Nairobi X by Andrew Kaggia / Black Division Games

Yes, the video game space in Africa and Kenya has been described to be “growing”. But as much as we have been saying that for some time now, we still do not have that much to prove so. The number of people taking up the gaming culture to a point of having the hobby as an identity is surely rising. But would we say the same about the people taking up the challenge of developing games, whether for PCs, smartphones or dare I say, consoles?

One iconic phenomenon did prove this though for some time now, Nairobi X. Believe me when I say I never knew anything about it until it was mentioned in a Q&A competition somewhere a few months ago. And the fact that many others may not be aware of it got me curious to search for it and try it out.

Nairobi X is a first-person shooter game set in as you have already guessed, Nairobi. The game was developed by Andrew Kaggia, founder of entertainment and publishing company, Black Division Games, which you would better refer to as the Kenyan Activision or Tencent Games.

The iconic developer and hardcore gamer, Andrew Kaggia, set out to build a game that simply gives the look of any other international shooter game but still manages to maintain a Kenya perspective thanks to localisation that grounds the story in Nairobi. So with that, they built the game on PC and mobile versions.

Nairobi X Gameplay
With that in mind, the game is set in Nairobi, particularly the CBD in the year 2030 featuring a character called Otero. So in the game, you are a member of the elite Recce Squad as the protagonist. Otero is the sole survivor from a team tasked with fighting extra-terrestrial beings that have taken over Nairobi’s central business district.

Your main objective then is to shoot down as many as you can and in the end complete the task that your team had been tasked; Secure the city and repel the alien invaders. Finding it hard to get the PC version I sort to download the mobile version that tasks you to search for an app package file. This is considering you cannot find it in the Google Play Store anymore.

The game really does impress you with the first sight of Nairobi’ main landmarks on the menu display immediately after launch. It truly does give you that pride of seeing a city like Nairobi finally in a game, despite how simple it may look. But how far does the pride go after that?

The menu window gives you four options to pick, one of them being the mission levels you want. But shock on you if you expect two or more missions to be open since you only get the first mission open. If you get to win in one level you then move on to the next.

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