There would be no charge from Riot Games for the Unreal Engine 5 upgrade for VALORANT, and the reactions? Wildly mixed. Some players are getting hyped about the performance upgrades, whilst others are currently attacking bugs about freezes and the classic “why did my settings reset?” hardship. Let’s talk through it because this update is… something really special.
To start with the positives. While this is refreshing, some players do note improvements. One player stated, “My friend used to take forever to load in Escalation matches-warm-up would start for him even though he hadn’t technically loaded yet. Now? They are in before warm-up even finishes. That is a win.”
One more said his aim felt sharper even on a loose 60Hz monitor, which is weird if true. Another win could be that for almost a 30GB storage chunk, being freed after the update. That maybe goes a long way for… more games, perhaps?
With that said… the bad part follows on. Frame drops? Check. Random stutters? Check. Audio issues? Another check? One player literally stated, “f no, nothing but frames dropping,” which is very much the mood. Another player’s Cypher cam would glitch out after exiting it-all of which is a nightmare for a character that heavily depends on his intel to compete. Classic “my settings got wiped” complaint, which never runs its course.
Some hopeful: “Give it some time; Riot will get to patching the bugs.” The reasonable folks just look at the whole situation side-eyed and wonder, “Why does it feel like we’re beta-testing this?” Your chaotic neutral: “I see no difference, and maybe that’s a good thing?”
Performance-wise? Mixed bag. Running smoother on some PCs and choking on others. Lost 100 FPS and blame Windows 10 (fair). Can’t even Alt-tab without the game freezing, which seems bad when he’s trying to Google “how to fix VALORANT freezing.”
Then comes the whole “Is this even Unreal Engine 5?” debate. Players say with a glare, “Where’s the visual upgrade? This looks the same.” Others put their trust on future patches to really let UE5 shine.
So… better? Depending on whom you ask. If your game runs smooth now then congratulations! If it stutters and chokes, then… check your drivers, run Riot Client as admin, and pray for a hotfix. Some tweaking from Riot is sure to come.
Final verdict? Lots of potential with this one, but for now, it’s a 50/50 with the heads being better performance and tails being better troubleshooting until the next patch lands.
