What you can expect when Valorant moves to Unreal Engine 5

FPS games usually aren’t too demanding, especially those that are competitively free-to-play. For these types of games, the more players that play the game the better it is for the company, which is why developers like Riot Games and Valve ensure the maximum number of players are able to play their games.

It’s because of this that so many players were surprised by the announcement that Valorant was planning to move to Unreal Engine 5. Since the upgraded game engine is a significant upgrade from the current UE4, those who don’t have powerful PCs or laptops are worried they might not be able to play their favorite FPS game when it eventually makes the move. Fortunately, that doesn’t look to be the case.

Today, we’re here to go through everything you can expect when Valorant eventually moves to Unreal Engine 5.

Is Valorant moving to Unreal Engine 5?

At Unreal Fest 2024, Riot Games executive producer Anna Donlon announced that Valorant will transition to Unreal Engine 5, stating that the team has "squeezed every bit of potential' from Unreal Engine 4". While it may be difficult to switch to a different engine, especially considering that Valorant is a live-service game, she said its addition is necessary for the game to grow. 

It's unknown when players can expect this change to take effect. However, it'll likely take a while, especially since Riot recently released the game for consoles, and making it again using a different engine would be counter-intuitive.

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What could players expect to see when Valorants moves to Unreal Engine 5?

Unreal Engine 5 introduces numerous changes and upgrades compared to its previous version, so players can expect many improvements after Valorant moves to the new engine. These upgrades include multiple components such as graphic options, faster development, a long-awaited feature, and more.

Graphical changes

Although Donlon said Valorant won’t get graphical upgrades with Unreal Engine 5, it’s safe to assume that players can expect more options and variety in the settings menu. For example, the upgrade might let people with weaker PCs utilize AMD FSR to improve their framerate or use Unreal Engine 5’s upscaler, TSR. 

Unreal Engine 5 has a better global illumination system thanks to Lumen and has Nanite and virtual shadow maps, increasing the visual fidelity. Even though the game won’t utilize these new features immediately, it’s easy to assume that Riot may upgrade the graphics later down the line when they need to to keep things fresh, similar to how Valve gave Counter-Strike a graphical overhaul when it switched to a newer engine. 

Quicker updates

With a new engine, Riot can develop new things for the game faster since they’ll have way more tools at their disposal. It takes Riot about 2-3 acts to release a fresh map or character. However, with Unreal Engine 5, that time could be reduced, which could quickly increase the number of playable characters in the game and how many updates it gets per episode. 

There’s a good chance that a new engine will allow Riot to create more sophisticated agents, which have a more sophisticated set of abilities as opposed to most of the simple ones in the game. For example, they could replicate the agent in Rainbow Six Siege, where players control two people instead of one.

A replay system

One of the most requested features in Valorant is a replay system that allows players to look at their older matches. Counter-Strike has had a replay functionality since the Global Offensive days that lets people look at previous matches and everything during the match. The feature allows people to examine the entire game from any angle, as well as player POVs, and it also has X-rays and line-of-sights to get an idea of what everyone is seeing.

Valorant fans have been asking for this feature since the game’s launch, and unfortunately, it’s still unavailable in the main game. There are replay systems in the Chinese version of Valorant and its mobile port, but they are barebones. Riot has addressed the lack of replay functionality and said it will take some time since it’s a complicated feature. Unreal Engine 5 might have the tools the company needs to bring the system to light.

Futureproof the title and might add cross-platform

The biggest reason behind Riot’s decision to switch to Unreal Engine 5 is likely to futureproof Valorant. Since Unreal Engine 5 is a newer technology, it gets more updates and support from Epic Games, so Riot can always consult them whenever they get stuck somewhere. 

Also, Unreal Engine games have a reputation for almost always having crossplay. Some examples include Fortnite, Tekken 8, The Finals, and Marvel Rivals. With the new engine, there’s a good chance that Riot may implement crossplay between PC and consoles to the game, at least only for the custom games, so players on different platforms can compete with each other.

New Playable Experiences

Riot mentioned during Unreal Fest that Unreal Engine 5 will allow them to add new “Playable Experiences” to Valorant later. It’s a vague statement, but there’s a good chance that Valorant could get limited-time modes with various themes moving forward, similar to how Overwatch constantly has PvE events like Junkenstein’s Revenge or Overwatch Uprising.

There’s a high likelihood that it could allow Riot to make spin-offs for the game, similar to how League of Legends has Teamfight Tactics. In Valorant’s case, Riot can make story games that could tell the tales of various characters from the title to add more lore to the franchise.