A new concept video released by the TeaserPlay team shows what an open-world Peaky Blinders game in Unreal Engine 5 could look like.

 

 

In a new video posted on YouTube, the independent developers at TeaserPlay show a concept trailer for an open-world Peaky Blinders game in Unreal Engine 5. The trailer introduces the characters and locations of the popular British crime drama, known in Hungary as The Gangs of Birmingham, and gives a taste of what it would be like to explore 1920s England in the series.

Set in post-World War I, England, Peaky Blinders follows Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby and his gang of Peaky Blinders as they establish a growing criminal organisation in Birmingham and beyond.

The series, loosely inspired by a real-life Birmingham crime gang operating during the same period, has been a hit with viewers and critics alike and has recently completed its sixth and final season. A spin-off film is being made from the series, and London-based developer Maze Theory is developing a Peaky Blinders VR game, Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom, for release later this year.

The short trailer opens with Tommy Shelby, played by Cillian Murphy, walking around Birmingham’s Little Italy neighbourhood. Hence, the teaser play shows off the remarkably detailed environment they’ve created for the demo. From the city streets, with old cars lining the roads and buildings decorated with period advertising, to the dark and grimy industrial areas with light shining through the windows of cracked warehouses, TeaserPlay makes excellent use of Unreal Engine 5 to present a game world that feels suitably lifelike and grimy.

While the trailer doesn’t show much in the way of gameplay in the supposed Peaky Blinders title, the detailed recreation of early 20th-century Birmingham would be a refreshing change from the modern-day setting of many open-world crime games.

With Grand Theft Auto 6 likely several years away and some gamers still reeling from the poor reception of the Saints Row reboot, an open-world game set in the Peaky Blinders universe would uniquely change the GTA formula if it ever came out.

With Hollywood increasingly using the Unreal Engine to create digital sets for productions like Mandalorian and Batman, it’s no surprise that fans are using the same technology to recreate their favourite series and movies. Fan-made trailers like this one, and another for a supposed open-world Game of Thrones game, show that gamers are genuinely eager to explore the worlds they’ve come to know from movies and TV.

As games based on these features begin to be built using Unreal Engine 5, players will soon be able to explore their favourite fictional worlds at a scale and in a level of detail previously unimaginable.

Source: YouTube