Valorantis a game that has been praised for constantly evolving in the two years since it was officially released byRiot Games. In that time, the game has changed in a vast number of ways, from little details and the shapes of objects in maps to huge overhauls that change the Meta in competitive play completely.
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While not all the changes have improved the game as far as everyone is concerned, the game has generally become more and more popular over time. As a tactical shooter, it is important forRiotto constantly push the game to evolve to stay relevant, and there are a lot of ways they’ve put the work in to keep it so.
7Agent Selection
While the closed beta ofValorantinitially only contained ten playable characters, Riot has been consistent in the introduction of further agents since then. With therelease of Neon in Januarywith the beginning of episode four, there are now a total of eighteen.
Riot doesn’t look to be slowing down either, as we already have theartwork for the next planned agent, set to be named Fade. While not much is known about future work to be done on new characters, Riot has given us no reason to believe they’ll wind down on this front.
6Balancing Agents
Riot hasn’t just set about expanding their roster of agents but is also constantly working to nerf abilities that allow agents to dominate the scene, and equally bring agents that have fallen out of the competitive Meta up to scratch.
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Riot doesn’t want the same agents to be constantly selected, and so with every new patch and update, there are changes that can, sometimes dramatically, change how effective certain agents are. Most recently there has been some talk ofan upcoming shift to Jettthat could shift the entire Meta of the game. Constantly trying to balance a tactical shooter is a difficult tightrope to walk, but Riot certainly won’t slow down on this front either.
5The “Classic” Nerf
Besides the changes to agent abilities and how useful they are, a major moment in the history ofValorantwas when Riot lowered the capabilities of the classic. A starting gun that is free and every player always has, the classic was extremely overpowered at one point because of the right-click shotgun-style firing.
With the ability to run, gun and even jump and stay relatively accurate, the game was hugely changed and drastically improved by the increase in error firing rate that Riot introduced in November 2021. Without this update, many would continue to find themselves frustrated with this method, considered less skillful and more randomized than most of the gunplay in-game.
4Gun Skins & Battle Pass
Of all the changes toValorantover the past two years, none have been quite so constantly updated and questioned than the huge number of gun skins introduced, mostly through the game’s Battle Pass.Valoranthas a mass number of gun skins, and fans constantly argue over which are the best, but one thing they all have in common is that they love to collect them.
Cosmetic changes like this are normally considered minor to the overall fun of the game, but gun skins have become a major component and something that die-hard fans look forward to seeing more of with each update toValorant.
3Solving AFK
As a tactical 5v5 shooter,Valorantis all about balance. Other similar games face huge problems with AFK players that aren’t participating in matches.Valoranthad these problems throughout the first year of release in 2020, but in 2021 they managed to cut the AFK rate in-game in half by introducing penalties for repeated offenses.
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The work on this side of things has continued into 2022 as well through Patch 4.02, which set even stricter potential punishments such as permanent bans and loss of ranked rating for continued offenses. In terms of AFK and cheating response, Riot andValoranthave startedpaving the way for other gameslikeCall of Dutyin how to deal with it.
2Map Choice
One of the biggest early problems that plaguedValorantwas the lack of maps in-game. While players still have issues, there is no doubting that Riot has improved the map situation, more than doubling the paltry three maps the game began with over the last two years.
With how careful Riot tries to be balancing and adjusting objects for more intriguing gameplay on every map, it’s no wonder that they aren’t able to introduce as many maps as players are craving. But they will surely continue their work on bringing more locations to the game. The most recent map release, Fracture, brought controversy to the community of playersbut certainly led to new tacticsand thinking being put into games on that map.
1The Competitive Scene
Of all the things that were changed by Riot over the past two years, one thing that has only grown and improved consistently over that time is the competitive E-sports scene surrounding the game. Many competitive players inCounter-Strike: Global Offensivecame over very quickly to the more lucrativeValorantscene after the game was released. Pro players have focused down on everything from which agents are best on which maps towhat crosshair you should usein-game.
While it remains to be seen if anything will dethroneValorantin this aspect, it has continued to evolve and show enduring popularity for two years now and is only likely to become more and more popular with the recent rumor thatthe game will soon come to consoles.
