Game that looks like GTA: Babies baffles world with context-free Gamescom trailer

The DokeV trailer that appeared during the Gamescom Opening Night Live stream today is only about four minutes long, but somehow it felt like ten generations lived and died while the game's child avatars terrorized a city (or maybe protected it) using what looks like leftover inventory from every bankrupt Toys R Us store. It just kept going and going.

It looks pretty cool, though. DokeV (pronounced doh-keh-vee) was announced in 2019, and comes from Black Desert Online developer Pearl Abyss. They describe it as "a casual, open world adventure filled with lovable stories" in which players will collect Dokebi, "whimsical creatures that live side-by-side with humans and encourage people's dreams from which they gain strength."

If all that were obvious from the trailer (not that I really comprehend the implications of these dream-eaters), those four minutes might not have felt so endless, but the video is just music and scenes of mayhem. Here are some eight-year-olds tearing up a city on skateboards, bikes, and roller skates. And fighting robots. And monsters. And flying. And sucking monsters into vacuum cleaners? Now one of them is riding an alpaca, now one of them is jet skiing, and now one of them is hanging out with a bear who is a boxer.

Games starring kids are somewhat rare—seen mainly in Earthbound and Pokémon homages, both of which probably influenced this game—which perhaps contributes to the uncanniness.

A release date for DokeV hasn't been announced, but the latest on the game can be found on the official website, where you can also download the song from the trailer.

Update: Although it's called an MMO in one place on the Pearl Abyss website, I've been told by a representative of the developer that DokeV is not an MMO, and is better referred to as a "creature-collecting open world action-adventure game." I've removed "MMO" from my description for now, but I've asked for a specific description of the game's multiplayer setup and will update if I find out more.

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the '80s and '90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that's right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.