How the addition of friendly fire can change Valorant

Valorant is constantly evolving as a competitive first-person shooter via the release of various playable agents and maps. This gives players a fresh gaming experience with every seasonal update.

One of the biggest and most rumored changes that arrived in Valorant recently is the activation of friendly fire, which was absent for a long time since the game's release in June 2020.

So, seeing a complete change in gameplay style is inevitable as the feature wasn’t there before, and many users have played the game without thinking of collateral damage.

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Inevitable change in Valorant’s gameplay style after addition of friendly fire

The friendly fire game mechanics have been there in competitive games for a long time. However, it has been missing from Valorant since its release. The lack of such a feature made the game feel relatively easier than other competitive games, and Riot Games might be thinking about doing things right.

For now, Valorant remains a playground for trigger-happy people who shoot without any fear of casualties. With the addition of friendly fire, that aspect of the game will completely change as it will bring a sense of fear to those who don’t notice if friendlies are around them.

Getting killed by friendly fire can change an entire situation of a game. It has already happened in other competitive titles, which always had friendly fire enabled.

Some gamers might feel dissatisfied with adding friendly fire to Valorant, but it was necessary for a competitive game with similar mechanics to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

However, certain problems also come with friendly fire, that is, acts of toxicity by killing teammates willingly.

Many games have tackled this problem in various ways, like Counter-Strike directly bans a player for 24 hours if a player kills someone at the start of a round which eventually increases if the player continues to do it for a prolonged period.

In addition, Rainbow Six Siege takes note of the player's habit of team killing and the victim's approval on the grieving act, whether it was an accident, to begin with. So to speak, how the Valorant developer team will handle this issue in their own game is something to look out for.

Now, to what extent Valorant will be affected by the addition of friendly fire cannot be said accurately yet. So only time can tell how the competitive game will change with the addition of the missing game mechanic, but that sure will turn things upside down when it rolls out in the main game.

Note: This article reflects the views of the author.