based mostly on what platform they select to play on.”

However simply because Riot’s trying to faucet into the console viewers with this model of the sport doesn’t imply that PC gamers can’t dip their toes into Xbox and PlayStation now and again. As a part of the console model’s preliminary announcement, Riot additionally made it clear that each one progress and cosmetics will switch between gamers’ accounts on any platform, so that you received’t must rebuy skins regardless of the place you’re taking part in.

The one factor that received’t switch is your aggressive rank, which will likely be separate for PC and consoles. That is largely attributable to the truth that Riot is not going to offer crossplay between PC and console for Valorant — although Xbox and PlayStation gamers will have the ability to play collectively. Whereas aiming on consoles feels nice, it doesn’t match the velocity and precision of a mouse and keyboard, which is probably going why Riot’s maintaining these rankings separate.

Valorant’s console variations will likely be playable in a restricted beta that begins on June 14 on each Xbox Sequence X and PlayStation 5, however the developer hasn’t revealed a full launch date for the sport simply but.