Valorant is available in open beta today on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, ahead of the full launch on consoles, which will also see some perks reserved for Game Pass subscribers, who will be able to access the full set of characters right away.
For those who aren’t familiar, Valorant represents Riot Games’ commitment to competitive shooters, and it immediately managed to gain considerable attention on PC, becoming one of the most played titles daily on Steam, collecting the legacy of games like Counter-Strike but offering a very particular interpretation.
Each character has a strong characterization, both from a graphic point of view and in terms of fighting style: each has their own background and specific skills and specializations, which also lead to the use of different weapons and therefore to different approaches in battle.
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A very particular shooter
The peculiarity of Valorant is therefore that of offering various strategic and tactical elements to combat, despite the decidedly fast pace of the clashes.
Considering the differences between the agents, the game also takes a bit from hero shooters, even if the gameplay is generally different.
In bringing Valorant to consoles, as reported by the developers, Riot has done a great job of adapting the gameplay style and control system, which has led to a transformation of some mechanics to make them work better with a controller rather than the traditional mouse and keyboard.
These changes are most notably condensed into Focus mode, which works similarly to Hip-Fire on PC but with a reduced sensitivity, more suited to controller use. This allows players to fire from the hip at any time, while still allowing for maximum movement speed.
Cross-play will also only be active between consoles at least in this first phase, precisely to avoid any imbalances between the two communities, however the progression can be shared between all platforms, even when moving from PC to console and vice versa.
