Is Valorant set up for failure? Plus what I hate about modern FPS.

 Is it?

 I want to discuss whether Valorant, like so many of it's predecessors (Overwatch, Paladins, Rogue Company, etc) is set up for failure.

For the beginning of this post I want to use Yugi-Oh of all things as an allegory for hero-shooters/ character-shooters. When it started Yugi-Oh was dope af, everything felt like it had a place, even if it was broken, it felt correctly broken. 

But now after years of adding and adding new cards, power creep, and new rules... things are still kind of dope to a certain percentage of die-hards, sure, sure... but not as dope as they used to be for new guys or casuals, like now it's just fucking confusing lmao.

And the same is true... to a certain degree for hero-shooters later in their lives. At the start, shit is dope. It's pretty like T(eam)F(ortress)2 at the start, everything feels pretty good and balanced, then they add the new guy, and he's dope too so it's all good and hey it's new content, new things to learn, many things to relearn, it's like playing a new game. In theory and on paper better than 9 classes... 

But then you have Paladins who treat new champions like monthly patch notes. But they don't fix anything like patches do, they just break the game even more and plus the game never gave me the grace of stable ping for more than one match a time which ultimately made me and my friends quit lol.

Overwatch who seemingly can either only add broken heroes or completely fucking lame ones. No inbetween. Just one or the other. Oh yeah and can't even ship an MVM mode LMAO. And I also played like 10 hours only so don't quote me on this.

Quake Champions, which uh, was an arena shooter first, still died, like an arena shooter usually does unfortunately. But be honest, who was actually excited to play Quake Champions, other than like 10 people.

Rogue Company... Idk what the fuck happened here. I only played like 10 matches when it was new. But I'm sure it suffers from creative bankruptcy in the characters department... Oh and also it's dead af so that's also a problem I guess.

Apex which I think is still kind of dope to some degree... But I stopped playing a while ago and I wasn't very good anyways so I can't speak on that. But last time I checked, which was 2 days ago, had mixed recent reviews on steam so I guess that counts for something.

Siege who uh... Kind of betrayed its own art style and philosophy in my opinion. Seems to be either so fucking back one season and then so fucking over the next season. And idk about you but it fucks me over if I try to play matches consecutively. Like it freezes my game every 3-5 seconds every second match if I don't restart the game and that's been happening since motherfucking Year 6 on god. 

Uh I guess Battleborn was a thing at some point. Lawbreakers too... does Warface count? I think Dirty Bomb does. Point is, things are not so dope for hero shooters now and for the foreseeable future.

So my question is... Is Valorant, and by extension every new, upcoming hero-shooter doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past? Is Yugi-Oh power creep and overcomplication the inevitable fate of literally anything live-service that get's updates? Yes in my opinion, because we humans really fucking suck at balancing things because at some point we can't be bothered (Understandably) to remember literally every system in a game and how that system is tuned. Which by the by, leads to something that breaks something else that the devs overlooked for whatever reason.

The only reason TF2 is still kind of dope, and TF2 is really dope, I know this just sounds like a Group Castle 2 ad now but the reason it's still dope is because it's been alive for a decade and a half, and Valve *at some point* balanced it enough to be fun still. Also the base game itself, if you take away every update, is freakishly well balanced.

But again is Valorant on this path? Yes, yes, and yes. Riot is notoriously bad at balancing shit like have you seen League? Look, sure if the game stays alive long enough it'll work out, and hey if the base game is solid and as freakishly well balanced as TF2's is then it will live. But again, and I cannot stress this enough, this is Riot, they notoriously suck major ding-a-ling at balance *and in general* (BUT THAT'S JUST ME) and if the LCS walkout is anything to go by, they also don't really fucking give a shit about players at the end of the day either so do with that what you will.

 The Rant on Modern FPS.

And to throw my two-cents on the balance. From what I've seen, Gekko and Fade are just why? In fact many of the toolsets and skills in the newer Valorant agents are why? It all feels so overindulgent. Like they wanted to make someone useful so badly that they just feel like thoughtless additions that are there to please the fans. No challenge or interesting thing other than Gekko can plant without planting, because literally I believe that Riot will rehash everything at some point... Like Sova 2 is coming out soon bro believe me.

Don't get me started on Gekko's design, voicelines, and personality. I hate him. He's the best example of the difference between CS players and Valorant players. That difference being CS players are less cringe. Because damn Gekko is annoying... and he also feels so out of place? Like his character design is also just shitty don't get me wrong, but it's compounded by not feeling like it belongs in Valorant... Which is weird. I just hate him period dude.

I hate trying to make military operatives hip and relatable. Like fuck no, I hate how Siege and Overwatch does this especially. I do not give a shit about the love life of my military man. I just want him to be cool. Please, please, please, stop writing hero-shooter narratives like they're part young-adult fiction you fuckers. I want 'Rambo' not 'The Fault in Our Stars: Now with Guns' (Weird choice I know but I've been watching vlogbrothers recently)

Art-style breaching also grinds my gears. I remember when TF2 did that shit, even I wasn't happy. I don't want Banana hat please. Also all the blatantly not even near 1970s style sci-fi and other shit LMAO. At least make it retro-sci-fi. OH AND THE FUCKING WINTER CASES. FUCK. THEM. CASES. BRO. Like damn put some effort in to make things feel time appropriate. Like I know there is weird shit in TF2 but at least it felt like appropriately 1970s weird shit y'know.

COD Killstreaks and similar suck. The end. Full stop.

Sound design is all over the place nowadays. I don't know how but it is. CS pre sound update sounds we're much more impactful. VERY MUCH earraping, yes, but still more impactful in my opinion. 3D sound is fucked in R6. Valorant has shit gun sounds fight me. Overwatch is too noisy at times with all the shit going on, hell Valorant is too noisy at times too. Paladins sound design is pretty mediocre to downright awful... Though, the voice lines will always hold a special place in my heart. 

Ultimates in FPS were a mistake, just like COD Killstreaks. Full stop.

CS and TF2 are great but holy shit I hate how the fanbases act quite a lot.

Apex character design is on a downward spiral. (NOT RELATED BUT Watch EmpLemon!) Like damn Ash was pretty good but also she's from Titanfall, Mad Maggie and fuse outfits are boring and too similar (I KNOW THATS THE POINT BUT I STILL BELIEVE MORE COULD BE DONE), Ballistic is also boring too, he is dressed like a normal sci-fi gunslinger with that long-coat, armored vest, normal dress shirt shit he has going on, fact that he looks like the Colonel though makes it a bit better, and I like his legendary skins, Newcastle and Vantage are the worst offenders of this shit ass character design like Newcastle is just generic sci-fi armor and Vantage looks like a Star Wars character. THOUGH AT LEAST THE ART-STYLE WAS PRESERVED THANK GOD. 

On another note, while keeping on the subject of character design, Siege is bad at keeping the art-style together and in character portraits, their faces, those who show them, which is like 90% of the new ones, have clay looking faces. 

Overwatch is inoffensive at best, Though I actually like Lifeweaver's character design. 

Paladins is all over the place... Damn like literally, sometimes they design good shit like Kasumi, boring shit like Saati, experimental (I appreciate this the most in modern Paladins) shit like Yagorath, and genuine dogshit like Nyx. 

Also I hate the wallhack gadget/utility epidemic that's been rearing it's ugly head in modern FPS and I also hate how much fucking shit is going on the screen sometimes in modern FPS. Overwatch and Paladins suffer from the same screen filling, eye raping, oversaturation and overuse of effects that stylized FPS love so fucking much. 

Look I love Persona 5, and that has a lot of shit on the screen but it's a JRPG Turn-based game, in that context, its fine as hell, it's even excellent, but where it's not so great is Persona 5 Strikers, an action game, the game is genuinely the one-stop shop for "What the fuck is going on in the game, my screen is too fucking filled up bro." I have ever seen/experienced.

Conclusion for that is NO SUCH THING AS TOO MUCH STYLE for slower more 'take in the game' and 'think deeply and strategically' games like RTS and Turn-based. And, on the other side... THERE IS SUCH A THING AS TOO MUCH STYLE for more faster, action, reflex, mechanical skill games like FPS or Action-RPGs.

And to end this all. Modern FPS is weird. I love FPS, but I HATE the direction we seem to be going. - Z