The full release of Valorant, Riot Games’ new tactical shooter, is rolling out across the world today. As well as granting access to the game to everyone, rather than only the winners of the beta lottery, the full version includes a new agent, Reyna, and a new game mode, Spike Rush.
Heavily caveated by a ‘beta’ tag, Spike Rush is a faster-paced version of the game’s core Spike action. Much of the tactical shooter’s gameplay remains intact – there are still attacking and defending teams, but games of Spike Rush will be quicker and more chaotic. For one thing, matches are now a best-of-seven affair, rather than the best-of-24 approach, with the aim being for matches that clock in at around ten minutes rather than half an hour. All players are also granted the same random weapon, and everyone gets their basic abilities for free, doing away with all that complicated economy management.
To speed things up even more, everyone on the attacking team gets a Spike (or bomb, if you’re more used to Counter-Strike nomenclature). That strikes me as the thing that might make or break Spike Rush: the attackers may hold all the cards, but it only ever takes one slip-up to essentially hand the defenders the entire game. Nevertheless, it’s nice to see Valorant trying a faster-paced style, and we’ll see how well it stands the test of time.
