I need fuel. Goga is my City 20 Told me his generator was dead. I had broken into his house, having just broken through the door, and I figured I owed him a favor. He pressed a fuel can into my hands and pointed in the direction of a nearby town. After a quick walk, I saw a gas station behind a locked fence gate. The people who lived here must not have known that I was an expert at breaking down doors, so I grabbed my trusty mallet and broke through the door in search of that sweet black liquid. I was promptly knocked unconscious. It seemed that City 20 did not take kindly to my hobo murder tendencies.
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After a futile attempt at revenge ended with a bullet to my head, I started over. New rescue, new me. I broke down Goga’s door again, but this time I had no intention of destroying property. Instead, fuel can in hand, I tried to engage in conversation with the locals. “You’d better come here to trade”, a prompt warned me. Ahaha, trade. Yes, I guess I can trade with my new neighbor. But what would I give in exchange? Should I replace my gavel? No – Goga has been my reliable colleague for the past three minutes.
Maybe there’s something out there in the wild that I can use. I left the settlements, shook the trees, picked the flowers, and I believed that these things were worth something. somethingI had no idea what I was doing. All of a sudden, I was thirsty. I returned to Goga, out of fuel and with my backpack full of plants, I filled a bottle of water and suddenly had a brilliant idea. Why did I owe Goga anything? I should beat him up and make his house a home. He quickly buried me in the ground next to his broken door.
As you’ve probably figured out by now, City 20 isn’t some dystopian survival game. It’s not Mad Max, where nearly everyone you meet is your direct enemy. You can take on the world head-on with your bare hands if you want, but you’ll be punished quickly. No, City 20 throws you into a ravaged world where your fellow humans are your lifeline. You must quickly establish yourself as a valuable, nonviolent member of the sprawling society you’ve entered, learn the ropes, and chart a course that keeps you well-fed, safe, and maybe even liked by those around you.
I really like the tone of this game; right from the opening cutscene, you can feel the atmosphere. It’s not scary or depressing like other dystopian games you’ve played, but it’s almost haunting. You feel like a rat caught in a trap, and to some extent you are. At least in this demo, you can’t escape City 20. You’re trapped here, hungry and desperate. My obvious antisocial tendencies aside, you really feel like you might have to do some rough things to survive. Since there are no monsters in the game, the people around you end up being both your biggest blessing and your biggest threat to your survival.
This goes hand in hand with the wonderful balancing act of ensuring your own survival while keeping those around you happy. By the end of the demo, I felt like I had just mastered the mechanics that drive every NPC interaction, from the behavior of wild animals to the degree of brazenness I could get away with.
The best compliment I can give City 20 is that I will never touch the demo again. I don’t want to look at this game again. Instead, I will sit back and wait patiently for the full game to be released. When it does, I will jump in on day one. If you have even the slightest hankering for a survival game, this game is well worth checking out during the current Steam Next Fest.
Check out iGamesNews, RockPaperShotgun and other games featured in Eurogamer’s Wishlisted event on the hub page – which includes a great, informative video showing you why we’re so passionate about collecting games.
Check out City 20 on Steam – and try out the demo for yourself.
