In a recent interview, Valorant head Anna Donlon shared her thoughts on the company's desire to move the game to the newer Unreal Engine 5 (UE5). Since its release, the game has regularly undergone various updates and improvements, but this time the developers have decided to take a more serious step. Our editors have decided to collect for you in one place all the available information regarding the upcoming changes in Valorant with the transition to a more modern engine.
Statements from Valorant studio head Anna Donlon
Studio head Anna Donlon said that the company made the most of what Unreal Engine 4 could give them, so the decision was made to move the game to a more recent version. Although their team understands all the difficulties they will have to face, this decision is final and the developers have already started porting Valorant to UE 5.
She also added that players should not worry, since there will be no major external changes immediately after the game is postponed. However, she hinted that this could happen in the future, which got a large number of players excited.
Users paid special attention to Donlan’s words regarding ways to expand the Valorant universe. There are already a lot of rumors online regarding the concept, following the example of Overwatch, with the introduction of a PVE mode to the game.
While she couldn't provide details, she noted that the move to UE5 allows Riot to explore new ways to improve the gameplay experience and create more options for players.
How did players react to Riot Games' desire to port Valorant to Unreal Engine 5?
After the news of Valorant's transition to Unreal Engine 5 was published on various social platforms such as Reddit and X, the community began to discuss the future of the game. Many players are afraid that the transition of the game to new “rails” will entail many technical and graphical innovations that could affect the gaming experience.
Valorant performance on Unreal Engine 5
Most players are primarily concerned performance of Valorant and fear that the transition to a new engine could significantly increase the load on their devices. The game's community is largely skeptical and believes that these implementations are likely to have a negative effect and affect the gameplay.
Under a post about Valorant switching to a new engine, many users are asking the following question:
What are the chances this will make the game harder to run? It’s one of the few games where I get high frames, lol.Quote from Reddit user Competitive-Park9200
However, some users are optimistic about the outcome of Riot’s team’s efforts:
If it helps ease your mind, Anna still understands that their main priorities have always been optimization and competitiveness. You can be sure they wouldn’t make this move unless they were confident in a minimal level of risk.Quote from Reddit user Céleste
These concerns are based on numerous bugs that players are experiencing in the current version of Valorant. Will Riot be able to continue optimizing the game and fixing old problems, or will the transition to Unreal Engine 5 bring even more difficulties? Share your opinion in the comments.
However, there are also players who claim the opposite:
Interestingly, on modern hardware it can perform even better than UE 4 if you disable some settings. UE 5 uses more RAM, but in turn can reduce CPU load and dependency on disk performance. If developers have a good understanding of UE 5 and know how to optimize resources, they can significantly improve the game's performance. However, this is an ideal scenario and in reality there are many factors that can cause UE 5 performance to deteriorate.Quote from Reddit user FryCakes
Thus, opinions within the community differ; some believe that Riot will be able to fully optimize the game on the new engine, but most players agree that Valorant will have huge problems at launch.
Concerns about Valorant graphics changes
Some players have expressed concern about possible changes in graphics quality, citing the example of League of Legends switching to a more modern engine.
League of Legends also had a similar situation. The developers promised that they will make every effort to maintain clarity on the battlefield. But watching the game now, it's hard to even tell who is who because of the many different skins. I myself played for 7 years, and this problem is especially acute.Quote from Reddit user Belarock
Although Valorant only has skins for weapons and finishing effects, the game is full of different abilities, the display of which plays a key role. In this regard, players fear that Valorant's transition to Unreal Engine 5 may entail changes in graphics, which will further affect the gameplay.
Some users are focusing on the fact that Riot Games has made similar statements before, assuring they could maintain good performance, but that didn’t happen.
I think he’s just pointing out that they’ve made this kind of statement before and failed to deliver.Quote from Reddit user fortune82
Expansion of the Valorant universe and new gaming features
As we mentioned above, players were hooked on the idea of introducing and expanding the lore of Valorant along the lines of another popular shooter, Overwatch. There is an opinion among users that with the transition of Valorant to UE 5, a PVE mode may appear in the game, which will reveal the lore of the world and its agents in more detail.
Overwatch 2 was originally planned as a full-fledged sequel focused on PvE. The full story was detailed by Jason Schreier. The project failed because the game's original director insisted on developing both PvP and PvE simultaneously, which proved impossible. Bobby Kotick wanted a completely new development team to work on PvE.Quote from Reddit user ElJacko170
It's unlikely that Valorant will suffer the same fate as Overwatch 2, but such thoughts are increasingly appearing on X, Reddit and Twitch.
It’s unlikely that Valorant will suffer the same fate as Overwatch 2, but similar thoughts are increasingly appearing on X, Reddit, and Twitch. Players are speculating about a potential PvE mode, with various theories and ideas circulating.
One user suggests that the new content will focus on revealing the agents’ personalities, introducing individual missions for each of them.
I'm calling it—single-player, agent-based missions. Or solo story missions that come with cinematic cutscenes.Quote from Reddit user FineBroccoli5
Many players remain disappointed with Activision Blizzard's handling of Overwatch’s reboot and are hopeful that Riot will succeed where Blizzard fell short.
After what happened with Overwatch 2, it would be a dream come true if Valorant did the opposite and delivered something similar.Quote from Reddit user RicoViking9000
In conclusion, we note that the transition of Valorant to Unreal Engine 5 opens up new horizons for both developers and players. While concerns about performance and graphics changes are justified, the community is showing interest in what improvements the new version of the engine might offer. The possibility of expanding the Valorant universe and introducing new game modes such as PvE.
Comments