When I first came across Crucible and Valorant, it seemed very clear to me that they were competing in the market. However, what also became quickly apparent to me was that Riot’s Valorant was already ahead of the competition when they were still in closed beta even though Amazon’s Crucible was already live.
Crucible
Courtesy: Amazon Game Studios
From the plethora of gameplay and review videos I’ve seen, it seemed like my suspicions and the initial reviews were confirmed. The gameplay in Crucible goes past comfortably slow-paced and falls flat into boring. Crucible isn’t necessarily a bad game; it just simply feels quite underdeveloped. Trudging around the map feels almost as lost as the hunters themselves who don’t seem to fit into your familiar roles like tanks or supports. There is also only one map, leaving players relying on the three available game modes such as Alpha Hunters, Harvester Command and Heart of Hives for some variety, albeit not much.
While Crucible does clearly get some of its cues from other titles such as Overwatch and Apex Legends, it still wasn’t very clear to me why exactly Crucible wasn’t doing too well. My initial impressions of Crucible were quite positive, in the sense that it seemed more accessible to the common casual gamer compared to Valorant which heavily relied on skills translated from other popular games such as CS:GO.
After a little digging, I found that one of the reasons why Apex Legends seemed to have failed was because the game wasn’t regularly supported, and updates were rare. While this may not entirely relate to Crucible’s case, it certainly does seem like Crucible is going to have to make a gargantuan overhaul if it’s going to develop further.
Valorant
Courtesy: Riot Games
Valorant on the other hand had an incredible launch, especially after all the hype it managed to accumulate from its closed beta and popularity through Twitch. Although Valorant also takes its cues from other popular titles like Overwatch and CS:GO, their execution of the combination is definitely a lot better than Crucible’s.
Where Crucible failed in gameplay mechanics, Valorant highly emphasises on teamwork, creativity, and skill. Although Crucible tried to do something new with their game modes, Valorant took the familiarities and success of CS:GO and added the Overwatch elements to it. I don’t know if it can be said that this is something completely unique in the market, but it’s definitely very close.
One disappointment when it came to Crucible was how massive the map was and a lot of time was spent aimlessly traversing the terrain collecting various objectives; and when combat finally came, it was anticlimactic. Valorant on the other hand kept maps a lot smaller in comparison but the abilities that each agent has added so much more to the potential of the game itself. This seems to be especially true when it comes to the gameplay mechanics of Valorant and how it allows for a lot of creativity on the players’ part despite how simple the gameplay can be at its base, quite similar to CS:GO’s history of success.
Valorant even managed to nudge CS:GO out, leading them to roll out a heavy update with numerous tweaks to the game – or at least that’s what a lot of people seem to be thinking. However, it isn’t too far fetched to think that Valorant may overtake CS:GO if they continue to improve and gain more and more traction in the world of competitive esports.
You can check out both Crucible and Valorant for free now.
juni 
OPINION |
When I first came across Crucible and Valorant, it seemed very clear to me that they were competing in the market. However, what also became quickly apparent to me was that Riot’s Valorant was already ahead of the competition when they were still in closed beta even though Amazon’s Crucible was already live.
From the plethora of gameplay and review videos I’ve seen, it seemed like my suspicions and the initial reviews were confirmed. The gameplay in Crucible goes past comfortably slow-paced and falls flat into boring. Crucible isn’t necessarily a bad game; it just simply feels quite underdeveloped. Trudging around the map feels almost as lost as the hunters themselves who don’t seem to fit into your familiar roles like tanks or supports. There is also only one map, leaving players relying on the three available game modes such as Alpha Hunters, Harvester Command and Heart of Hives for some variety, albeit not much.
While Crucible does clearly get some of its cues from other titles such as Overwatch and Apex Legends, it still wasn’t very clear to me why exactly Crucible wasn’t doing too well. My initial impressions of Crucible were quite positive, in the sense that it seemed more accessible to the common casual gamer compared to Valorant which heavily relied on skills translated from other popular games such as CS:GO.
After a little digging, I found that one of the reasons why Apex Legends seemed to have failed was because the game wasn’t regularly supported, and updates were rare. While this may not entirely relate to Crucible’s case, it certainly does seem like Crucible is going to have to make a gargantuan overhaul if it’s going to develop further.
Valorant on the other hand had an incredible launch, especially after all the hype it managed to accumulate from its closed beta and popularity through Twitch. Although Valorant also takes its cues from other popular titles like Overwatch and CS:GO, their execution of the combination is definitely a lot better than Crucible’s.
Where Crucible failed in gameplay mechanics, Valorant highly emphasises on teamwork, creativity, and skill. Although Crucible tried to do something new with their game modes, Valorant took the familiarities and success of CS:GO and added the Overwatch elements to it. I don’t know if it can be said that this is something completely unique in the market, but it’s definitely very close.
One disappointment when it came to Crucible was how massive the map was and a lot of time was spent aimlessly traversing the terrain collecting various objectives; and when combat finally came, it was anticlimactic. Valorant on the other hand kept maps a lot smaller in comparison but the abilities that each agent has added so much more to the potential of the game itself. This seems to be especially true when it comes to the gameplay mechanics of Valorant and how it allows for a lot of creativity on the players’ part despite how simple the gameplay can be at its base, quite similar to CS:GO’s history of success.
Valorant even managed to nudge CS:GO out, leading them to roll out a heavy update with numerous tweaks to the game – or at least that’s what a lot of people seem to be thinking. However, it isn’t too far fetched to think that Valorant may overtake CS:GO if they continue to improve and gain more and more traction in the world of competitive esports.
You can check out both Crucible and Valorant for free now.
References
Crucible. https://www.playcrucible.com/en-us
gameranx. Valorant – Before You Buy. YouTube. 3 June 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6o6-9pVOwU
Jack Venz. Why did Apex Legends fail so hard and so fast, after beating Fortnite at launch? 31 August 2019. Quora. https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Apex-Legends-fail-so-hard-and-so-fast-after-beating-Fortnite-at-launch?share=1
Kyle Campbell. Crucible Review: Slow and unsteady ruins the pace. IGN. 28 May 2020. https://www.ign.com/articles/crucible-review
Naim Rosinki. Did the major CSGO update come out to counter Valorant? Daily Esports. 11 April 2020. https://www.dailyesports.gg/csgo-update-counter-valorant-bingelibangable/
Nick Statt. Amazon’s Crucible makes the best parts of League of Legends more accessible: A MOBA-shooter hybrid for the Twitch generation. The Verge. 19 May 2020. https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/19/21262435/amazon-crucible-review-free-to-play-team-shooter-moba-release-date
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License