Epic Games has revealed a "playable concept art" level for the upcoming shooter

Jul 24, 2014 13:46 GMT  ·  By

The new Unreal Tournament looks pretty fantastic, if we are to judge by the small glimpse of in-game footage offered to us by Epic in a new reveal and analysis video.

The video comes through the official Unreal Tournament YouTube channel, showcasing a bit of "playable concept art" with commentary from the developers.

The video shows Art Director Chris Perna explaining, of course, that the map is unfinished and that its appearance is not representative of the entire game, but it looks amazing, and it's fascinating to see how a video can serve as a vector for showcasing an artist's work, as well as a guide for aspiring artists trying to make their own maps.

In the video, Perna details how he's aiming to achieve a science fiction industrial look, similar to the one in The Creative Assembly's Alien: Isolation, and the team provides a ton of insight into what goes into the process of designing such an amazing piece of art.

If you want to hear more about the game, the level and the Unreal engine's power, you can watch the video below and follow the discussion sparked around it on Reddit, where members of the gaming community are analyzing every minute detail that you might think of.

Unreal Tournament is said to launch with Team Deathmatch, and to then expand to encompass Capture the Flag and Onslaught over time, with Epic taking things slow in order to make sure that all of the game's components are in tip-top working order before moving to adding new ones.

It's been a few months since Epic Games' surprising reveal that not only is a brand-new Unreal Tournament in the making, but that they are making it a fully moddable, free-to-play titled that will be developed with its players' aid.

Epic is known to be at the forefront of visual development, and Unreal Engine stands as living proof of the developer's prowess. The company is known for many classics of the '90s era, including One Must Fall: 2097, Overkill, Tyrian, Jazz Jackrabbit, but it's not until the end of the decade that the company became truly famous, with the launch of the first game in the Unreal series.

A name change and 10 years later, the company was busy making the Gears of War franchise one of the biggest third-person shooter names in the world, and after selling it to Microsoft, the studio decided to resurrect the popular competitive multiplayer mayhem of Unreal Tournament, to the fans' surprise and excitement.