Popular Twitch streamer Dr Disrespect is an FPS fanatic, so when Riot announced they were working on a tactical shooter, he was immediately intrigued. However, when Valorant was revealed on March 2, the Doc was less than impressed by what he saw.
Riot elected to reveal the name of the game, previously only known as ‘Project A’, with a two-minute gameplay reveal, showing one complete round of action.
This was a somewhat unorthodox approach, rather than using edited gameplay for a trailer, and it has yielded a mixed response. Fellow streamer shroud believes it possibly made the game look less exciting than it is.
Similarly, Dr Disrespect checked out the gameplay on his stream on March 2, at the request of his viewers, but from his initial reaction, it’s clear to see he had higher expectations for the game.
As he watched the abilities being thrown down, he asked “what the f**k are we watching,” exasperated. As the trailer ended, he took a few moments to gather his thoughts, but the disappointment was clear to see.
“I’m not mad at what I’m seeing, I’m just disappointed,” he explained. “But, again, it’s too early, we’ll see what happens. They’ve been working on it for a long time, I’m sure it’s balanced, I’m sure it feels really good.”
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He also agreed with his viewers that the game was heavily inspired by Counter-Strike. Riot have not been coy about making their intentions clear with targeting CS:GO players, boasting of 128-tick servers and the end of ‘peeker’s advantage’.
“It’s like a composite of other games, nothing new” the Doc read from his chat, “It didn’t blow me away.” Another viewer joked that it looked like a “mobile Overwatch.”
Valorant is set to release in Summer 2020, with a beta of some kind potentially releasing sooner. Riot had planned to host a behind-closed-doors play session for content creators, which Doc would possibly have been invited to, but the event was canceled amid growing concerns around Coronavirus.
It should be noted that the gameplay shown is still in a development stage, and may not represent the exact look and feel of the final product. However, given we’re only months out from launch, the gameplay should give a fairly accurate idea of what to expect.