Tokyo Jungle is an open-world action game in a post-apocalyptic city reclaimed by nature, where you can play as a wide variety of animals struggling to survive in a weird post-human environment. It’s got a roguelike mode and a surprisingly affecting story mode, and collectible backstory scraps that gradually reveal the mystery of the now jungle-ish Tokyo, plus (eventually) robots and dinosaurs. Maybe it sounds more exciting than it is…

It is still pretty great, though. The world’s not quite as big as you expect but there are still nooks and crannies to discover and the random events and distribution of food and predators help it feel different in each run. The animal you play as will greatly affect this too, as their size, attack power, hunger gauge, and diet (grazer or predator) will greatly affect how it feels to play.

And it feels good. The life of each animal is simulated and you feel the pressures to keep searching for food, avoid larger animals, and eventually breed in order to avoid the ravages of age, as well as gaining a litter posse to back you up. You won’t stay too attached to an individual as control passes to your offspring, but silly clothing items do carry over. Anyway, ageing out of relevancy is part of the natural world.

But that’s mostly the survival mode. Story mode has fun handcrafted scenarios (except the stealth missions which can die in a fire), but survival is a gruelling/rewarding gauntlet of survival. And picking your way past a pack of hyenas loitering on the train line… sneaking up on a hippo lounging on a fallen building… searching for uncontaminated plants as your health slowly ticks down… it’s such a novelty that’s unlike anything I’ve experienced in a game.

The game is presented with a slightly low-poly realism that suits the bloody struggle of nature but also effectively offsets the occasionally silly tone. A Pomeranian slaying and eating wild chickens on the mossy streets is an inherently striking image, and that essence of the game persists throughout, even as the mystery deepens. It’s good.