Riot Games’ upcoming first-person shooter is Valorant

Riot Games has parted the curtain shrouding Project A, its upcoming first-person shooter. Named Valorant, we get a bunch of new information and gameplay videos too.

Valorant is a free-to-play, character-based, first-person-shooter that’s reminiscent of CS:GO and Overwatch. The 5v5 shooter features agents with unique abilities and will have players compete in best-of-24-round matches in attacker vs. defender games. Gunplay is still the name of the game, though, with players reasonably easy to kill if you can get in the hits. In most cases, headshots will also down players in one hit.

The game was first introduced during League of Legend’s 10th anniversary and garnered a lot of interest. Here’s what we know so far:

PC only

It comes as no surprise that Valorant is a PC game, but Riot has taken an interest in releasing all its other games across multiple platforms. Therefore, the upcoming shooter could get similar treatment further down the line.

System specifications

Like any other good free-to-play game, Valorant is optimized for varying PC configurations. This will ensure that players with different hardware setups will all be able to join in the fun.

Minimum specifications (30fps)

• CPU: Intel i3-370M  
• GPU: Intel HD 3000  
• Windows 7/8/10 64-bit   
• 4GB RAM   
• 1GB of VRAM

Recommended specifications (60fps) 

• CPU: Intel i3-4150  
• GPU: Geforce GT 730  
• Windows 7/8/10 64-bit   
• 4GB RAM   
• 1GB of VRAM

High-end specifications (144+fps)  

• CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz  
• GPU: GTX 1050 Ti  
• Windows 7/8/10 64-bit   
• 4GB RAM   
• 1GB of VRAM

Free-to-play

Like its other popular games, League of Legends, Legends of Runeterra, and Teamfight Tactics, Riot Games has opted to make Valorant a free-to-play game. With the game’s level of production, microtransactions will likely feature heavily in Riot’s business model. However, the company has a long history of doing it right, so these purchasable items will probably be for cosmetic purposes only.

High tickrate servers

Riot Games isn’t pulling any punches as Valorant has a dedicated 128-tick server, which is less common with shooters and more often used for LANs and tournament servers. There will also be a series of global data centers that will allow Riot to maintain no less than 35ms ping in many major cities across the world. In a game that requires accuracy and sharp reflexes, this is a godsend.

Anti-cheat

Competitive online games are often the target of hackers on PC, which is why Riot will be using its new cheat detection tool, Vanguard, with Valorant. The anti-cheat tool has an ever-evolving system that will end games compromised by hackers and ban the perpetrators. There’s also the League of Legend anti-tamper system, which will add another layer of security for its players.

There are a lot of good things to look forward to in Valorant, and Riot Games has a reputation for delivering on its promises. No specific release date was shared, but it’s believed that Valorant could arrive sometime in Summer 2020, while beta testing should commence within the next couple of months.