Riot Games presents their own take on the counter-strike franchise, but notably with agents that have their own abilities. As someone who has like 1.5k hours in CS but had hit a clear wall in skill, this was refreshing and very fun to play.

Gameplay wise, the shooting and aiming is easier as is the economy (which is really just more fun since you don't have to save as often), but the characters and their unique abilities give the game a lot of depth. Characters have smokes, flashes, teleports, healing, etc. I also particularly like the addition of things like teleporters to maps, adding a new level of depth that CS can't.

Because the game is new and built on a newer engine, there are many QOL fixes over CS. The economy is much more user friendly to view, you can sell your guns before the round starts, you can ping, etc. There are some notable misses though: you can't view your own games, and the anticheat is intrusive (though at least it works, which is more than I can say for CSGO matchmaking). They also postponed an update to nerf a broken gun because an esports tournament wasn't over yet, which means they somehow could not get a tournament patch working. And you can't que for specific maps, presumably because Icebox would turn into the Office of Valorant.

Overall, this game was pretty darn fun to unpack compared to CS. There will always be problems since it's an online competitive game (trolls, toxic people, etc) but I had a lot of fun in Valorant as I slowly improved and will likely come back to it to grind. Sometimes you just want to view the more colorful aesthetic of Valorant compared to the duller colours of CS. As a player and an esports fan, it's an exciting game.

Not played an awful lot so far but I think you only need a few games to see what the game is about on a casual level.
I expected it to be really tough as I'm new to KBM gaming but it's actually pretty simple, especially compared to a game like R6:Siege, which I had hundreds of hours in on console and is unplayable for me because the movement and everything is so tricky.
The playable characters all have fun abilities and I can't wait to try them all. The last game I played, I chose Sage, she can throw orbs on the ground which makes a pool that slows the enemies and she can raise Ice walls so you can cut off lines of sight, block off lanes entirely unless the enemy destroys the wall or raise yourself up onto places that can't be reached otherwise, her third ability is a healing orb which can be thrown at teammates or used on herself. It makes each round interesting, deciding how you will use the abilities and you can be really creative with some of the plays you make, which I really like. Each character has an ultimate ability also for extra game changing possibilities.
Probably gets a bit repetitive after a while but these kinda games I enjoy being able to play 1 or 2 games every other day or something.
Pretty nice game for anyone new to KBM who likes tactical FPS games.

i was playing a lot of csgo before, but this game made me switch. the abilities and shields make you think much more with your money, and the abilities add much more unique possibilities to the game.

the problem i have with it is that it's too competitive. games last around 30 minutes, and there are no shorter gametypes, other than the shit random loadout mode.

this game is lots of fun when it comes to gameplay, but i wish it was more welcoming to casual players.

gameplay gets a 3.