The internet is full of lists. List of games with great gameplay. List of games with great story. List of games with great graphics.As much as we talk about the gameplay, the graphics, the mechanics, sometimes we ignore the framework on which all these are built. Those frameworks are called Game Engines. Today we look at a list of some of the best game engines out there. Why? Because “SWAG” (ok that made no sense).
Some game developers tend to create their own game engines, while most others license Game Engines produced by others to work on their games. For a game-dev choosing its game engine is perhaps the most critical and the most discussed topic during development. Today we look at some of the popular Game Engines in the world right now.
Company- EA DICE (Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment)
Game- Battlefield Hardline
EA mainly focuses on games being realistic, be it FIFA or Need for Speed. They have very less competition in terms of that since both Battlefield and Crysis, two of the best looking games under them. This Swedish studio stands as one of the engines with excellent video and audio capabilities and is one of the most stable engines till date.
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Naughty Dog Engine
Company- Naughty Dog
Game- The Last Of Us
One of the most creative studios I’ve ever seen, and its game engine is fantastic. Giving us games like The Last Of Us and Uncharted series who are very good looking and have a fine touch to them. The engine does not have versions and just upgrades according to the generation of games. The particle effects and the detailing of this engine are top notch but still lack the depth of now defunct Crytek’s Cryengine (Which is actually on a totally different level).
Company- Epic Games
Game- Mass Effect
Unreal Engine 4 is free to download and use.
Unreal Engine is another visually exceptional engine with great particle effects and lighting. This engine has powered quite a few AAA titles such as Deus Ex, Batman, Mirror’s Edge etc. Now the latest iteration of the engine has taken the visuals to a new level of visuals- Photo-realism. Though this has not been implemented in games as yet, we’re sure to have games running on this engine rolling out by next year.
Company- Unity
Game- Pillars Of Eternity
Unity engine is free to download and use.
Unity was basically an engine which supported multiple platforms before 2014-15. Till recently they were not recognized for their visual capabilities, which Unity proved that otherwise by releasing a short movie to demonstrate the engine. This engine is highly flexible and games can be ported from one platform to another which is quite good for modern games.
Company- Crytek
Game- Crysis 3
As I’ve mentioned in the article above, CryEngine is simply out of the world and simply blows your mind. The visuals are just so precise that if you are even able to play at High settings the game looks awesome. Those who have played Crysis 3 will know how great the visuals are. Most game developers today spike up the system requirements just because devs are too lazy to port games to PC’s. But you can clearly see the difference between those games and Crysis. And also I will add the fact that the true potential 0f this engine can only be achieved on a high end PC.
Honorable Mentions:
Honorable mentions include the Snowdrop engine which would be powering The Divison. Similarly the Tell Tale Game Engine does not boast of great graphics but are popular for their cell shaded comic book feel and powers the current crop of Tell Tale Games including the Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us and the upcoming Minecraft Story Mode.
There are of course a lot of game engines out there. But these are our personal pics. Both Unity and Unreal are free game engines that can be downloaded and setup on your computer without any extra costs, and are perfect starting points for budding game-devs. Other engines are either licensed or are in-house products. So getting your hands on them, might cost you some moolah.
What do you think of this star-studded Game Engine lineup. Which one do you think produces the best game. Did we miss out on any. Let us know in the comments. Any other questions regarding these game engines, ask us in the comments.