You see it all over social media…

Unreal 5 is ruining gaming!

But is it really?

Unreal Engine 5 is a popular scapegoat on social media for “ruining” gaming these days.

But is it really or is this a case of misinformation gone wild?

Let’s look at the arguments and decide for ourselves!

1. It’s unoptimized!

In my experience Unreal 5 is highly optimized IF you actually optimize your games and that goes for every game engine ever created.

This isn’t a Unreal 5 problem it’s a problem with big AAA studios doing insane crunch and not optimizing because unfortunately they found consumers will still purchase their games unoptimized.

I have yet to see a case where this a criticism of a indie game since they tend to be more optimized.

 2. It prioritizes graphics over gameplay!

This one may have a little more truth to it…

Unreal 5 DOES needs more 2D support even though it’s far from impossible to do. (PaperZD comes to mind.)

I’d love if they had 2D or more 2.5D samples as of right now they only have a 2.5D Platforming one.

As for a focus on cutting edge graphics over gameplay…this again is a AAA problem of style over substance.

You CAN have both as one of my favorite games of the last decade “Astro Bot” proves.

It’s just that AAA studios have discovered it’s easier now to have amazing graphics then good gameplay.

It’s like movies, pretty much all CG looks amazing or at least decent now so it’s no longer impressive to just “have it” it just depends on how it’s used.

The only way this is a Unreal 5 problem is that Unreal 5 makes great graphics very easy which let’s developers use it as a crutch.

3. Ray Tracing is evil!

This is an argument that I’ll never understand that I’ve seen all over.

Ray Tracing doesn’t effect the optimization of a game at all and in every case I’ve seen at least it’s completely optional.

It’s a personal preference and dependent on what hardware you have.

I SUPPOSE we could be generous and say prioritizing ray-tracing may theoretically detract from gameplay and optimization but that is true of all game engines.

I’ll update this list based on feedback and new arguments I see but for now I think I captured the main arguments.

To me the “Unreal 5 Problem” is actually an indictment of common AAA practices as opposed to the engine itself.

Let me know what you guys think though!

Until then I’m Nathan Edward Priem and that…was something else!