Riot Games dropped a full cinematic trailer for the upcoming VALORANT map Abyss, showcasing several spots where players could fall off to their doom—and fans can’t help but compare it to one of Counter-Strike’s classic playgrounds.
Riot revealed the new map on June 8, with the video starring many agents navigating through what seems to be a garden situated on top of an endless pit, which makes sense considering its name. The never-ending pit design is similar to Vertigo, a classic Counter-Strike map introduced in the franchise back in 2012 that lets you play on two of the highest floors in an under-construction skyscraper. FPS fans quickly noticed the resemblance, wondering if they could fall off to their death in Abyss like in Vertigo.
“The map from [a] bird eyes view looks an awful lot like de_vertigo from Counter-Strike,” one fan said in a June 8 Reddit thread. Several fans are also looking forward to losing rounds in their matches only because their teammates fell off the map, which will undoubtedly happen as they get their bearings in the first few weeks.
What makes Abyss different from Vertigo is the VALORANT map appears to have a massive hole in the center of what seems to be a Spike site. While you can fall off Vertigo’s edges, players can’t freefall from anywhere within the map’s boundaries. Riot is yet to confirm whether there’s going to be a barrier that will prevent players from walking off the map.
The developers did consider adding a pit in Pearl before its release in 2022 but opted not to move forward with the design upon release to ensure the map’s initial goal was met—which was to have a “deceptively simple” layout. Pearl also features a hole atop the ropes in front of the attackers’ spawn, but you can’t jump off the map from this spot.
The Abyss trailer ends the week on an exciting note for VALORANT as Riot’s tactical FPS is now set to arrive on consoles this year.
