The Greatest Game Engines

 

A game engine is responsible for the look and feel of any videogame—and that’s about the most oversimplified way they can be defined. It works, for the sake of enjoyment value of reading this article, to focus not on the technical backdrops of how game engines (essentially a network of many different softwares, each working together to translate the videogame experience from the developers end to the players’) work in all their magnificent detail but to simply describe what they mean for the games they power and what makes them as great as they are. 

 

So to narrow down the vast technical aspects of game engines into something that makes the overall reading experience more fun than overly indulgent, we’ll just reduce all the different parameters of both the inside and the outside of game engines into just two simple categories—realism and scalability. The former is about the overall presentation (from graphical richness to animation details) and the latter is how much accommodative it can get, which means their usability across different platforms and their degree of adapting themselves to a wide range of systems.

Alright, enough with the descriptions, let’s just dive into the 4 greatest game engines that have excelled in both of these categories relentlessly for more than a decade. From powering a wide array of videogames across many different genres and at the same time, continuously pushing the boundaries of visuals in their own ways, it’s safe to say that the state of videogames wouldn’t have been the same without these great game engines. So it’s only about time that they are celebrated in all of their gloriously unique ways.

4—Unreal Engine 3: 

 

These visuals were unbelievable back in 2006...

Ever since it first came out in 2006 with Gears of War, the Unreal Engine 3 has been a massive hit among both gamers and the developers themselves. I remember a popular gaming magazine stating that Gears of War had made Doom 3, which was one of the highest rated title back then when it came to visuals, look like Pacman. And the engine has only gotten better and better with time, while at the same time powering the most diverse range of videogames across different genres and platforms. Everything from the genre redefining third person action adventure titles like the Batman Arkham series to first person shooter hall of famers such as the Bioshock series, the Unreal Engine 3 is probably the single most widely used game engine we’ve ever seen, and for good reasons.

Still looks good enough...

When it comes to scalability, I don’t think anything can or has surpassed the Unreal 3. The sheer catalogue of games—everything from FPS’ to RPG’s to hack-and-slash titles and the fact that it's being used since the days of XBOX 360 and PS3 to even the latest versions of the said consoles, the Unreal 3 is simply the king of longevity among all the game engines out there. And the best thing about this engine is that it didn’t need to trade on it’s visual horsepower to become what it is.

Batman: Arkham Knight is the penultimate tour de force of Unreal 3

A great example of this fact is Batman Arkham Knight—a visual stunner of a game that came out in 2015 and still manages to look better than the majority of videogames out there right now. In fact, the generational leap in it’s visuals become more obvious when you take into account that this is the same engine that powered Arkham Asylum from 2008, which was definitely one of the more visually impressive titles of it’s time. The fact that it can deliver such jaw dropping results even well after a decade only showcase why the Unreal 3 has been one of the most developer-friendly, endearing game engine ever made.

3—Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE): 

 

Behold...

Powering some of the most acclaimed titles of all time, Rockstar’s proprietary engine has evolved and is still continuing to wow gamers for more than a decade. One only needs to look at the games themselves to know just how powerful and versatile RAGE is—from massive open world franchises like the GTA and the Red Dead Redemption series' to narrower action shooter like Max Payne 3, all of these genre defining titles bear the handiwork of this engine.

One of the best things about RAGE is that it can render both outdoor and indoor environments with a phenomenal degree of detail and realism. Just look at RDR 2, which is rightfully regarded as one of the highest yardsticks of visuals in gaming, the visual fidelity achieved in this game is unmatched, as of right now. 

 

You're really looking at an in-game screenshot here

The Age of Photorealism in Videogames is finally here

But what truly sets Rockstar’s engine apart from all other game engines out there, is Euphoria—a subsystem of the engine which combines both physics and animations to create unbelievably realistic character movements. It’s safe to say that when it comes to depicting animations in videogames, Euphoria is the one that can come the closest to reality. 

 

 

2—Frostbite Engine:  

 

All outta words...

 

Bringing the ever realistic worlds of videogames to life for more than a decade, the Frostbite engine has repeatedly surpassed itself and is currently one of the most visually rich engines out there, complete with all the advanced rendering technologies (such as fully Ray Traced reflections and lighting) imaginable. One of it’s biggest strengths is how the engine handles physics—the fully destructible levels of Battlefield 2042, heck even from the earlier games in the series, is just unbelievable for a videogame, and a true showcase of how far game engines have come. 

 

 

 The Procedural destruction in the Frostbite engine sets it apart from most other game engines.

Extreme visual realism--that's Frostbite engine for you

It has also become one of the most all-rounded and developer-friendly engines, as evident by the sheer number of games that it has and is continuing to power—from open world RPG’s like Dragon Age Inquisition to racing titles like the Need for Speed 2015, to fps' like Battlefield to even sports titles like the FIFA series, the Frostbite engine has worked it’s magic in an incredibly diverse range of videogame frameworks. Although the main strength of this engine lies in rendering gorgeous open worlds with an unprecedented amount of detail and realism, it has proved it’s mettle in all sorts of videogame designs that the developers can come up with.

Frostbite 3 in NFS 2015 vs Real Life, can you spot the difference?

More Frostbite 3 eye candy, cause why not?

The Frostbite engine certainly looks like it’s on it’s way to eventually replace the Unreal 3 to become the most developer friendly and versatile game engine, ever.

1—Cryengine: 

 

Crysis vs Real Life--now that's what the Cryengine looked like way back in 2007...

The last Cryengine based AAA title was Crysis 3, and that game came out nearly 8 years ago while in that time span all the other engines in this list have made so much improvements that at first it could very well seem that the once mighty Cryengine is perhaps no longer relevant any more. So why is it that this engine is still at the very top of this list?

Well, firstly, there’s no other game engine that can render the natural, organic look and feel that the Cryengine has achieved so far, also it’s the only engine out there that can render all kinds of indoor and outdoor environments with an equally unparalleled scale and realism.

...and that's how the Cryengine looks in 2021.

Take the original Crysis, sure the other engines listed here have also rendered great natural, open ended levels with an incredible amount of detail, but none has done on the scale of Crysis—where not only there’s a whole lot more 3D objects at any instant, but all of those objects use physics and are fully interactive as well. In fact, each blade of grass has it’s own shadows and physical properties that can also interact with other in-game objects in a completely realistic way.

The level of frantic realism that Crysis offered whenever you engaged with the enemy AI all at once, is still a technological marvel and didn't really get old with time. With leaves being shot off from the trees all around you, the trees themselves falling down left and right, smoke and dust particles kicking up your visions----it’s just all-out, frenzied visual extravaganza that manages to feel organic and emergent at the same time.  

That's mighty realistic...

But do keep in mind that the Cryengine came up with these back in 2007, so to even call these groundbreaking would be an understatement. In fact there’s no other engine, ever, which could shook the entire gaming industry as well as the entire computer hardware industry like Crysis. So much so that it has become the stuff of legends in both the gaming and the hardware community, a symbol of obscene prejudice in graphical extremes that resonates well enough to this day, to such an extent that the Remastered version of Crysis has included the now-mythical ‘can it run Crysis’ phrase as it’s maximum graphical setting.

Talk about making a mark, well, Cryengine 2 didn’t just make a mark, it put a massive hole through the videogame graphical landscape with a freaking sledgehammer.

The Cryengine is unparalleled when it comes to depicting natural, organic environments

Also, where most other engines simply integrate the newer, more advanced rendering technologies into themselves, the Cryengine does all of that while also developing a slew of unique graphical features of their own that you won’t really find anywhere else. Visual wizardry like Vegetation Touch Bending, Mesh and Terrain Blending, Realistic cloth and rope simulations—these might seem relatively ‘smaller’ in scale but together they just add an extra layer of realism to the engine.  

So coupled with it’s power to deliver sheer realism on a scale that’s hard to replicate, along with it’s many groundbreaking and truly unique visual features, the Cryengine still takes the crown of being the most potent engine for graphical greatness in videogame history.

And with that, this list comes to it’s close. Do let me know if you agree or disagree with this particular viewpoint on these great 3D canvases of imagination, or what is your preferred choice of game engine, based on rendering power and realism. Shoot away at the comments section.