Through premature publication, Killjoy became known as an agent in Act 2. Their skills are dividing the community. Does Riot have problems with her own design philosophy?
As of today, it is known how Killjoy will look in VALORANT. She’ll be a German agent with futuristic tools. This is not necessarily reflected in her appearance, because the agent is rather colourful.
KILLJOY /// Germany
“Relax, I’ve already thought of everything.”https://t.co/ELe1bNM4P5— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) July 29, 2020
Wrong skills?
Even if the visuals on the internet sometimes cause mocking comments, it is not the biggest problem the community has with Killjoy. Many players are more concerned about the abilities of the agent.
One reason for this is that Riot had already announced before the beta release that the abilities of the agents should only be used as a utility. But some of Killjoy’s abilities deal damage and are used for simple map control, as well as already in Raze.
As a result, players like former CS:GO pro Spencer “Hiko” Martin believe that VALORANT will continue to move toward Overwatch. This goes against the basic design philosophy with which Riot had announced the game.
Answer from Riot
The developers, however, want to give the all-clear. Morello, VALORANT’s Character Design Lead, for example, tries to defuse the discussion a bit and explains the train of thought behind the agent.
He says that the abilities allow enough counterplay and are only lethal if that doesn’t happen. The damage-dispensing abilities are all about building up pressure.
Abilities doing damage are about generating threat or pressure – killing is what happens when you can't (getting checkmated by overwhelming odds) or won't (fail to make the right decision) deal with the ability. Other case, we use these to create angle or area control https://t.co/ww4PFVaivA
— Ed-nerd Scissorhands (@MorelloNMST) July 29, 2020
The fundamental question also remains whether this development is actually problematic. A large part of the VALORANT community is made up of former Counter-Strike players. For them it is of course desirable that pure gunplay remains the most important aspect of the game.
For new players or gamers from other communities, the right use of skills could be exactly the game aspect that shrinks the gap to CS:GO professionals.
Many argue that the skills would reduce the skill ceiling. But even their perfect use and the countering of that requires a lot of experience and skill.
