Valorant: Release date, characters and closed beta info for Riot Games’ upcoming FPS

Formerly known as Project A, upcoming title Valorant is the latest team-based first-person shooter from Riot Games, the world-renowned developers of League of Legends. This is one of many projects they have in store and it’s not long until the game is released.

Valorant is Riot Games’ answer to competitive hero shooters, as if CS:GO and Overwatch had a baby. It pits two teams of 5 against each other to win round-based attack vs defence battle in a best of 24 rounds.

Players get to choose from a cast of battle-ready agents each with a unique set of abilities. Characters will have four abilities and one signature ability. You will have one of the skills to use at the start and the others will need acquiring between rounds or charging them up by getting kills.

Abilities will help players to create a tactical advantage for their team during the rounds. From the trailer, it appears some of the abilities include things like smoke screens, visions though the smoke and what looks to be a poison status.

“Throughout Valorant’s development, we wanted to uphold the fundamental values of a competitive tactical shooter: precise shooting, lethal gunplay, and strategic execution,” said the game’s Executive Producer, Anna Donlon.

“By adding unique character abilities that complement the game’s gunplay we believe we’re expanding upon the traditional tac shooter experience and bringing something new to the genre – and we hope the launch of Valorant will be the start of a long-term relationship with tactical FPS fans from around the world.”

From the sounds of it, Valorant is intended to have a major long term plan, and opens up another avenue of esports for Riot to expand into. With the global success of League of Legends, they already have the platform and following to hold some of the worlds biggest esports events.

Riot also state that the “agents are based on real-world cultures and locations”, so it will be interesting to see if they have any back story or short films like Overwatch’s characters, something that could potentially lead to in-game events or another game altogether. We shall have to wait and see.

How can you play?

The game is set to release in Summer of 2020 with no specific date as of yet.

A closed beta has been confirmed for April 7, 2020, in Canada, Europe, Russia, Turkey, and the United States. This early trial will be limited to players in Europe, Canada, Russia, Turkey, and the United States – with the possibility of a later roll out to more regions, pending developments with the current COVID-19 pandemic.

To be eligible for entitlement to the beta, players in Canada, Europe, Russia, Turkey, and the United States should follow the steps below:

1) If you don’t already have a Riot account, you can register one on the Riot website

2) Link your Riot account to a Twitch account. You can create a Twitch account here if you don’t have one.

3) When the closed beta activates in your region (EU and NA for now), watch specific Valorant streams highlighted on Twitch for the opportunity to be entitled to closed beta access.

Characters

Jett is the latest character to be announced, and is described as an agile and elusive character that can run circles round any opponent to take them down before they know what happened.

The abilities Jett possesses are as follows:

Cloudburst – Jett throws out a cloud of fog that will obscure vision on impact. You can hold it down to bend the clouds in-flight trajectory

Updraft – A brief gust of wind to propel yourself upwards either into a tactical position or out of danger

Tailwind – Jett dashes a short distance in the current direction of movement.

Bladestorm – Arm yourself with several deadly throwing knives that deal damage and can kill on headshots. If you score a kill it will restore all daggers. This has two modes of use single dagger or all remaining daggers in a short-ranged burst

For additional details you can visit the Valorant website