While many projects and events of the esports community are getting cancelled or postponed, Riot Games’ Valorant seems to be on target for its Summer 2020 release date. So much so, that a developer of the curious title has taken to social media to discuss details with regards to which ‘agents’ will be available to players right off the bat at launch. The following details were all taken from the mouth of executive producer Anna Donion in an exclusive interview with IGN.
Agents are the various avatars or ‘heroes’ for those more familiar with Overwatch, which will form part of the upcoming tactical shooter of Valorant – each one offering their own traits, unique passive and active abilities all topped up with some exciting “ultimates”. Up until now, thanks to the revealed gameplay. a total of eight agents have been officially showcased: with names such as Cypher, Viper, Omen and Phoenix. While they all have the same basic configurations in health, movement speed and size, each one allows for a unique approach to a situation.
“Of the ten or so agents available at Valorant’s launch, five will be fully unlocked out of the gate. From there, players can unlock additional characters”. – Executive Producer of Valorant, Anna Donion
Is it pay-to-win? Are the agents balanced and easily achievable? These are a few questions a modern gamer would rightfully ask. Riot’s response to the notion of ‘unlocking’ is as follows:
“Players will have the option of earning in-game content through playing and engaging with the game, or they can choose to purchase desired content as a shortcut” – Riot
If Valorant will be anything like other ‘hero/agent’ style titles such as Apex Legends or Overwatch, it will probably offer players the chance to grind out and climb up battle pass tiers: of course, optionally bypassing the work through some in-game money. What’s got me curious is the ten ‘or so’ comment, which does leave the gate open for a number larger than 10 – I would easily believe that following launch day, new agents would be incrementally revealed and provided to the community to keep things spicy.
Check out the full interview here: https://uk.ign.com/articles/valorant-will-launch-with-5-unlocked-characters-and-5-more-to-earn
