For all who can't wait for Riot Games' new first-person shooter VALORANT, there's an exclusive chance to get a sneak peek into the gameplay, courtesy of a leak (or possible hack) from this weekend's beta. The video, which lasts less than 7 minutes, shows four practice mode options, along with the ability to fall off the map - so you'll need to be extra careful.
The gameplay video was recorded by user CzechCloud, who had most likely scheduled it to publish on his YouTube channel at a later point, but someone under the name of irys38 got a hold on it and released it. The latter is supposedly an infamous hacker - at least according to the community at the VALORANT subreddit, where the leak was posted (and quickly taken down by Reddit's Legal Operations team "in response to a copyright claim by a third party," - presumably Riot).
Regardless of how the video came to see the light of day, the fact remains that it shows four practice modes called Open Range, Shooting Test, Spike Planting, and Spike Defuse. Open Range does what its name implies: it lets you "freely explore the entire range and all it has to offer." Shooting Test, meanwhile, offers challenges that let you get a feel for your guns, Spike Planting requires you to, well, plant the Spike and defend it until the detonation, while Spike Defusing works in the opposite direction - the Spike is already planted and you have a limited amount of time to defuse it.
https://streamable.com/y6mqc
The loading screen is stunning, there's no two ways about it - Riot's art team really came through. The map itself also looks clean and polished, but you definitely need to be careful, as CzechCloud demonstrates by promptly jumping off of it and dying. It's unclear whether this is on purpose or if the map is simply unfinished. The map also features several shooting ranges where you can pick the difficulty and number of foes you want and practice your shooting skills. The Spike Defuse map was also shown and it's pretty straightforward (at least on the Easy level, which is what CzechCloud chose). You enter, you kill your enemies, you defuse the Spike, voila.
All in all, the game - as seen through this admittedly short and limited video - looks very promising. With the closed beta starting April 7th, there will probably be more content coming out on a semi-regular basis from participants, but this will certainly depend on how much Riot restricts their posting. For now, we can hope that we'll get glimpses of the gameplay long before the game is finished and available to play - or, if you'd rather participate, find out how to get access to the beta.