Unreal Engine: Introduction and First Impressions

Over the past year of using Unity, it seems to have a huge reputation for being user-friendly, and has a wide target audience - especially beginners and hobbyists. During this time I have never used Unreal, and built up an expectation of it to be a complex game engine designed for the experienced, with little to no support. - unlike Unity.

The first options displayed when I opened Unreal. I selected 'First Person', which provided me with the base of a first-person shooter game.

Once I had loaded Unreal, in the first few seconds it seemed daunting due to all the alien tools and visuals, which can be expected with anything as large and complex as a game engine. 

Before I had time to build up any worries, I was prompted with an invitation to a tutorial. Unreal provided me with a step-by-step walk-through tutorial of the basics, which was very visually pleasing and simple to understand, with no prior knowledge required.

Furthermore, there seems to be a huge amount of help and support available, which is accessible through the help tab at the top of Unreal.

Immediately, I was able to start creating textured pillars and staircases. With little or no knowledge, anybody has the ability to start creating a building block for their game. As a beginner, I find this to be more friendly and enticing to explore what other possibilities there are with the Unreal engine -leading to further progression, especially for beginners.

With Unity, I did not find it very daunting at first glance. Mainly due to not being surprised with the vast amounts of tools and complex interface. However, it looks particularly dull and I immediately find myself asking the question 'Where do I begin?'

There was no immediate tutorial to introduce me to Unity, nor is there via the help menu. Whilst there is plenty of content available online for Unity, I feel like you have to hunt for what you are looking for.

Unreal provided me with a template for the type of game I wanted instantly, whilst Unity has not provided any type of building block. Creating the same game objects I did in Unreal with the textures seems to be much more complex in Unity. For someone with experience it probably is not an issue because they may be using their own textures and such, but for someone less experienced I find it to be a huge appeal to have the ability to jump in and build your world, then focus on the details later on.

In the help menu, there are several applicable options for beginners amongst the other options. Personally, I don't find them particularly clear or obvious as Unreal. They also seem to be external sources rather than built into the engine itself.

Overall, I find Unreal extremely superior visually. As someone with my level of experience, I feel far more welcome and excited to delve into the Unreal Engine oppose to Unity. I have never used Blueprint or C++ language, whereas C# I have, this is one of the personal appeals of using Unity. Despite this, I look forward to exploring Unreal further.