Unreal Tournament pre-alpha build appears online, can be played right now

Thanks to the way the Unreal Tournament is being developed, anyone with an Unreal Engine subscription can access the latest build of the game. That means anyone with an Unreal Engine subscription can also compile a build of the game. And, should someone do that, we'd all be able to hop on board and have a play. Guess what: someone has done that.

As spotted by NeoGAF , a pre-alpha build of the game can be downloaded right now . It's an unofficial version, but it's been made possible by the way Epic are crowd-developing this new UT—a game that they will eventually release to the public for free.

I've had a go and, despite the fact that I was jumping and hopping through greybox levels, I can confirm that it's definitely an Unreal Tournament they're making. Loading into it felt instantly familiar, and the frantic twitch gunplay is present even in this early version.

At this stage, though, it's not something I'm likely to spend much time with. It's an interesting curiosity—a window into the progress of an upcoming game—but not a fully-functioning shooter. Not yet.

If you want to check it out: download the latest build, extract it somewhere onto your computer, navigate to 'WindowsNoEditor\UnrealTournament\Binaries\Win64', and launch UnrealTournament.exe. And if you really want to get involved, check out the Beyond Unreal IRC channel , where these builds are being organised.

Be warned, with this build, you'll not be able to edit or tweak the existing content, or create new stuff. That privilege is reserved for those with a UE4 license.

Thanks, VG247 .

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.