Someone's already made a Superman game demo in Unreal Engine 5

Superman: Space Age
(Image credit: DC)

A Superman game demo already exists within Unreal Engine 5.

As Kotaku reported earlier this week, the video game tech artist volod has already managed to create a Superman gameplay demo from the Matrix-themed assets released by Epic for the Unreal Engine 5. The new-gen game engine only just entered public access earlier this week, but that hasn't stopped this developer from making their very own Superman adventure.

If you recall, late last year Epic released The Matrix Awakens, an Unreal Engine 5 tech demo aimed at demonstrating the true power of the new-gen engine. What Twitter user and developer Volod has basically done here is to take the Matrix Awakens AI, assets, buildings, vehicles, and crowds, and drop a Superman-like protagonist straight into the middle of it.

Volod told Kotaku that "if I can find an interesting gameplay loop that ties into the flight mechanic, I'd consider putting together [a...] demo and releasing it to the public." That demo obviously wouldn't include the Man of Steel, for legal reasons, but it means we could soon be flying around this city for ourselves. Before then, however, Volod says they'll need to find a way around some of the engine's "bottlenecks" that appear while zooming around the world.

As for the Unreal Engine 5 itself though, it'll probably be a few years at least before we see a commercial game utilizing it. Just earlier this week, Crystal Dynamics announced that a new Tomb Raider game would use the brand new engine, and newly-acquired PlayStation studio Firesprite quietly revealed they'd be developing a horror game in the Unreal Engine 5

Check out our full feature on the five Unreal Engine 5 games that showcase the power of Epic's next-gen tech.

Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.

With contributions from
Read more
Skyrim
Skyrim fan completes personal quest to yeet the entire RPG's map into Unreal Engine 5
David Corenswet as Superman
Epic Superman trailer features a bloody and bruised Clark Kent, the first look at Lex Luthor, and introduces a whole bunch of heroes to James Gunn's DCU
The Doom Slayer standing in front of fire in the FPS game, Doom: The Dark Ages.
Doom: The Dark Ages gets 12 seconds of new footage as Nvidia shows off its souped-up DLSS 4 visuals
David Corenswet as Superman
Superman trailer breakdown: from Metamorpho to Hawkgirl, all the DC Easter eggs and details we spotted
Upcoming PS5 games title image showcasing Death Stranding 2, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, Ghost of Yotei, and Doom the Dark Ages
Upcoming PS5 games: New PS5 games for 2025 and beyond
Minecraft Netherite Armor
A developer porting Minecraft to the Dreamcast is now able to "Blast through an existing world file at 2,800 km/h"
Latest in Action
Death Stranding 2 Collector's Edition
Hideo Kojima reveals Death Stranding 2: On the Beach release date, and the Collector's Edition includes exactly what I predicted it would
Former Xbox boss says GTA: San Andreas and its infamously NSFW Hot Coffee minigame "signified a maturing of the industry" and put games "on par with movies and music"
Death Stranding 2 PS5 screenshot
Death Stranding 2 pre-orders are estimated to go live this month, and will reportedly include a $230 collector's edition that I pray doesn't come with another creepy baby statue
Assassin's Creed Shadows Claws of Awaji expansion Naoe and Yasuke in Awaji forest
Assassin's Creed Shadows roadmap, DLC and future content
Grand Theft Auto 3
A GTA streamer is trying to beat every single 3D entry without dying, and in 33 hours he's made it as far as San Andreas but keeps getting caught in Vice City purgatory
The Last of Us 2
Naughty Dog has done it: it's remastered the PS5 controller with a Last of Us-themed DualSense announcement 24 hours after Neil Druckmann dashed our hopes for The Last of Us 3
Latest in News
Balatro
Balatro creator started "properly playing the game myself about a week before launch" and had "a pretty emotional moment" where he realized it's "actually fun"
Death Stranding 2 Collector's Edition
Hideo Kojima reveals Death Stranding 2: On the Beach release date, and the Collector's Edition includes exactly what I predicted it would
Kingmakers
Kingmakers is a strategy game about taking on medieval armies with a gun, but its devs thought the giant mech was too much
The Witcher 3 lead says "not many games" were trying to match the RPG back in 2015, and that meant "there was a risk" to making it in the first place
The Blood of Dawnwalker
The Witcher 3 dev says his new vampire RPG Blood of Dawnwalker wants to challenge genre conventions, but only if "we're changing them to actually achieve some goal"
Daredevil recap: The Defenders
Marvel fans are discussing which of the Netflix series characters would have survived the Blip