Riot Games' newest titleValoranthas proven to be incredibly popular, leading to everything from Beta Key abuse toOverwatchpros abandoning Blizzard’s titlefor it. It’s currently in closed beta, releasing summer 2020, but has amassed a ton of new followers nonetheless.Valorantcurrently sits on top of Twitch’s directory, and it doesn’t appear to be going anywhere soon.
What’s perhaps the most surprising aboutValorant’s popularity is its roots in a dying genre. That may seem strange at first, but its differences in gameplay from its most closely related shooters make it clear thatValorantis a definitive Tactical Shooter. This particular genre has been on the decline for years.
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The Death of the Tactical Shooter - Ghost Recon Breakpoint
Perhaps the most recent game in memory to adapt the moniker “Tactical Shooter” wasGhost Recon Breakpoint; in fact, many games in theTom Clancy’s franchise did for quite some time. For definition, Tactical Shooters are either first-person or third-person shooters that require players to plan ahead, assess the tactical situation, make decisions, and overall simulate a “mostly” realistic militant situation, where one wrong move can end up in restarting. This may remind many players of older games in the franchise, but in that is the problem: how many tactical shooters have actually released lately?
The tactical shooter genre, features associated with its identity, started releasing about as early as video games themselves did.SEAL Team, Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, Delta Force, Half-Life: Counterstrike(a mod), and more helped set it up in the early 2000s or so. Following that, the mid-to-late 2000s saw video games move away from tactical realism action-based, bullet-sponge gameplay in the likes ofBattlefield, Call of Duty, and even the likes ofRainbow SixandGhost Reconmoved away from this.
Since 2010, one can say that it has been a the core of root philosophies seen in the likes ofRainbow Six SiegeandBattlefield 5, but while it does have a solid cult following, the tactical shooter genre is a shadow of its former self. This is especially true with the rise of new genres like theLooter Shooter, and perhaps the biggest reason for the aforementionedGhost Recon Breakpoint’s identity issues.
PlayingBreakpointis like genre whiplash: at times, the tactical situation matters but it quickly boils down into more action-oriented gameplay. As we wrote in ourGhost Recon Breakpointreview, “It can seem like a Looter Shooter at times but fails to capture what makes Looter Shooters great. It can seem like a heavily-story focused RPG at times but drops the ball on delivering either a story or good, consistent RPG elements. It is a Tactical Shooter at its heart, but that seems like somethingBreakpointis actually unfamiliar with in the end.” And for the most part, this isn’tBreakpoint’s fault genuinely, but the changing times in which it tried to do too much with not enough.
Valorant: Taking Tactical Shooters Forward by Going Back?
In many ways,Valorantsucceeds whereGhost Recon Breakpointdropped the ball. Valorant has no identity issues, it’s not an RPG, it’s not a looter shooter, and it is simply a Tactical Shooter. It does have some unique features like hero abilities, somethingakin toOverwatchandApex Legends, but in both those games, it’s about variety in gameplay. Playing as Gibraltar is one thing, whereas playing as Octane is completely different. Many are excited about Loba joining the game, simply because she fills a niche that has gone unfulfilled.
InValorant,however, it’s less about variety and more about tactical situations. Players can spam abilities, play their role, etc. in other ability-oriented shooter games, butValorantdoes so in a way that requires players to stop, think, and assess - the key elements of a tactical shooter. Understanding the character’s abilities such as when to pop Phoenix’s abilities orplace a spycam as Cypher, proper placement when defending, and predicting where the enemy will come from, in what force, and how to respond are all key elements ofValorant.
Valorantis a tactical shooter, with just a little more and no less. It seems like the most direct adaptation of the formula in quite some time. Sure, because it is not as beef-ed up and action oriented asCall of Duty, it may put someplayers to sleep like Dr. DisRespect. But for those who enjoy the older tactical shooters,Valorantputs the tactical back into the genre.
