Germs Nerawareta Machi

Germs Nerawareta Machi (ジャーム～狙われた街～) which translates to "Germs: the Targeted Town" is a first-person open world, survival-horror adventure game developed by KAJ for the PlayStation in 1999.

Germs Nerawareta Machi
Developer(s)	KAJ
Publisher(s)	KAJ
Platform(s)	PlayStation
Release	JP July 22, 1999
Genre(s)	Adventure Survival horror First-person
Mode(s)	Single-player

Plot

The protagonist is a newspaper reporter who upon returning to his hometown investigates mysterious occurrences of strange mutants appearing in the city.

The game has an unsettling mix of science-fiction, body-horror and surrealism. Possible influences could come from the films of David Cronenberg, David Lynch and Shinya Tsukamoto, as well as some of the 1950s and 1960s American science fiction flicks for the setting and the story.

Gameplay

The player can navigate the open world by walking, driving a car, or taking public transport. The gameplay consists of exploring, gathering information and engaging in combat. If the players loses to a mutant, they don't die, but rather end up infected. The player can cure their infection by going to the hospital. Information can be gained from reading emails on the office computer, talking with people in the city, and reading the text you see upon defeating enemies.

Progression occurs when defeating the mutants in an invaded building. As time goes on, more areas become affected. The game ends when stopping the mutants at their source in the abandoned coal mine. However, the player can still explore the world after the ending scene.