Valorant review – mind games and strategy meet competitive shooting

PC; Riot Games
This deeply tactical shooter from the brains behind League of Legends is Fortnite's latest challenger

If you want more than fleeting gratification from a multiplayer game, look no further than this deeply tactical competitive shooter from the minds behind League of Legends. Valorant learns from its obvious inspirations Counter-Strike and Overwatch, but goes further with pinpoint gunplay and exciting skills, asking you to unravel the opposing team with your collective wits as well as quick reflexes. In place of the lurid neon colour palette of Fortnite is a reserved, sophisticated aesthetic with distinctive characters and maps.

Two teams of five duke it out across a series of finely tuned maps, trading abilities and peeking around corners with weapons that reward accurate fire over spray-and-pray. Each match starts with a Buy Phase where players must purchase weapons with a limited amount of in-game currency. This mini-economy gives every player responsibility for the team's prospects: if you die 30 seconds into a round clutching an expensive assault rifle, your team will be out of pocket when the next buy phase starts.