Valorant: Everything we know about Riot’s FPS (Project A)

Riot Games’ Valorant is the League of Legends developers venture into the FPS market (codenamed Project A) and with a press release imminent, here’s everything you need to know about the character-based, tactical shooter.

Riot Games’ Executive Producer, Anna Dunlon, led their FPS announcement video back in October 2019. After revealing snippets of gameplay, the hype surrounding ‘Project A’ has snowballed. And following a Tweet from Rod ‘Slasher‘ Breslau, the hype has swelled once again.

Coming exclusively to PC, Valorant is “set on a beautiful near-future earth and has a lethal cast of characters, each with their own unique abilities.” With so much excitement surrounding the tactical shooter, here’s a breakdown of all the essential information you need to know.

Valorant Release date

Riot’s first venture into the shooter genre is expected to drop during the latter part of 2020. However, the League of Legends’ developers are yet to confirm an official release date.

• Read more: Project A community clues hint at possible Riot announcement date

With information continuing to slip through the cracks, Riot have created an official Twitter page in preparation for a rumored press release on March 2. The rumor supposedly stemmed from Riot Games’ PR & Comms team in Latin America following a playtest event with content creators.

When is Valorant’s beta?

With so much building up to Valorant’s release, Slasher dropped a huge teaser regarding when fans can expect to get their hands on Riot’s FPS.

• Read more: Swag announces CSGO retirement to pursue future in Riot’s Project A

After stating that “Riot is flying out a large amount of big name, pro players and streamers from all types of games” in the middle of March, Breslau confirmed that Riot will be releasing more information on the beta on March 2 (presumably as a part of their rumored press release).

What is Valorant?

Riot’s new FPS will rely heavily on character–map interaction. Dunlon previously stated that “your abilities create amazing tactical opportunities for your gunplay to shine,” meaning that the correct deployment of abilities will be a key element in dictating how a round pans out.

• Read more: Leaked Project A character has abilities similar to Overwatch heroes

Most notably from the announcement video, the game’s alpha was running on Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, which will promote smooth code patches, while encouraging the creation of aesthetically pleasing maps.

As per the above screenshot, players will be able to utilize a combination of four abilities per character. The ability on the right-hand side appears to be an ultimate (which requires a charge-up period). A leaked screenshot of ‘Sage’ also shows four ability slots.

• Read more: Swag announces CSGO retirement to pursue future in Riot’s Project A

According to popular CS:GO caster Henry ‘HenryG’ Greer, it is now understood that abilities will “need to be purchased at the start of a round instead of earned over time with the same economy reservoir as the weaponry.”

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Want to know more? Here’s a comprehensive breakdown of everything we know about Riot Games’ tactical shooter, with information on the game’s weapons, character abilities and much more.