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.
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.