Valorant gets ruthlessly review bombed after launch

Riot Games

Fan reviews of Valorant have been pouring in since the game’s transition from Closed Beta to the full version, but is being torn to shreds in an apparent ‘review bombing.’

The new first-person shooter only released fully on June 2 – the first of its kind from this developer – and its launch was staggered across different regions across the world at different times.

After being locked away from the majority of gamers, in a beta version not everybody could access, the entire roster of Agents and weapons list are finally available for everyone to try out, but it looks like a lot of people aren’t enjoying their time playing. At least, that’s how the user scores on Metacritic are making it seem.

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Valorant player on Reactor Site A on Bind.Riot Games
Valorant’s gameplay has been called “slow” and “garbage” on Metacritic.

Hype surrounding the game has been building for some time, with millions pouring into Twitch to watch streamers trying it out since it was first announced. That said, the review website has been flooded with negative posts regarding Valorant, to a level where it looks like the page has either been taken over by trolls or bots. Don’t believe us? Check out some of these scathing comments.

In what’s possibly the pick of the bunch, one user wrote: “As a CSGO player with more than 3000 hours on the game that grew tired of the broken state of CSGO, I was excited for Valorant because it was offering a cheater free experience. Sadly, Valorant is absolute garbage and it made me miss getting spin botted on CSGO.”

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While some of the reviews may be genuine criticism of the game, there are countless ‘reviews’ that say little more than “piece of crap” or accuse it of being a CS:GO clone.

Metacritic
The user score sunk to a 3.7 just a day after launch.

If you thought that comment couldn’t be topped, some others leaned into the game just a bit further.

Another posted: “0/10 poor copypasta from other games.” Some of the criticism is also aimed at the anti-cheat system, which sparked some debate during the beta for being too invasive.

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Some of the criticism was at least more thought out however. One review said, “I was very confused in the first few matches. The game looks and feels completely unfinished, very raw. I’m Global at CS:GO, Platinum in Rainbow 6, and uncountable hours in PUBC etc. Valorant is garbage. Just don’t waste your time. Promise me, for God’s sake.”

Another said: “Piece of crap I feel like I’m playing a cheap clone of Overwatch and CS:GO. The game is so slow and you don’t feel the weapon at all. Gameplay is boring.”

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Metacritic
The majority of comments certainly have a negative tone.

All most of the comments are in a similar format, and words like “garbage” and “trash” appear regularly, it’s unclear as to whether or not these are genuine reviews of the game or trolls, well, being trolls.

Whether this flood of negative comments will remain on the website, or get removed at some stage, remains to be seen. We’ll keep you posted either way.