Breaking The Narrative
AN UNREAL STORY
With video game developers being on the epic quest of bringing virtual worlds as close to reality as possible, many seem to be missing the mark. The recent outings by Squanch Games and Grasshopper Manufacture have cemented the belief that Unreal Engine 5 is a disaster both for developers and the consumers who sample their products. ReSpawn Entertainment, the fabled EA owned developer suffered similar shortcomings with the launch of ‘Star Wars: Jedi Survivor’ which struggled to offer consistent performance with acceptable visuals across all platforms. In fact, general sentiment towards Epic’s video game engine has turned sour with many blaming poor video game performance on the actual engine. In turn, Tim Sweeney, Epic’s CEO has pointed out that developers spend a bulk of their time working on and for higher end machines to the detriment of the mass market consoles. This, in his view, has led to suboptimal ports of video games on lower end hardware. The advent of broken games at launch has trained many to expect the worst from developers using the platform to build their games. In spite of the narrative, UnReal is still the most popular and most accessible video game engine. While custom engines may offer more, Epic’s offering is a widely accessible tool which can be and is used by developers large and small irrespective of budget.
…moving to UnReal makes sense as the ubiquitous nature of the engine provides an ocean of talent in which developers can draw from.
With more and more developers ditching proprietary technology to adopt UnReal, there has been concern amongst consumers that they will be left with little choice as the market could be saturated with video games that run terribly and share similar visual underpinnings. From a business standpoint, moving to UnReal makes sense as the ubiquitous nature of the engine provides an ocean of talent in which developers can draw from. They are not limited to hiring from within their own companies or stuck training new recruits in usage of custom technology. Unfortunately, this also means that many are stuck within the limitations of the engine. If they operate within the limits, one could be forgiven for expecting their products to be better optimised. Sadly, it seems that even within these limits there are limitations. Infamously, Embark Studios, the fabled Ark Raiders developer have their game well optimised and running well by avoiding UE5’s headlining features i.e.The nanite lighting technology. Of course, this comes at a cost. There are noticeable visual compromises made. However, the developers have been able to provide an experience consistent with their vision and gamer’s desires from the multiplayer extraction shooter.
Hanger 13 have delivered a cinematic masterpiece that not only looks great but runs great across all platforms.
Hangar 13, the fabled developer under 2k Games behind the warmly received ‘Mafia:The Definitive Edition’ built their latest offering on Unreal Engine 5. The art direction, lighting, environmental story telling and world building in addition to the gameplay imbued the story of the Mafia remake with gravitas. This was built on Hanger 13’s Illusion Engine. ‘Mafia: The Old Country’ was developed and built on Unreal Engine 5. Gamers would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the titles. It is a visually stunning game with great lighting, great art direction, environmental story telling and the wonderfully rendered character models similar to those in the remake. Built with strict video game direction and a gameplay and story structure similar to the remake, Hanger 13 have delivered a cinematic masterpiece that not only looks great but runs great across all platforms. The existence of this title that has run great from launch calls into question the Unreal Engine 5 narrative. Here is a studio inexperienced in using the engine delivering a cinematic opus that is technically sound yet studios with more experience using epic’s engine have struggled to deliver stable products at launch.
While Embark Studio’s disabling of key UE5 technology in order to achieve their vision shades Epic’s engine in a poor light, Tim Sweeney’s comments seem to hold water. This is evidenced by multiple titles that run great on the engine with acceptable visuals. It calls into question development cycles and resource management. Perhaps some studios are letting their ambitions run wild without sensible voices reeling them in on what can and cannot be achieved in their allotted development time. Unrealistic expectations leading to realistic failures.
Image credits in order of appearance: Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay; Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay