Here’s our hands-on first impressions of Valorant’s new map, PEARL

Last night time (June 16), Riot Games’ revealed Valorant’s newest map, PEARL, through a cinematic trailer and developer livestream. Shortly after the stream, myself, Dorrani, and a bunch of different content material creators have been invited to check the map out for ourselves. To put it merely, all of us had an absolute hoot, and PEARL could possibly be one among Valorant’s finest maps but.

The eighth map might be launched to the map pool when Episode 5 Act 1 launches on June 22, alongside a brand new skinline impressed by the likes of DOOM and Quake. The unhappy information, nonetheless, is that Split might be faraway from the map pool for Unrated and Competitive play.

I’ve managed to do 4 or so matches on PEARL to date, and evidently, the final consensus appears to be that Valorant gamers are impressed. In the above video, myself and Dorrani mentioned the time we spent with the map final night time, and what we consider it.

PEARL is an underwater metropolis impressed by Portugal, with numerous components of the map hand-crafted by Portuguese artists. Frankly, PEARL is the Valorant map with essentially the most life and vibrance to it.

While your aim is to clearly assault or defend, it is arduous to not be just a little distracted by the quantity of element PEARL has scattered round each nook. And there’s plenty of corners. There’s a buying district, a membership, statues of our favorite brokers, and it is simply extremely whimsical.

PEARL would not have any funky mechanics like Bind’s portals or Fracture’s zip wires, Dorrani famous, and as a substitute primarily depends on being geo-driven. The map consists of three lanes and two websites, with a mid portion made up of a number of cosy corridors and nooks to cover in throughout a post-plant scenario.

Site A will certainly be a favorite for many who want shut vary fights and utility, and with the sprawling entrance to B, the latter web site will certainly be most popular for these with a clear long-range intention.

In our video, we additionally each famous simply how tough this map might be to manoeuvre, contemplating there are strains of sight in all places. In some cases, turning round one nook looks like a big gamble. PEARL is a map that’s going to require a powerful defence and even stronger communication; with no strong staff that features Sentinels, it may be tough to have each angle lined post-plant.

Dorrani additionally famous how PEARL goes to be a game-changer for the last word skills of some Agents. With so many tight corners, and A web site additionally being fairly compact, ultimates from Brimstone, Sova, Breach, Fade and extra are going to catch gamers out so much.

It’s probably that PEARL is a map that’ll name upon using Sentinel Agents extra, like Killjoy and Chamber, to have the ability to hold a web site locked down or retake them simply. With so many angles and hiding locations on supply, defence and intel is of the utmost significance throughout PEARL, and possibly we’ll even see Cypher getting used a bit extra in aggressive play.

What are your ideas on the brand new Valorant map? Let us know within the feedback!