Valorant’s replay system is finally on its way

Valorant fans finally have news that a replay system is being added to the tactical shooter.

Since Valorant’s release, fans of the game have been begging Riot to have a replay function that would let players review their past matches. However, no official news was ever released that a replay feature would be there. People have taken to using streaming apps to record their gameplay, and third-party programs even popped up specifically to record highlights of games.

Riot said that a replay system was on its mind a while back, but players now have concrete news that one is on the way.

When is Valorant’s replay feature being released?

While Riot did confirm a Valorant replay feature, there’s unfortunately no release date or window for the replay system coming to Valorant. 

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The replay system has a prototype, but it’s proving to be a challenge for the team to bring to the game. Valorant technical lead Marcus Reid showed brief looks at the current prototype for replays, including the problems that arose with it.

According to Reid, Valorant wasn’t quite built for replay systems. Certain game features don’t work yet, and one of the examples he used is Split’s doors not shutting on replays. This happens because of how the game relays real-time information. This impacts everything from the timing of agent abilities to visual and audio effects, and it’s proving to be a lengthy challenge to get around. 

Developers have to change assets in the game itself, not just from a replay perspective. Because of this, the developers are taking their time to make sure they don’t accidentally break Valorant trying to update and fix these assets.  

Why do players want to see replays?

Replay systems exist in a ton of PvP games, and their major purpose is to help players get better by reviewing their gameplay.

It’s hard to see how to improve in the heat of the moment, and replay systems let players look back at a specific moment in a game and see how they could have handled a situation differently. Valorant is a competitive game, and a lot of players invest time to improve. Improving aim is easy enough with the shooting range, but players can’t work on decision-making without features like replay.