Last year was certainly a bit of a rollercoaster ride for Riot Games. It began on a down note for the studio as many employees staged a walkout over a previously released report regarding the toxic culture, discrimination, and sexual harassmen t that had been going on behind the scenes. A settlement was eventually reached and focus then shifted to the 10 year anniversary of its massively popular game, League of Legends. Part of that celebration was the announcement of a number of offshoot games including the mysterious shooter Project A.
Following its announcement last year, Riot has been fairly quiet with regards to Project A. The studio described the game as a tactical FPS and unlike the other announced game projects, isn't actually related to League of Legends at all. Even as fans continue to wait for more news, it appears that the first screenshot from the game has leaked out following a recent playtest.
The image in question shows what appears to be a hero select screen with eight unique looking characters to pick from. The selected hero's name is Sage who represents the Sentinel class which appears to be more of a support/healer style character that one would see in other hero shooters like Overwatch. Sage can fire barrier orbs which forms a wall, slow orbs that create a stasis field, a healing orb to assist allies or herself, and then an ultimate ability that resurrects allies. Interestingly enough, it appears she'll be able to do this from a distance after a small channeling animation.
The other characters don't have any abilities listed but thanks to player selections on the left side, fans can see their names which include Brimstone and Viper.
The screenshot has also kicked off a new wave of speculation from the community. The biggest revelation is that Project A is actually going to be called Valorant based on a few recent developments. The first is that a new Twitter account called PlayValorant was created earlier this month. Not only that, the actual term Valorant was discovered on the game's official website, which isn't actually live yet but dataminers discovered is currently owned by Riot Games.
Whatever the case may be, the community already seems excited by the potential of this game. Former Counter-Strike pros Ron Ranbo Kim and HenryG have both been playing the title with the former even going as far as saying it feels phenomenal. Kim wasn't able to talk in much detail but it's clear he was impressed by the experience calling the game crisp, precise, and rewarding. It's unknown when Riot will be unveiling the game, but with so much playtesting going on, perhaps it'll be sooner than later.
Project A has no currently announced release window or supported platforms.
Source: Twitter