Catomax26 said:
I have seen people saying me “don't use game engines”, and that is very prejudicial because i am not aiming for a small game, i am aiming for a huge project.

Yes, using a game-engine for a large 2d project is definately the way to go. Especially if you don't yet know programming, but even if you did - the tooling you get will make producing a content-heavy project so much simpler.

However, there is not that much choice left. I'd personally recommend Unity regardless - the “asking for money” part, they did go back on, And it wouldn't even have mattered for a project like yours, even if it did go through. Unity is far from perfect, I personally even dislike it based on problems and some backwards-ass workflows. But it's the best engine for beginners, and would have all the features that you need.

Unreal is a choice, but it'll require eigther working entirely in Blueprint (visual scripting), or learning their version of C++. That is not even much lower level than C# that Unity has, but Unreal has some oddities in how they use C++. Blueprints can actually be a good tool to code game-logic, to an extend, but it's also very horribly slow in terms of performance. I have no experience with Paper2D in Unreal, but do not that people will say “its crap” about pretty much anything. I'm saying that Unity is crap, but that shouldn't deter you from trying it.

Other than that, there's not much left. You have things like Rpg-Maker, which is designed for very specifiy kinds of 2D games, and pretty limited (doing anything that doesn't fit perfectly causes headaches non-stop; and their ability to customize tooling is non-existant). At least in the XP-era it was, Rpg-Maker MV seems to be a bit more flexible, but I still wouldn't recommend it.
You have GameMaker, which is also more specialized towards 2D-games from what I've seen; but I don't have any experience with it.

That's pretty much all the more common game-engines out there. Maybe someone else knows something more arcane, but in reality, I'd just try Unity, Unreal and maybe GameMaker for a week or so to see if you like it. You can make the type of game you want to make in pretty much eigther of those, guaranteed. It's just a matter of different workflows, and some things being simpler than others/different pain-points.

Catomax26 said:
I have seen people saying me “don't use game engines”, and that is very prejudicial because i am not aiming for a small game, i am aiming for a huge project.

Was that me? I only said using no engine is an option you might consider, not that you should do it.

However - what do you mean with ‘huge’ project?
As a beginner you should start small. Very small. Or you will almost certainly fail.
But this does not mean your game should have only 3 levels. I talk primarily about the complexity of the program, not about content.

So let's list some games illustrating increasing complexity…

Pong: Really simple, but you already need to know and use some math, like collision detection of simple shapes, controlling constant velocity motion of objects, and reflecting their direction.
(Game engines may make things like collision detection easier, but actually figuring out how to use their tools is just as hard, i'm sure.)

PacMan: Still simple constant velocity motion and collisions, but there is some AI and behavior.
(Again, game engine does not give a noticeable benefit to reduce complexity yet. Imo.)

Super Mario: That's already a rich and complex game. Motion involves acceleration and there is physics simulation. Interactive objects. AI is simple but varied across enemy types.
Starting with this as a beginner, chances you'll succeed are small. I recommend to do some simpler games as listed above first for learning purposes.
(Engine can help a lot to manage complexity i guess.)

Modern 3D action games: Still pretty much the same, but math, physics, and character animation becomes very hard. Mentioned only to complete the list. Using a game engine becomes a requirement to most people. Also, doing it all as a single person is very ambitious.

Assuming you want something like 2D Metroid with pixel art, i think that's a realisitc goal, but only if you have talent and invest maybe two years but likely more, even if you do use an engine like Unity.

Catomax26 said:
making a 2D game with almost realistic lighting

What do you mean with ‘almost’ ?

I personally like Gdevelop. It has some lighting features, and shaders too. But depending on what you think with almost, it might or not be a good fit for you.