It has been five years since "Valorant" debuted, and the game is now celebrating its fifth anniversary with a massive announcement of new features to enjoy soon.
Riot Games is now switching the game engine that the game is running on to Unreal Engine 5. Players can also soon expected game replays for the game.
'Valorant' Is Switching to Unreal Engine 5
Developers over at Riot Games have prepared for the massive celebration of "Valorant's" 5th anniversary with significant new content as new maps and experiences coming later this month. However, that is not yet the biggest change in the game based on their latest announcement, particularly as the company is set to deliver a change to the action shooter soon.
Since "Valorant" launched in beta, it ran on the last-gen Unreal Engine 4 technology from Epic Games. Since its official launch in 2020, the game has used it for the duration of its run. That being said, this is about to change in the coming months as the developers shared that "Valorant" will soon use Unreal Engine 5 come July.
Players may expect the Unreal Engine 5 change when "Valorant's" 11.02 patch arrives by the end of July, and Riot Games is promising that there will not be any disruptions to the gameplay once it drops. Alongside this, Riot Games claims that there will be several updates to the experience, with The Verge speculating on character model and animation improvements.
With this engine upgrade, Riot Games would be able to improve the framerate performance of the game, with patch downloads in the future guaranteed to be faster and a commemorative special gun buddy coming for free to all players.
Game Replays Are Coming to 'Valorant'
Apart from the Unreal Engine 5 upgrade, Riot Games also has another feature that is slated for "Valorant's" future update as part of its 5th anniversary celebration, and that is the arrival of replays.
There will now be a replay system for the game following the massive demand from the public which asked for the experience to be available to "Valorant."
Coming with patch 11.06 for September, the game replay system will first be exclusively available to the PC platform. Later, it will also be available to consoles as promised by the developers.
Through this game replay system, players may bring up a recent performance in a competitive game, available for them to analyze and review to their liking, with more replay modes coming in the future.
Apart from the ability to replay one's performance, players may also use this feature to keep tabs on their teammates or opponents who may be using cheating technology or who are purposely throwing the game.
With this, they may submit reports backed by video evidence and help improve the gameplay for all.
