After plenty of leaks over the past few days, today Riot officially announced ‘Valorant', the studio's new 5v5 tactical shooter. The full game is due to launch at some point over the Summer but there will be beta testing first, giving players a chance to try the game out ahead of time. 

Valorant is described as a “free-to-play game of precise skill, high stakes, lethal gameplay and clutch moments”, so Riot is really hammering home the competitive aspect of this. Speaking of which, similarly to Counter-Strike, competitive matches are played out in a attackers vs defenders fashion in a ‘best of 24 rounds' format. You can check out a gameplay preview below:

Riot wants to expand that tactical shooter experience with unique character abilities that complement gunplay, so your characters won't be as bullet-spongy as they are in other hero shooters. The studio has also taken steps to ensure this is one of the best feeling shooters around with a solid netcode base and dedicated servers.

For Valorant, Riot is using 128-tick servers for all players globally and a custom-built netcode solution in an effort to ensure precise hit registration. There is also a custom anti-cheat solution, which will need to be strong as this is a free to play title.

We'll be getting more information on Valorant in the months to come, in addition to full details on beta testing as we approach the Summer 2020 launch window.

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KitGuru Says: Valorant looks pretty good so far but we'll have to wait and see how it plays for ourselves before making any final judgements. What do you all think of Valorant so far? Is this something you'll be trying out this year?

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