Ground Branch Chapter 1 Lands November 12, and the Game Is Moving to Unreal Engine 5

Ground Branch fans spent most of October waiting on Chapter 1. Instead of a release, BlackFoot Studios gave them a new date and a bigger bombshell.

In Intel Report #034, posted October 29, the team confirmed that Version 1.1.0, which includes Chapter 1 of the Operations campaign, now lands on November 12. That's about two weeks later than the "end of October" target from Intel Report #033. Then, a few paragraphs down, came the headline nobody had on their bingo card: Ground Branch is moving to Unreal Engine 5.8.

What's actually in Chapter 1

The slip is small, and the update still looks big. Chapter 1 adds a new Operations hotspot in the Persian Gulf with three missions set on the Tanker, Rig and Docks maps. Docks is getting a small rework for its mission. You'll also brief and gear up in the first campaign-specific Ready Room, a section of an aircraft carrier. The Northwest Pakistan hotspot from 1.0 gets its own Ready Room too, a temporary ops center set up inside a local house.

The AI work is where it gets interesting for anyone who plays this game slow:

• Civilians with alarm panels. Civilians wander until they spot a threat, then run to the nearest alarm panel, hit it, and head for a hiding spot. Players can use those panels too, and setting one off fires a real game event that missions can react to.
• HVT captures. An unarmed high-value target spawns with its own guard squad. Drop every guard and the HVT kneels and surrenders. Then you can take them into custody and give them the same Fall In, Move To, Take Cover and Hold commands you'd give a freed hostage.
• Less frozen AI. Guards at the end of a patrol route now play idle animations instead of standing still. AI grenade use is now a per-map setting and is switched off on Rig and Tanker, where the devs said grenades were dominating close-quarters fights and, with flammables everywhere, explosions are "a no-no."

On the gear side, there's a U100 MK3 in the light machine gun slot: 5.56, a 100-round drum and a long top rail. Several Russian-made optics, a new laser aiming module and "a certain bolt-action rifle" are also on the way. Face paint arrives in Jungle, Sand, Solid, Urban and Woodland, and broken windows will finally let sound through instead of acting like they're still there.

One thing is still missing. Friendly AI was planned for Chapter 1 and "will need a little longer in the oven," so Operations stays solo or player co-op for now. Like everything on the roadmap, the update is free for anyone who owns the game.

The UE5 surprise

This is the part that has kept the Steam forums busy since Thursday. BlackFoot says UE4 "has been visually showing its age," that plugins it relies on are dropping UE4 support, and that UE5 natively handles features the team has been backporting by hand. A dedicated team is doing the migration in parallel with regular UE4.27 work, so 1.1.0 still ships on UE4 on November 12. The studio called the UE5 version "a near-future endeavor" and gave no date.

That's a real change in tone. Back in December 2023, a developer replying in a Steam performance thread said "moving to UE5 isn't an option for us for GB." Now it's happening, with low-res teaser clips showing better lighting and atmosphere and a hint of weather effects.

The reaction in the Steam discussions has been split. One player said they were happy about the move but worried, since UE5 games they'd tried looked "like clay" and were "almost impossible to play" on their machine. Others were blunter. One thread was titled "Let's migrate a failed 1.0 to a new engine," and its author called the game "floundering in a broken 1.0 state devoid of any meaningful content." Another player listed the entry system, medical system and mission briefings as still unfinished after all these years and asked why the engine is the priority.

Over on X, MicroProse played up the new hotspot and campaign-specific Ready Rooms, and the official Ground Branch account pointed people to the dev blog, where the larger UE5 previews live.

Both sides have a point. CPU performance has been Ground Branch's sore spot for years, and in that same 2023 thread the devs admitted UE5 is "better threaded." But hardware requirements will matter a lot to players on older rigs, and nobody knows them yet.

Why November 12 matters for units

If you run a Ground Branch group, 1.1.0 is the first big content update since 1.0. HVT snatches, civilians who can blow your cover, and a carrier Ready Room are all made for a planned ops night. It's also a busy date. WARDOGS Season 3 is reportedly landing the same day, so units that play both will have to pick which one gets the first night.

The UE5 move is a longer story, and we'll keep an eye on what BlackFoot shares about specs and timing.

If your Ground Branch unit is looking for more operators before the Persian Gulf drops, you can list it on Milsim Units.