Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski took to Reddit for and IAmA session on Saturday, and when the inevitable question about a new Unreal game came up, the response was enough to make fans dream vivid dreams of Na Pali. If Bleszinski had his druthers, he said he'd love to create a Skyrim-like, open world Unreal with a mix of exploration and shooting.

"When are we getting a return to the PC FPS glory that was Unreal?" Reddit poster 2th asked. "Hell I would like a return to Unreal Tournament too. One that is developed for PC first, and consoles second."
"It seems as if you're asking about two entirely different games," Bleszinski replied. "The first Unreal was more of a single player exploratory experience whereas Unreal Tournament was a multiplayer focused game with a 'ladder' for the single player. Both have their strengths and weaknesses."

"I was quoted recently on a Fortnite panel about the first Unreal and what a reboot might look like. Having really grown into a big Bethesda fan lately (Skyrim rocked my world) I couldn't help but wonder what a reboot of Unreal would be like if it was more 'SciFi-Rim.' Sure, there would be shooting involved, but exploration would almost be more important. Get back to that sense of wonder that the first game had. (Caves and castles and crashed ships are basically your dungeon instances, whereas the 'overworld' is less intense.) Put it on a high end PC and prepare yourself for amazing visuals never before seen in real time."

"As far as a new UT, it's hard to say. Shooters and their sequels are a tricky beast. Often you wind up upsetting your core whenever you make a sequel because sometimes you change things the users didn't want changed, or the users are so very in love with their memory of the original game that there's nothing you can do to live up to the first game. This happened with Counterstrike: Source, Quake 2, Unreal Tournament 2003, heck, even Halo 2. (All that said, I do personally believe that UT3 suffered a bit from an identity crisis in regards to whether or not it was a PC or Console game.)"

"So if, when? I don't know, honestly. We're understaffed right now for all of the projects we've got going on so I can't say if or when it may happen. I do love that IP and do hope to return to Na Pali some day."
I hope you do too, Cliff. From the little we've seen of Unreal Engine 4 thus far, it would help create an incredible open world. What would you like to see in an Unreal reboot or an Unreal Tournament sequel?