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Counter-Strike 2 (2023)

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VALORANT ready for its big When Riot Games decided it wanted to create a first-person shooter, the team's developers found themselves faced with an oxymoron.

Their small crew at the time had grown up with tactical shooting games such as Counter-Strike 1.6 and others of the ilk, and they hoped to chase something from their adolescence with their new game. At the same time, they wanted to evolve the first-person shooter genre instead of playing it safe by copying what they loved from the past. The developers wanted to create something that hearkened to days gone by but was also forward-facing, a game that could stand the test of time as their flagship title, League of Legends, has done over the past decade.

Those opposing philosophies smashing together, fusing into a slick but familiar package, is how VALORANT was born.

"We wanted to discover how to bring this feeling to a new era of gaming, to a more experienced audience of players, the players of 2020, and incorporate the creativity they can bring to such an experience," said Joe Ziegler, the game director on VALORANT at Riot Games. "This, we felt like, could be a great new experience -- and still do."

The team, knowing what the best first-person shooter games of their youth felt like, started with the foundations that were familiar to the designers. First, a shooting game needs to elicit a satisfying reaction when a player connects with a target. If there's no spark when a player gets the better of an opponent, then no matter how great the rest of the game is, it's bound to be a disappointment.

After figuring out the gunplay, the development team needed to build on that by making an impressive play feel like something important. Be it in the final match of an international tournament in front of millions of viewers or at home as a low-ranked player messing around with friends, getting an elimination needed to feel great and to matter.

"In VALORANT, having a good round, a clutch moment, a great play makes you not only feel smart but also stylish and creative in your own way," Ziegler said, "and we sought to bring that to life through the visuals and music of the game and media that we've shown."

On the surface, VALORANT closely resembles the current king of first-person shooters in the world of esports, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Make no mistake, Riot doesn't hide its love for the Counter-Strike series: Developers and designers of VALORANT grew up fans of the competitive esports scene, which now spans two decades. Senior game designer Salvatore "Volcano" Garozzo was a professional CS player and a mapmaker for the game before his current gig, overseeing the creation of maps in VALORANT with Riot Games. The game's premier sniper rifle, the Operator, is a not so subtle homage to Counter-Strike's high-risk, high-reward weapon, the AWP.

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