The Greatest Graphics You’ll Ever See

            Last quarter, I wrote an article detailing what we can expect from the release of Unreal Engine 5 and this month we got to see what it can really do. Epic Games dropped the trailer and the gameplay teaser for The Matrix Awakens, a brand-new video game set in the Matrix universe. 

             The purpose of the trailer was less about the game’s and was more focused on the power of Unreal Engine. We already knew that Unreal Engine 5 could be the next big powerhouse in game design, but now we get to see what it looks like in an AAA game. The engine is suitable for open-world games, and we can see the mass AI generator and the number of cars and pedestrians that roam through the city. Lighting and reflections were top-notch, and we get to see how easy it is for the game to switch from day to night in an instant. 

            What is probably the most impressive in the trailer is the meta-human creator and how it was used in the game. Digital versions of Keanu Reeves and Carrie Anne Moss appear in the trailer and will most likely have roles in the game but what was so impressive was how realistic they looked in the in-game cutscenes. The uncanny valley is still present, and it will continue for many years to come, but the line between real and digitally created has become so thin that the average viewer could almost be convinced that it’s real.

            Of course, saying that this game has the greatest graphics you’ll ever see is entirely subjective. There’s a lot more to graphics than just whether it looks real or not, such as how lighting is used and game design. However, I can definitely say for myself that this is the greatest-looking city that has been created digitally. When showing aerial footage of the city, the part towards the end of the trailer is the most mind-blowing visual that I have ever seen. I could show you this footage to a random person,and they would have no idea that it’s from a video game. 

It shows how fast video game graphics have come in the last ten years. To put it in perspective, Skyrim came out ten years ago, and while that was ahead of its time, it is a night and day difference in terms of graphic fidelity. After watching this trailer, it  makes you wonder how much better video game graphics can get since it’s achieved near photorealism already. However, It might not take that long, given how fast the technology has evolved. The Matrix Awakens is just one of the first big games to be built in Unreal 5, and I’m curious to see what other big-budget games will be created in it as well.