Gaming, it’s a thing we all enjoy. There’s that one genre ranging from shooters, RPGs, sports, etc. that we really enjoy. And some of us might enjoy some of these genres more than others. But sometimes, the games we always play get a little boring, so why not try something new? In the article, we will be trying games from genres that they’ve barely touched on before. Adel will be playing the popular fps game Valorant and Zhen Yuan will be playing Genshin Impact for around 3 hours. Here’s how it went.
Valorant(Adel)
I am a die hard Gacha game fan. (Though I’ve always been a free-to-play ) I have played many Gacha games and have clocked in many hours in them, so when I was asked to play Valorant, a shooter game, i was pretty intimidated. Valorant is one of the most popular shooter games, which I usually don’t enjoy playing due to the intense and fast paced gameplay which I am not used to. Despite this, I decided to give it a try. I have always been interested in shooter games and the competitive aspect of them so I was pretty curious going into the game.
I came into Valorant completely new to the shooter genre, so all the controls were very foreign to me. Everything, from the movement controls to the attack controls, everything was all brand new to me. Hence, I was very confused while doing the tutorial. But, eventually I kinda got the hang of it.
After completing the tutorial I decided to finally play my first match. News flash: it did not go too well…I matched into a players who you know, actually knew how to play the game, so I was, obviously, absolutely destroyed. Seeing this unfortunate defeat, I decided to call up one of my other friends to teach me how to play this game. We loaded into a custom game and he taught me the basics.
It was tedious, but I had finally rewired my brain to the point where I can fluently use all the controls. After this, I got into a few matches with my friend and, through much frustration and confusion, we actually won a few games.
The good part
As I expected, Valorant is a very fast paced and exhilarating game to play. Furthermore, due to Valorant being a multiplayer game, every game will be different, keeping gameplay fresh and new every time. The game also has a variety of characters and guns, all with their unique skills and playstyles, i personally enjoy playing Viper, with her ability to create walls of smoke, among other skills, she is able to completely deny an enemy push as she has many abilities which have to ability to wall enemies off, prevent them from advancing to your team, giving you the advantage. This game is also extremely fun to play with friends, due to the game being highly team based, getting a group together and being able to talk to them is extremely fun and can be a great bonding exercise for you and your team.
(This was written before the Viper nerf, I am upset about it)
The not so amazing part
Due to the highly competitive nature of Valorant, there are usually a large amount of toxic players, be it from the enemy team or your allies. When I first played Valorant, my teammates would make fun of me for being new and would blame me for their losses, which almost discouraged me from playing the game. The other problem that I have with the game is how much practice is required to be “decent” at the game. If it were not for my friend, I doubt that I would have the endurance to keep on playing the game and to improve. I would like to advise anyone new to this game to ignore these kind of people and focus on having fun, not winning.
Final thoughts
All in all, my experience of Valorant was very enjoyable, but a large part of that was due to my friend who helped me through the early stages of my journey. It is a game that requires some level of practice to be decent, with a very high skill ceiling, meaning that there are always many optimisations to your own gameplay.
Genshin(Zhen Yuan)
I play mostly first person shooter games (although I’m terrible at them), so Genshin Impact is something completely new to me and I had no idea what it was like. This game has been increasing in popularity since it was first released in 2020. It has been accused of being very similar to Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild(a console role playing game), while people have accepted that it took inspiration from it but is still an enjoyable game. Regardless of any opinions about this game, I downloaded it and started playing with an open mind.
It took me quite a while to download the game, so I recommend that if you want to try the game you download everything before you start playing. When I entered the game, there were some cutscenes, and my character appeared on a beach. I went through the tutorial which taught the basics of combat and movement and unlocked the starter characters: Amber, Kaeya and Lisa.
The Good Part
The game has many interesting mechanics like cooking and fishing. The elements and elemental reactions were a bit hard to understand, but eventually it made sense. The combat system is quite simple to learn and this game is quite simple to learn for a beginner. It’s open world so you have all the time in the world to explore and complete quests, so if you enjoy slower-paced, own time own target kind of games, this game is for you.
The Not So Good Part
However, this game has a wish system which basically allows you to get random characters and items. To get these characters and items, a lot of grinding is required as you have to complete quests to earn the currency needed. This makes the game quite addictive and you need self control to play it responsibly. To level up your characters and items, you have to grind a lot to get the appropriate items for your characters, making this game quite time consuming.
The Conclusion
For me, Genshin Impact is quite a fun game, is simple to learn, and has an amazing storyline. Despite that, I got bored of it after a while but still enjoyed it while it lasted. This experience completely changed my view of this game and trying it was quite an eye opener.
Sources
Genshin image: https://twitter.com/Genshin_7/status/1428700221484249095?s=20
