no sauce no movement unseasoned chicken content game

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I will go into detail for the uninitiated: those words accurately describe Valorant.

This game has no "sauce" in that it lacks anything to make it stand out from other games. It takes the general movement and gunplay of Counterstrike, but makes it glacially slow. It takes the heroes of Overwatch and gives them piddly, diet abilities that mean there isn't much distinguishing one hero from the next.

Valorant has no movement because your run speed is not only abysmal, but your jump sucks and shift walking is maddeningly slow too. In addition, the game heavily discourages running by making half the map hear you when you do so.

Valorant is unseasoned chicken because it has no soul. None of the characters have a lick of personality, which reflects this game's hardcore fanbase. Some of the characters look like a randomized Sims 3 citizen. The maps are painfully bland. Does this game even have music? I forgot.

And finally, Valorant is a content game because it has no artistic merit. At least Overwatch tries to have distinct heroes with some level of personality, backstory, etc. Not only that, but Overwatch shows artistry in the game design. So does Counter Strike, though it may be less obvious. Valorant is basically Riot saying "Wow, counterstrike and Overwatch are popular, let's do the same thing but worse!"

As an additional note, the community is atrocious. Genuinely. I was playing with this discord mod of a large server (he insisted on joining me and some friends...) and the guy was just a total moron. He was in his 30's and constantly calling everyone a cunt and a bitch. He kept telling me to change to a different weapon because my choice wasn't "optimal." Why are weird transphobic manchildren attracted to mind numbing mid? I'll let you be the judge of that.

I don't understand the somewhat universal hatred of this game. 5 stars it is not, but 1 star? No way.

I always like to say this game is a cross between overwatch and CS:GO. It has the heros/abilities of Overwatch with the tactical shooter elements from CS.

The game plays well, I'm yet to experience a game breaking bug or glitch after a good chunk of hours. I enjoy the simplified economy of simply save one round, full buy the next. It's a welcome change from doing the mental maths needed to work out a good buy in CS.

Ranked (at-least at my level) is balanced and feels competitive. The same cannot be said for casual which often ends in these blow out games of people getting absolutely wrecked.

The worst part of this game is easily the community. Playing this has never got me so racially abused in my life. People throwing tantrums because you locked in their character, people griefing because you've gone 1 round down.

The list is endless. I would be doing a disservice if I also didn't mention that this community (more so than other gaming communities) is incredibly sexist and misogynistic. I'm not surprised women tend to not open their mics up.

Monetisation is egregious. Skins are just so convoluted in their pricing that by the time you've spent £20 on a single skin it will be too late to realise.

Agents are cool, and balance is relatively good. There is a big disparity between perceived balance and the actuality of the situation. See Reyna as an example of this.

Lastly, you might as well become a controller main, you'll just be spending all your time with instalock duelists who don't know how to entry, initiators who team flash and a sentinel who doesn't watch flanks. If you want to have some semblance of control/ order you'll need smokes to dictate the game.

Overall, a decent tactical shooter deserving of a play.