Unreal Engine is a series of Game Engines by Epic Games, named for their Unreal series, which was the flagship series for it until the more commercially-profitable Gears of War series and Fortnite took over the role. It is written in C++ and supports a wide variety of platforms.
The engine is free to use for anyone with a standard license, with commercial licenses starting at $1,500. Thanks to its flexibility and graphical prowess, the engine has become incredibly popular with game developers, from small indie creators to AAA studios. It was named the Most Successful Game Engine of All Time by Guinness World Records in 2014.
Versions of Unreal Engine include:
- Unreal Engine 1: Created for Unreal, later went on to be used in Unreal Tournament, Rune, Star Trek: The Next Generation - Klingon Honor Guard, Deus Ex, The Wheel of Time, Clive Barker's Undying. And if they hadn't been canned, Jazz Jackrabbit 3D and a Hired Guns sequel to the old DOS/Amiga game.
- Duke Nukem Forever (finally released in 2011) used a heavily modified version of Unreal Engine 1, as shown here.
- Unreal Engine 2 (and 2.5): Unreal II: The Awakening, Unreal Championship, Unreal Tournament 2003, Unreal Tournament 2004, BioShock, Splinter Cell, Deus Ex: Invisible War, XIII, Rainbow Six 3, Red Steel, Tribes: Vengeance, Red Orchestra, Killing Floor, Postal 2, SWAT 4, Thief: Deadly Shadows, etc.
- A special, Xbox-tailored version of the engine, Unreal Engine 2X, was used for Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict.
- Unreal Engine 3 (probably the most popular engine during The Seventh Generation of Console Video Games): Gears of Warnote , Unreal Tournament III, Bulletstorm, Rainbow Six: Vegas, BioShock Infinite, the Mass Effect series, The Last Remnant, Lost Odyssey, Mirror's Edge, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, Asura's Wrath, Dungeon Defenders, Lollipop Chainsaw, Transformers: War for Cybertron, Army of Two, XCOM: Enemy Unknownnote , Guilty Gear Xrd, among others. It has also seen use in the TV series LazyTown.
- Unreal Engine 3 also has its own offshoot, the UDK (Unreal Development Kit), a free version of Unreal Engine 3 (with low cost licensing for indie developers) designed to compete with Unity for the aforementioned indie developer market. The two engines, both with high popularity in the indie community, have developed a bit of a Fandom Rivalry.
- Epic sued Silicon Knights over the use of Unreal Engine 3 code in Too Human and X-Men: Destiny. Silicon Knights charged Epic with selling the engine unfinished and giving bad support for developers licensing it. What really happened, according to the judges, was that Silicon Knights reverse-engineered the engine for Too Human until they believed there was no more Epic code left and stopped paying Epic royalties... except there still was some Epic code left in the "new" engine used in the released product, and so Epic won the lawsuit. This cost Silicon Knights their existence, by the way.
- Unreal Engine 4, which both advances the graphics of the Unreal Engine to next-gen levels while simplifying the development process in many ways (such as switching to a fully dynamic lighting pipeline and, perhaps controversially removing UnrealScript in favor of extending Kismet (Unreal's visual scripting system, now called "Blueprint") and C++ access). Like the UDK, Epic has been attempting to reach out to indies far more with UE4 compared to UE3, likely to compete with the rising popularity of Unity. On March 2015, UE4 was made free-to-use with a 5% yearly royalty cost for games that make more than $3,000 per quarter. Originally, the first UE4 game was meant to be Epic's own Fortnite, specifically its Save the World mode. However, thanks to a lengthy Troubled Production, this never really panned out and the game was released years later.
Unreal Engine 4 is particularly notable for being incredibly popular with Japanese developers, almost to the same extent that Unreal 3 was in the west. Japanese games developed on it include Dragon Ball Fighter Z, Dragon Quest XI, Shenmue III, Shin Megami Tensei V, The Caligula Effect, Soul Calibur VI, Street Fighter V, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Tekken 7, Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, Kingdom Hearts III, Yoshi's Crafted World, and Pikmin 4. This can likely be attributed to both to Epic Games providing proper Japanese documentation and support, which they failed to do with Unreal Engine 3, and the fact that in the seventh console generation, Japanese developers ran into a bad habit of spending years and years making their own expensive engines that often only saw use in a few games, or never saw use at all - in comparison, simply using Unreal Engine 4 and paying its royalties is a much better proposition.
Similar to the LazyTown case above with UE3, UE4 has also been employed for filmmaking and TV shows such as for real-time CGI sets in The Mandalorian, digital sets for Reboot The Guardian Code and the anime adaptation of No Guns Life, CGI effects and full-on fight scenes in Kamen Rider Saber, and weather broadcasts around the world. The engine has also been used to make animated series such as Zafari and the early works of GLITCH Productions, namely Meta Runner (which Epic themselves provided funding for during the first two seasons), Sunset Paradise, and the pilot of Murder Drones. - Unreal Engine 5, announced in 2020 for the PlayStation 5, was revealed in a video alongside a tech demo called Lumen in the Land of Nanite, showcasing the two new techs meant to help developers: the dynamic lighting system Lumen and the polygon scaling system Nanite. Two more tech demos were released; one set in the same world as Lumen in the Land of Nanite, known as Valley of the Ancients, was released alongside the engine's early access launch, and another, The Matrix Awakens, set in the universe of, well, The Matrix franchise, was released during the 2021 Game Awards. A few games that are currently known to be developed in Unreal Engine 5 are Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, Dragon Quest XII and Kingdom Hearts IV. Fortnite also switched from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5 as of Chapter 3 in December 2021. Glitch Productions also moved over to Unreal 5 starting with the second episode of Murder Drones.
Games created with Unreal Engine that have pages on this wiki include:
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Unreal Engine 1
- Brother Bear (the PC Licensed Game)
- Clive Barker's Undying
- Deus Ex
- Dr. Brain: Action Reaction
- Duke Nukem Forever
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (PC version only)
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (PC version only)
- New Legends
- Rune
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Fallen
- Star Trek: The Next Generation - Klingon Honor Guard
- Unreal
- Unreal Tournament
- The Wheel of Time
- X-COM Enforcer (an FPS Gaiden Game)
Unreal Engine 2/2. 5
- Advent Rising
- America's Army:
- America's Army: Operations
- America's Army: Rise of a Soldier
- America's Army: Special Forces
- BioShock
- Brothers in Arms:
- Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood
- Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30
- Brothers in Arms: D-Day
- Dead Man's Hand
- Deus Ex: Invisible War
- Devastation
- Ghost Recon 2
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (PC version only)
- Killing Floor
- Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddler's Green
- Lineage 2
- Magic: The Gathering – Battlegrounds
- Magna Carta: Tears of Blood
- Men of Valor
- Open Season
- Pariah
- Postal 2
- Rainbow Six 3
- Red Steel
- A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) (PC version only)
- Shark Tale (PC version only)
- Shrek 2 (PC version only)
- Spider-Man 2 (PC version only)
- Splinter Cell
- Star Wars: Republic Commando
- Surf's Up (Licensed Game)
- Swat 4
- Thief: Deadly Shadows
- Tribes: Vengeance
- Twin Caliber
- Unreal Championship
- Unreal II: The Awakening
- Unreal Tournament 2003
- XIII
Unreal Engine 3
- 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand
- Afterfall In Sanity
- Alice: Madness Returns
- Alien Breed Trilogy
- Alien Rage
- Aliens: Colonial Marines
- All Points Bulletin
- Alpha Protocol
- America's Army 3
- America's Army: Proving Grounds
- American McGee's Grimm
- Army of Two
- Army of Two: The 40th Day
- Assassin's Creed: Chronicles
- Asura's Wrath
- Batman: Arkham Asylum
- Battleborn
- BioShock 2
- Blacklight Retribution
- Black Site Area 51
- Bloodforge
- Borderlands
- The Bourne Conspiracy
- Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
- Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
- Bulletstorm
- Chivalry: Medieval Warfare
- Chop Lifter HD
- Damnation
- The Dark Meadow
- DC Universe Online
- Deadfall Adventures
- Deadlight
- The Deadly Tower of Monsters
- Deadpool (2013)
- Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon
- Devil's Third
- Dishonored
- DmC: Devil May Cry
- Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock
- Dungeon Defenders
- EndWar
- Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
- Ether One
- Fable Anniversary
- Fat Princess
- Flashback (the HD remake by Ubisoft)
- Frontlines: Fuel of War
- Gal*Gun: Double Peace
- Game of Thrones
- Gears of War
- Goat Simulator
- Guilty Gear Xrd
- A Hat in Time
- Homefront
- Hour of Victory
- Hunted: The Demon's Forge
- I Am Alive
- The Infinity Blade series
- Injustice: Gods Among Us
- InMomentum
- Karateka (the remake by Liquid Entertainment)
- Killer is Dead
- Killing Floor 2
- Kinect Adventures!
- Kings Quest (2015)
- The Last Remnant
- Legendary
- Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust
- Life Is Strange Episode 1: Chrysalis
- Lollipop Chainsaw
- Lost Ark
- Lost Odyssey
- Lost Planet 3
- Magna Carta 2
- Man of Steel (mobile game based on the film)
- Marvel Heroes
- Mass Effect
- Medal of Honor:
- Might and Magic Heroes VII
- Mighty No. 9
- Mirror's Edge
- Monday Night Combat
- Monster Madness
- Moonbase Alpha
- Mortal Kombat:
- Murdered: Soul Suspect
- Naissance E
- Nether
- Nosgoth
- Orcs Must Die!: Unchained
- Outlast
- Painkiller: Hell & Damnation
- Paladins
- Planet 51: The Game
- Primal Carnage
- Q.U.B.E.
- Quantum Conundrum
- Rainbow Six: Vegas 2
- Realm Royale
- Remember Me
- Ride to Hell: Retribution
- Rise of the Argonauts
- Rise of the Triad
- Rising Storm
- Rock of Ages
- Rocket League
- Sanctum
- Sanctum 2
- Saw
- Section 8
- Shadow Complex
- Shadows of the Damned
- Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments
- Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom
- Silent Hill: Downpour
- Singularity
- Smite
- Spec Ops: The Line
- Stranglehold
- Styx: Master of Shadows
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
- Them and Us
- Thief (2014)
- Thor: God of Thunder (2011)
- Tiger Knight: Empire War
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5
- Too Human
- Tower of Guns
- Transformers:
- Tribes Ascend
- TRON: Evolution
- Turning Point: Fall of Liberty
- Turok (2008)
- Undertow (Chair Entertainment)
- Unreal Tournament III
- The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
- Viscera Cleanup Detail
- Warp
- Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?: Special Editions
- Wild Blood
- Woolfe - The Red Hood Diaries
- WWE All Stars
- XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within
- X-Men:
- Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z
- Zeno Clash 2
Unreal Engine 4
- 9 Monkeys of Shaolin
- ABZÛ
- Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown
- AeternoBlade II
- Afterimage
- Aliens: Fireteam Elite
- Alone in the Dark
- Alone in the Dark (2024)
- Alone in the Dark: Illumination
- Ancestors Legacy
- Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey
- ARK: Survival Evolved
- Astroneer
- Aven Colony
- Back 4 Blood
- Balan Wonderworld
- The Bard's Tale IV
- Batman: Return to Arkham (Updated Re-release of Asylum and City)
- Battlefleet Gothic: Armada
- Bee Simulator
- Beyond A Steel Sky
- Biomutant
- Blair Witch
- Blood Bowl III
- Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
- Borderlands 3
- BPM: Bullets Per Minute
- Bramble: The Mountain King
- Bravely Default II
- Bus Simulator
- The Caligula Effect
- Call of Cthulhu: The Official Video Game
- The Callisto Protocol
- Chernobylite
- Chex Quest HD
- Chivalry 2
- Chronos: Before the Ashes
- Close to the Sun
- Colony Ship
- Conan Exiles
- Crackdown 3
- Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time
- Creature in the Well
- Crime Boss: Rockay City
- Crisis Core (2022 remake)
- CrossfireX
- Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online
- D4
- Daemon X Machina
- The Dark Pictures Anthology
- Darksiders III
- Daymare 1998
- Days Gone
- Dead by Daylight
- Deliver Us the Moon
- Deliver Us Mars
- Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles
- Destroy All Humans! (2020)
- Disintegration
- Dragon Ball:
- Dragon Quest XI
- Dungeon Defenders Awakened
- Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance
- Dusk Diver
- Dusk Diver 2
- Earth Defense Force: World Brothers
- Earthfall
- ECHO
- ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights
- En Garde!
- Eternity: The Last Unicorn
- Everspace
- Everspace 2. The game was release in 2023 and there are plans to make the transit to Unreal 5 for 2024.
- Evil West
- Extinction
- Fae Farm
- F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch
- Fighting EX Layer
- Final Fantasy VII Remake
- Firefighting Simulator The Squad
- Five Nights At Freddys VR Help Wanted
- The Flame in the Flood
- The Forgotten City
- Fortnite (upgraded to UE5 in 2021)
- Forza Street
- Friday the 13th: The Game
- Fuga: Melodies of Steel
- Fuser
- G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout
- Gas Station Simulator
- Gears of War 4
- Ghostbusters:
- Ghostrunner
- Ghostwire: Tokyo
- Gigantosaurus: The Game
- Gigantosaurus: Dino Kart
- Godfall
- Gotham Knights (2022)
- Granblue Fantasy Versus
- Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy (Updated Re-release/remake of Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City)
- Grounded
- Guilty Gear Strive
- Gundam Evolution
- Halo: The Master Chief Collection (Menu UI and player customization only)
- Hatred
- Hell Let Loose
- Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
- Hello Neighbor
- Hello Neighbor: Hide & Seek
- Hello Neighbor 2
- Hello Neighbor VR: Search and Rescue
- Hi-Fi RUSH
- High on Life
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Home Sweet Home
- Hood: Outlaws and Legends
- House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn
- It Takes Two
- Journey to the Savage Planet
- The Joy of Creation: Reborn
- Jump Force
- Just Die Already
- Kao the Kangaroo (2022 reboot)
- Kena: Bridge of Spirits
- Kholat
- Killing Floor: Incursion
- The King of Fighters XV
- King's Bounty II
- Kingdom Hearts III
- The Last Remnant Remastered
- Layers of Fear 2
- Let It Die
- Lies of P
- Life Is Strange 2
- Like a Dragon: Ishin!
- Little Nightmares
- Little Nightmares II
- Live A Live (2022 remake)
- Lords of the Fallen
- Maneater
- Martha Is Dead
- Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite
- Master Detective Archives: Rain Code
- MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries
- Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond
- MediEvil (2019 remake)
- Minecraft Dungeons
- Mortal Kombat 1
- Mr. Krabs Overdoses on Ketamine
- MultiVersus (upgraded to Unreal Engine 5 for its May 2024 release)
- Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden
- MX vs. ATV All Out
- My Hero One's Justice
- My Hero One's Justice 2
- Myst (Oculus remake)
- Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker
- NBA Playgrounds
- NBA 2K Playgrounds 2
- Necromunda: Hired Gun
- New Gundam Breaker
- Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway
- No More Heroes III
- >OBSERVER_: System Redux
- Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm
- Octopath Traveler
- Omen of Sorrow
- One Piece: World Seeker
- One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows
- The Oregon Trail (2021 remake)
- The Outer Worlds
- Outriders
- Overkill's The Walking Dead
- Override: Mech City Brawl
- Override 2: Super Mech League
- Oxide Room 104
- Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle
- Pacific Drive
- Paradise Killer
- The Pathless
- PAW Patrol: Grand Prix
- PAYDAY 3 (is set to upgrade to 5 in the future).
- The Persistence
- Persona 3 Reload (Video Game Remake of Persona 3)
- Phantom: Covert Ops
- Pikmin 4
- Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier
- Player Unknowns Battlegrounds
- Poppy Playtime
- Postal: Redux
- Predator: Hunting Grounds
- Princess Peach: Showtime!
- Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin
- Q.U.B.E. 2
- The Quarry
- The Quiet Man
- RAD
- Rad Rodgers
- Redeemer
- Redfall
- Redout
- Redout II
- Redout: Lightspeed Edition
- Redout: Space Assault
- Remnant: From the Ashes
- Remothered
- Rez Infinite
- RiME
- Rock of Ages II: Bigger and Boulder
- Rock of Ages III: Make & Break
- Rogue Company
- RUINER
- Rune II
- Sackboy: A Big Adventure
- Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time
- Samurai Shodown (2019 game)
- Scarlet Nexus
- SCP-087: Recovered Document
- Sea of Thieves
- Shadow Warrior 3
- Shenmue III
- Sherlock Holmes Chapter One
- Shin Megami Tensei V
- The Sinking City
- Skully
- Snake Pass
- Sniper: Ghost Warrior (mobile Spin-Off)
- Solar Ash
- Sonic Omens
- Soul Calibur VI
- Space Hulk: Deathwing
- Spider-Man: Homecoming - Virtual Reality Experience
- Spirit of the North
- SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated (2020 remake)
- Spyro Reignited Trilogy
- Star Trek: Prodigy - Supernova
- Star Trek: Resurgence
- Star Wars:
- State of Decay 2
- Stray
- Stray Gods
- Street Fighter V
- Styx: Shards of Darkness
- Submerged
- Supraland
- Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet
- System Shock (2023 remake)
- Tales of Arise
- Tekken 7
- Tell Me Why
- Terminator: Resistance
- Tetris Effect
- The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 2023
- Tiny Tina's Wonderlands
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 (enhanced remake of the first two games)
- Torchlight III
- Train Simulator:
- Train Sim World
- Train Sim World 2
- Train Sim World 3
- Trek to Yomi
- Trials of Mana (2020 remake)
- Triangle Strategy
- Tropico 6
- Trover Saves the Universe
- Unforgiving – A Northern Hymn
- Unreal Tournament 4
- Valorant
- Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodhunt
- Vampire: The Masquerade — Swansong
- Vampyr
- The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners
- Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade
- A Way Out
- We Happy Few
- Westworld: Awakening
- What Remains of Edith Finch
- Wing of Darkness
- Worms Rumble
- Wuthering Waves
- WWE 2K Battlegrounds
- Yoshi's Crafted World
Unreal Engine 5
- Black Myth: Wukong
- Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO
- The Finals
- Fortnite (as of December 2021)
- Horizon: Call of the Mountain
- Kingdom Hearts IV
- Layers of Fear
- Mabinogi (full-game conversion)
- Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater (remake of Metal Gear Solid 3)
- The Matrix Awakened
- Palworld
- Phantom Breaker Battle Grounds Ultimate
- R-Type Final 3 Evolved
- Remnant II
- RoboCop: Rogue City
- Still Wakes The Deep
- Tekken 8