Valorant doesn't exactly impress on the visual front. It's quite flat from a presentation standpoint and probably won't grab you at first sight, at least from what we've seen in its closed beta. But as a veteran Counter-Strike player who's poured several hours into Valorant's beta, I'm convinced that Riot Games (developer of League of Legends) is hitting all the right notes from a gameplay perspective with its first foray into the competitive FPS genre.
At its core, Valorant is essentially a hero-shooter Counter-Strike, and borrows from CS in nearly every aspect. In a series of one-life-per-round bouts, you buy equipment at the start of each one before tactically fighting it out in a five-on-five demolition mode--one side attacks, one side defends. Even in map design, how weapons function, and the very strategies teams should implement to succeed, the influence is apparent. Hell, you even run faster with a knife equipped in place of a gun. My own skills and knowledge from years of CS have translated almost one-to-one in the Valorant beta, and I'm having a blast because of it. Even in team communication, random teammates and I have been using the identical terminology and callouts as we would in CS--long A, mid-to-B, heaven, window, and pit are a few of the shorthand terms that immediately tell me what I need to know.
Admittedly, that may sound off-putting to newcomers with little experience in this regard. There are specific ways to play CSGO, and by extension, Valorant. While it may not be the most accessible shooter because of that, the general best practices are straightforward; don't run-and-gun, watch corners where enemies are expected, and work with your team. It has a tempered pace by nature.
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