City 20 Could Be The Ultimate Sandbox Game

Ask any player about their favorite story from Dwarf Fortress or Rimworld, and you’re sure to get an unexpected, chaotic tale that nevertheless makes perfect sense within the context of the game. The beauty of big, deep sandboxes like these are that entire narratives can grow simply from the in-game ecosystem working its magic in the background. City 20, an upcoming title from Genoese developer Untold Games, lets you live inside such an ecosystem, and everything you do will impact the world around you.

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City 20’s setting is inspired by the secret Soviet cities of the Cold War, self-sufficient industrial centers that officially didn’t exist, where uranium enrichment and other classified projects were carried out. The titular City 20 was sealed due to a nuclear reactor leak ten years prior to the events of the game; nobody’s gone in or out since, and the inhabitants have developed their own factions and society within their new microcosm. A soundtrack inspired by ‘70s electronic bands like Kraftwerk drives home the hard, industrial tone of the setting.

Upon starting a new game, you have nothing but the clothes on your back, eking out an existence on the fringes of City 20’s society. The early parts of the campaign play like a survival game, and if you really wanted to you could spend your entire playtime living like a hermit while the world turns around you. “[We were] interested in exploring and expanding the concept of survival games,” says Untold Games’ Elena Di Lorenzo. “In survival, you have either a story that you follow and that’s it, or you have only environmental storytelling.” The goal of City 20 is to let players build their own story within a lovingly crafted environment.

Everything that the player can do... causes imbalances, and the system tries to re-balance itself.

-Elena Di Lorenzo, Untold Games

The game’s internal ecosystem is key to creating these emergent narratives. All resources are persistent, and every animal, NPC, and machine in the game needs some of them to survive. If an NPC needs food, they might try to get some from their fridge; if there’s none there (perhaps because you stole it while they were out), they’ll head out to the shop. If the shop is closed or out of stock, they might go into the wilderness to hunt, and if they get really desperate they might take more extreme measures to survive. The same goes for everything else; animals will move on to new areas if their food sources dry up, and a generator without fuel can shut down power to entire sectors, leading to new problems.

This butterfly effect extends to character interactions as well; if an area has a rash of break-ins, either perpetrated directly by the player or by needy NPCs, locals will start to organize patrols, or sleep with a weapon nearby. If somebody is found dead, the authorities will investigate and the deceased’s friends will hold a funeral. Di Lorenzo compares the setting to “a closed ecosystem, where everything goes on by itself, but everything that the player can do… causes imbalances, and the system tries to re-balance itself.”

Adding to the complexity are City 20’s factions. Cut off from the outside world and the Soviet government, the people of City 20 have banded together largely according to their occupations; factory workers, soldiers, scientists, and more have taken control of different districts, with uneasy truces keeping the peace. Each district will have its own rules and justice system, based on which faction is in control. Naturally, your actions will impact what each faction thinks of you, ultimately affecting where within the city you’re safe and where you’re considered an enemy.

Taking on missions for NPCs and their factions - from simple supply runs to roughing up dissidents or raiding rival factions for rare resources - will cause imbalances in the ecosystem on both the individual and city-wide scale. This is where each player’s campaigns will start to become truly unique. Cutting the power to a district or poisoning the water supply will certainly make infiltration easier, but it could trigger a war for resources or a descent into full-blown anarchy. Then again, maybe that was your goal all along. Each faction might have their own goals in City 20, but your personal goals as a player are entirely up to you.

Untold Games is particularly proud of the fact that City 20 is built on procedural generation rather than generative AI. The deterministic nature of the in-game ecosystem means that every choice will have a logical (if not always immediately apparent) consequence. Even something as simple as chopping down a tree or stripping a motorcycle for parts can cause a ripple effect, depending on what else is happening nearby. It should be fascinating to see what stories players are able to create when they get their hands on the game.

City 20 is expected to enter early access sometime in 2024, though no firm date has been set. The early access build will be more sandboxy than the final version, with two of the planned four factions and “experience drivers” like major quests and plotlines being added later. In the meantime, it will be a great way to experience the complex, fascinating ecosystem that Untold has created, and get a taste of how deep it can be even without all of its components.

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