Despite being such a strong game, eyes are already looking towards a Valorant 2 release date. Valorant is one of the hottest FPS games today, that has dominated the esports scene alongside Riot Games' iconic League of Legends. Valorant is set in a future Earth, currently around the year 2049-2050. An event called First Light caused rifts in the sky to appear in the year 2039. In line with that, the rifts gave Earth an element known as Radianite which gives its agents abilities and technology that are seen throughout the game.
In terms of gameplay, Valorant focuses on a 5v5 tactical shooter team battle of players attacking to plant a spike while the enemy team defends it. What makes Valorant unique is its use of supernatural abilities that shape its gameplay. Released back in April 2020, the game has seen various updates to its agent abilities, map rosters, and even lore, which have all sustained the player population of this fast-paced game.
Want more Valorant content? Check out our guides for bad Valorant crosshairs and get a glimpse of TenZ's crosshair and settings for the game that will surely make you a top player. Lastly, you can also read our Valorant best guns tier list.
Valorant 2 news
2022 was a major year for Valorant with its dominance in the esports community and new content releases. Its player base has been listened to a lot by the developers, as the latter try to improve its game with every update and content release. In line with that, there are no updates to a sequel game for Valorant as the FPS is still fairly new.
However, 2023 will be even more important for the game's future. This is due to mainly competitive Valorant taking its place in esports through the VCT, alongside changes to the VCT's structure. Developers have also revealed that there will certainly be more agents, collaborations, and evolution of the game itself that will enhance its player experience.
With no updates on a sequel game yet, we can only hope and discuss these features the community would love to have in the current Valorant game.
Things we want to see in Valorant 2
Better smurf management
Smurfs are one of the biggest issues in Valorant today. They are basically players who create multiple Valorant accounts and queue games as "lower ranked" players to make up for their inability to climb their own ranks or simply play with lower-ranked peers. As the Valorant player population doesn't mainly contain high-ranked players, the smurfs make it difficult for those in lower ranks to climb up such as Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and Ascendant.
Back in December 2022, Valorant took action to possibly reduce the number of smurfs. The goal was to adjust the MMR of smurf accounts to reach their real ranks quicker, and it appears that this method of Riot Games seems to be working. With smurf accounts down by 17%, perhaps smurfs are starting to become managed. But of course, there's still a long way to go to majorly reduce smurfs in-game.
Gifting system
Similar to Riot Games' other game, League of Legends, players are looking for a gifting system within Valorant for players to gift their friends agents, skins, and items found within the game. Currently, the only way players can shop for friends is by buying Valorant Points for the recipient player to spend on items they may want.
A developer from the game has confirmed that a gifting system is definitely the works for the past year. However, Riot Games has put the feature on a backlog to prioritise other game changes and updates. Furthermore, this delay may also be due to finding more creative ways to publish the gifting system. So the community still needs to wait out the indefinite status of Valorant's gifting system.
Night maps
With the upcoming Lotus map that was first speculated as a night map, the Valorant community has been interested and clamouring for a night map from the developers. In a Reddit AMA a few months ago, Riot level designers Joe Lansford and Joey Simas, and lead environment artist George Sokol, explained back then that night maps aren't really out of the picture in Valorant gameplay, however, the status for this possible feature is still indefinite.
Perhaps night maps still have a long way to go because with Valorant being an FPS, visibility is crucial in its gameplay. It would be challenging to create a playable map at the moment with Riot Games' other priorities with Valorant.
Agent skins
As Valorant has a vast potential lore-wise, and its aesthetics have captured the awe of the community, players have been hoping for agent skins to be added to the game to show the personalities and lives of the agents outside of missions. Since the game already allows its players to unlock unique weapon skins, it's a no-brainer that the community would also want agent skins similar to the champion skins for League of Legends. Despite the potential to unlock more stories and lore from Valorant with the help of agent skins, these can pose in-game issues.
First off, agent skins could change an agent's hitbox. Technically, skins add an "extra padding" that could give players an advantage over others in matches. Riot Games needs to make certain that skins wouldn't affect such hitboxes. Another issue that must be tackled with adding skins would definitely be agent camouflage with map environments, and giving enemy players an advantage for certain skins. Some vibrant skin designs could put players at an advantage while others at a disadvantage. Riot Games needs to carefully outline and strategise if it were to include skins.
Story mode
The last feature that players would want to see in Valorant 2 is a story mode, that would do a deep dive into the concept of Radianite and the events that led to the First Light of Valorant. The richness is immense to Valorant's storyline, especially with the accompanied cinematics that come with each act and episode of the game during content updates.
In spite of the community wanting for a story mode, the Valorant developers aren't looking to add one anytime soon. A Valorant developer said back in 2020, following Valorant's public release, that there is no current plan for a story mode for the game. This is understandable as in League of Legends, there isn't a story mode present either. The developers have pushed though for the community to discover Valorant's lore and agent storylines through easter eggs hidden throughout voice lines, cinematics, maps, and other content the game releases with each update.
If you want to see more Valorant content, check out our other articles on the game such as Valorant players debating the worst places to die to guide your lurking strategies. Alternatively, browse through the Valorant voice actors and cast that give life to the rich stories of the game.