Video game review: Valorant

A high-pitched male voice said: “The bomb has been defused.” Joyful music follows as a bright victory sign appears on my computer screen.

Yelling and screaming, my friends and I cheered as we had just successfully won an intense match against another team in the PC game Valorant, a free-to-play first-person released by Riot Games on June 2, 2020.

According to Valorant Wiki, the objective of Valorant is to offensively plant the bomb or defuse the bomb. Players take on a role in a team, with each team having five players, and each role has multiple agent characters to choose from.

My favorite role to play is that of the Sentinel, which emphasizes defense. Cypher is my favorite Sentinel agent due to his ability to easily take out enemies. 

I personally like to play the round slowly and take our time as we gather information in order to execute an attack on the opposing team or to play defensive and be patient waiting for the opponent to make a move.

The objective of the offensive side is to plant the bomb. The defensive side must kill the opposing team in order to defuse the bomb spike before the time runs out.

Aside from being an enjoyable game to play with friends, Valorant also allows for opportunities to work with teammates in ways that actually improve teamwork and leadership skills. Since it is a 5-player team game, it is vital to choose different agents with different special abilities to conduct certain strategies to win on offense or defense.

I often play with my basketball teammates, and spending time working together on the video game actually strengthens our bond and ability to work together on the court. 

For instance, my friend who is the main leader in our Valorant team games often directs the rest of us in our gameplay as we work together to defeat opposing teams. When we play, he would notice different patterns of the opposing team and would communicate to us in order to take advantage of the pattern and use it against the opponents.

In the game, we follow his direction and his lead, and when we’re on the basketball court, I’m the team captain and everyone follows my lead. Being able to play in Valorant allows us all to take on different roles than we usually do on the court, which strengthens our rapport and trust in each other, improving our ability to work together on everything. 

A common complaint is that Valorant is a toxic community game. For instance, many people randomly join teams and then try to sabotage the game, trying to make the team they are on lose.

I believe that Valorant has done a great job to prevent toxicity by initiating a penalty time if someone does not play the game or adding the feature to report the player. Teammates who sabotage have not been a problem when I play the game thanks to this feature, making it more enjoyable.

Overall, I highly recommend playing Valorant if you are into team-based first-person shooter combat games. It is a great game to have fun with friends while learning new communication and teamwork strategies.