Valorant officially released to the public yesterday after being in closed beta for almost two months. Despite the hype surrounding the game and its record-breaking Twitch viewership, the game hasn’t been received so well by users on Metacritic.
After its first day, Valorant currently has a 4.6 (out of 10) user score. Here’s what users are saying about Riot Games’ first attempt at a shooter and why the game might be scoring so low.
What Metacritic users think of Valorant
Most honest negative reviews on Metacritic seem to think Valorant is a decent game but lacks the polish and detail of other AAA titles. There are a lot of people who also seem to think that it is a cheap rip-off of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
One could certainly make the case that the game shares a lot of similarities to Counter-Strike, and there’s no doubt that it could use some more polish. This doesn’t warrant giving the game a 0 out of 10, however.
Review bombing
Unfortunately, user reviews on Metacritic aren’t always reliable. Some people give Valorant a 0 out of 10 with no reason other than they don’t personally like it, oftentimes never having even played it. This is known as review bombing.
Reviews like this don’t tell people anything about the game and are generally unhelpful. Take these with a grain of salt and realize that many of these reviews are left by people who have no firsthand experience with it.
Should Riot be concerned?
Riot shouldn’t be concerned in the slightest by negative user scores. Users have review-bombed League of Legends for years, and the game still stands as one of the most popular esports.
Valorant will undoubtedly go on to be a successful esport. Players from other popular esports have already jumped ship, and tournaments for the game are already cropping up. Be sure to check out the game for yourself before jumping to a conclusion!
