Valorant is one of the most successful tactical shooter competitive games in the gaming industry and is the favorite for many players in the FPS scene. Riot Games, the developer of Valorant is now taking a next big step for their beloved title, pushing it to the Unreal Engine 5 from Unreal Engine 4.
Valorant is mainly developed on Unreal Engine 4 as a live-service game with constant updates to keep balance among all the gameplay mechanics. Riot Games is pretty consistent in bringing updates to Valorant to keep it fresh with new maps, new agents, new casual modes, map rotations, quality-of-life improvements, and more.
Moreover, the switching move of Valorant to Unreal Engine 5 can bring even more possibilities for exciting events and features in the game, but it can also bring one of the most terrifying possibilities, and that is performance issues.
Valorant’s Studio Head Speaks About Switching Valorant to Unreal Engine 5
Recently, Valorant’s Studio Head, Anna Donlon revealed the big next step for Valorant at the Unreal Fest Seattle 2024. She headlines the move of Valorant from current Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5 for potential change in how VAL will look and how many opportunities will it unlock for the Devs to bring exciting gameplay experiences.
However, none of it can be done immediately and Anna said this herself, “This upgrade is not going to significantly change how VAL looks or performs, at least not right away.” We have seen the potential of Unreal Engine 5 in various games this year, and we know for sure that all fans will be enlightened by seeing Valorant in an improved image, but it might concern the overall performance of the game.
Moreover, while speaking about the grand next step, Anna also proposed the reason for switching to Unreal Engine 5 – the limitations of old technology. With such limitations from the game’s engine, the Devs can’t really bring any exciting gameplay experiences to the players so it does make sense to move the game to a newer technology for more possibilities.
Speaking of the Devs, Anna also gave a little glimpse of possibilities with Valorant moving to Unreal Engine 5. “Maybe, devs are working on something I can’t talk about. Maybe those devs are thinking about ways to expand the VAL universe into new playable experiences. […] And maube we are super stoked that because we chose Unreal for VAL, we can move those devs around, and our tech around, and everything around really easily to explore those totally hypothetical new playable experiences.”
Fans Reactions and Speculations for Future Features
Obviously, the fans didn’t overlook this big step from Riot Games to move their beloved tactical shooter to a much-advanced engine, and they started speculating the possible features that Devs might add to Valorant. Some of the fans are speculating that the Devs might add “singleplayer missions based around the agents. And or, singleplayer lore missions that accompany cinematics.” Now this is possible and we might see some campaign action in Valorant like we did in Overwatch 2.
Moreover, fans are also speculating that Riot might be releasing a new game completely and it could be Valorant 2. Despite these speculations, one of the genuine features that players/fans are eagerly waiting for is the Replay System. Fans are excited with this news as the new engine might give Devs the chance to release the Replay System in Valorant.
The Replay System will allow players to review their previously played matches will help them best their mistakes, and clip out a clutch, or dominating round.
Whatever the case, the fans are now both thrilled and excited with this news and they are waiting what Riot Games will bring to Valorant with Unreal Engine 5.