There’s a 0451 gag in the trailer so I have no choice but to be interested

From the buzzing tube lights of TGS 2026 emerges Tokyo Walled City, a (deep breath) "stealth action retro-cyberpunk immersive sim with survival horror and RPG elements" in development at indie outfit Grim Ronin. Hey, I like most of those things, and I like rainy, neon Japanese streets, so let’s have a crack at covering an independent imsim without mentioning Gloomwood. Ah, dammit.

Tokyo Walled City casts you as a knifey, parkouring mercenary trapped within a walled-off district of the cyberized capital. That trailer suggests it’s up for playing the imsim hits: quiet assassinations, shooting out lights, shooting out heads, hacking cameras, oversized air vents, and the odd bit of computer password larceny. There’s also some chainsmoking, though these nic sticks don’t appear as near-instantly lethal as Deus Ex’s.

Actually, scratch that headline comparison, as Tokyo Walled City really looks like more of a near-future Dishonored tribute than a Denton one. Not least because the jumpy-climby bits are apparently directly inspired by Dishonored 2 – I’d recognise that kind of roof-leap-into-vertical-backstab movement flow anywhere. We see less of the survival horror and RPG components, save for a brief moment where the red gaze of a creepy android lands upon the snooping player’s scope, and I’m not instantly seduced by the slightly stilted look of that gunplay near the end. Still, a firearm discharging in these types of games is usually the point I hit the quickload key in disgust at myself, so that won’t stop me from keeping an eye on this one.

With Dishonored essentially finished, BioShock missing, and Deus Ex parked in seemingly infinite, Elias Toufexis-saddening limbo – I’m not counting whatever that remaster is – it’s tempting to wait around in hope for a new big-name immersive sim hero. Maybe from that new Harvey Smith studio. Even if they don’t aim for the same scale, though, it’s cool to see more indie devs having a crack at it, from mad experiments like Cruelty Squad to the comfortingly genre-acquainted likes of Tokyo Walled City to Gloomwood DAMMIT. No release date yet, but it’s headed for early access, according to the Steam page.