Omen—a mysterious, teleporting assassin—is Valorant's latest character reveal. He's a sneaky fella with a penchant for befuddling enemies by blinding them with shadows. Watch him do his thing above.
Like a lot of his pals, Omen bears a striking resemblence to one of Overwatch's roster. This time it's Reaper, and it's pretty hard to believe any of this is accidental. It's bold, really, hewing so close to a competitor's design. Generally, Riot seems to be borrowing a lot from Blizzard's playbook, but it's especially overt in Valorant.
Like Brimstone, who channels Soldier 76, Omen stops short of just being a replica. Sure, he looks like Reaper, and more than one of his abilities evoke Overwatch's biggest edgelord, but there are just enough differences so you can tell them apart.
OMEN /// UNKNOWN“You thought you were safe”#VALORANT pic.twitter.com/sCosoDqe02April 23, 2020
One of Omen's basic abilities, Shrouded Step, is essentially Reaper's Shadow Step, teleporting him to a marked location after spending a couple of seconds channelling. It's accompanied by a blinding ability, letting you fire a shadow projectile that reduces the vision of anyone it hits.
Dark Cover is his signature move, and it's like a beefier version of his shadow projectile, letting you create a large sphere of darkness, blinding anyone caught inside it. It'll stick around for a little while, and you've got some control over where it lands.
His ultimate ability is another teleporting trick, but this time you can select the location from a tactical map. Be careful, though, because enemies can shoot you while you're in your teleporting shade form, cancelling the move.
For all the details on Valorant's cast of killers, take a gander at our Valorant characters guide. If you want to play now, your best bet is watching Valorant Twitch streams. Beta keys can drop from any of them.
