Riot have now launched the beta for Valorant on console, and so far it's been a wild success, with fans largely agreeing that it already feels ready for release. I've been playing a ton myself, and for me, this has instantly become my favorite competitive game available on console. Why did we have to wait so long for this?
To provide some context for the review, I grew up as a console player and only bought my first proper gaming PC as an adult. I was terrible with mouse and keyboard for a long time (and to be honest, I am still much worse than on a controller), but eventually I started to get to grips with it. And a lot of that is thanks to falling in love with Valorant.
You can imagine my excitement, then, when a Valorant console port was first suggested by a Riot job listing back in 2022. Finally, it was time to experience the feeling of being MVP, or at least, not bottom-fragging. But, of course, it took over two years since that initial hint before we got a taste of Valorant on console.
The Valorant console beta was announced at the Summer Game Fest 2024, and officially launched on June 14. Our friends over at Riot were kind enough to send me a beta code, and since that day I have barely stopped playing. So here is the review in short: Riot have done an outstanding job. This is the kind of game that I couldn't previously imagine playing on console, and now I'm left wondering why it wasn't released on console to begin with? CS2, take note.
And don't forget, Riot have been working exclusively on PC games until now, which makes the quality of this port even more remarkable.
Leading Console Players By The Hand
It makes sense to start with the tutorial, which you are forced to do when you launch the game, even if you connect a Riot account that has already played Valorant. Although this isn't a hugely significant factor in judging how good the port is overall, it's not unimportant, especially given that this will be the first tactical FPS game many console players will have tried.
And off the bat, the tutorial sets a high bar for Valorant on console. The new tutorial is far better than the original on PC. That tutorial assumes a lot of knowledge about this genre, and only really introduces a few basic controls specific to Valorant. Also, it makes you to play as Sova, who is one of the very worst Agents for beginners.
In this new and improved tutorial, the game instead focuses more on concepts, and how those concepts can be practically applied. For instance, one exercise forces you to stand still while shooting, which is one of the biggest changes for console players coming from titles like Apex, CoD and Fortnite. And at the conclusion of the tutorial you play an actual 5 vs 5 game, alongside fairly clever bots, which is of course the best kind of practice you can get to see how everything you've learned comes together in game.
Intelligent Adaptions For A New Input
This is the big one, the factor that was always going to make or break the port: How well have they adapted a game designed for mouse and keyboard to work with controller?
In general, they've done a great job here as well. The advanced aim settings combined with the Focus Mode allow you to make quick turns, while also slowing down enough to make accurate shots. The Focus Mode also helps by providing console players with an equivalent to holding Shift, but you can also simply press lightly on the left stick to walk, which is a great example of them taking advantage of an option you have on controller that you don't have on keyboard. Again, going above and beyond the expectations of a port, to create something strong in its own right.
It isn't perfect. Some of the abilities feel wrongly assigned, in many cases for instance, the more aggressive ability is assigned to the left bumper and the defensive ability is assigned to the right bumper, which goes against the conventional controller layout used by a majority of FPS games. But for the most part, the game feels very comfortable already on controller, with only a few further tweaks required.
A Cleaner, Improved UI
This is a smaller point, and for many it won't factor into their opinion of a game, but I want to congratulate Riot on the changes they've made here. Whereas the PC version of Valorant has a rather "boring" UI that simply lists the submenus on the left hand-side, the console main menu simplifies everything and presents you with "Play" on the left (which you can select at anytime with Triangle / Y) and then tabs on the right for everything else.
It feels natural, uncluttered, and it presents the highlights from each section in a bolder and more aesthetically pleasing manner. All the submenus follow this intuitive design, to give a consistent overall feel.
In-game, the UI is much the same, although the buy menu has been re-arranged such that you can more quickly select the Vandal and Heavy Shields on a controller. There is one change I would like to see here though, the request menu has to be separately accessed by pressing Square / X. It would be better if we could just navigate to that menu normally.
What's The Catch?
This actually took me some time to think about, but there are two key negatives that exist on console that can't simply be put down to teething problems. The first is that a number of console players try and cheat with something called a XIM adapter, which lets you use keyboard and mouse. And the second is that you simply can't go above 120 frames per second on console.
In regard to the cheaters, the XIM problem was to be expected. It plagued Rainbow Six Siege for years, which is another game available on console that is far easier to play with mouse and keyboard. In Riot's defense, we have already seen a few impressive clips of users being banned within seconds for this kind of cheating. But the anti-cheat isn't perfect; we've also seen console players reporting that XIM cheaters have found a way to bypass the anti-cheat.
To some extent this will always be a cat and mouse game, with the cheaters getting ahead for a few months, and the anti-cheat team forced to play catch-up. At least, based on my own anecdotal experience, Riot have done a good enough job so far of limiting the cheaters, and I can only claim to have seen one suspicious player.
The FPS problem is far simpler, but sadly it can never be "solved". The current generation of consoles simply cannot go above 120 FPS, and there's nothing Riot can do about it. Valorant console will never be able to reach the same frame rate that you can achieve on PC. For me, 120 is plenty, but for others it won't be.
Verdict
This doesn't feel like a port; nothing seems half-baked or awkward, or lesser than the original. In fact, if I had never heard of the PC version, I could believe that this game was built from the ground-up with consoles in mind. And that's exactly what a project like this should be aiming for.
Due to the limitations of the platform, you will never be able to match the frame rate of a great gaming PC. And you will also have to deal with a number of XIM users, who always find a way to cheat despite the best efforts of the devs. But these are really my only complaints, and they're so insignificant by comparison to how great the game is, that I, for one, will be making the switch to playing Valorant on console.