Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Jun 1, 2017

  I want to start by saying, I wanted to give this game a bad review. However, there are too many great things I love about this game despite the nearly game-breaking issues. While playing I have encountered: Useless camera angles that block all vision, enemies teleporting across chasms to other buildings, enemies headshotting me when behind cover crouching, a ROUGH aiming system, and lastly, some pretty stupid AI. The game is a 3D top-down in which you manually turn the world 45* in either direction at any time to get a better view. While not many games do this, it looks great and almost always works. Sadly, it doesn't work on this game 100% of the time. The world in this game is massive and as a result, not every area was designed with the player's camera in mind. There are tons of places around the world where your camera angle is flat out obstructed and useless. Another thing to take note of, it requires a lot of coordination to rotate the camera, dodge bullets, and fire back while running around. As for the teleporting enemies, I've only encountered this a handful of times and maybe it's entirely my fault. If you move around the edge of a "restricted area" either controlled by a gang or a mission, enemies often reset if they were lured away. This means you could be shooting at an enemy and they teleport to the other side of the area, or out into the open of one of your exposed flanks and just kill you. I assume this is what I saw every time when enemies teleported, but it's still a wee bit too touchy with it's reset. Enemies headshotting me behind cover has been the ultimate annoyance with my time playing the game. In this game you can crouch and go behind cover to avoid gunfire. The catch is, if you try to shoot back, you have to stand and expose yourself to enemy fire while you shoot. I know this. Yet, I often find myself being shot through cover if I'm pressed against it too closely or if i'm just a step away from it. Which in most cases it shouldn't matter because enemies are level with my character and not shooting down on me yet I still die? I don't know if anyone else is experiencing this or maybe I'm still "standing" and the animation hasn't completed. Either way, I've died a boat load behind cover when I shouldn't have. The dreaded aiming system. Most players will tell you that this mechanic hurts the game's experience the most. Over all, it works the way it's supposed to but there are massive problems with it. It all goes back to the camera angles. You cannot shoot some people above or below you despite easily being able to do so. The camera will fight you every step of the way as you try to get the reticle on the enemies above or below you. The way the aiming system works is as follows: You toggle the aim button, move the reticle over someone, and fire. The problem is, you only shoot at ground level relative to where your cursor is. Unfortunately, you don't control the Z axis, it's auto-determined by your reticle placement. Not to mention, your screen follows the reticle and you have no idea what's happening to your character. Lastly, stupid AI. If you EVER get stuck trying to clear an area or mission, all you have to do is lure enemies with gunfire and they'll come one at a time until every last one has died. This ruins a lot of the fun because you die in one hit and the game doesn't force you to try new things and encourage it. Instead you can just camp each area out and most people will saying how frustrating the game can be at times. ------------------------------------------------------------- On to the Positives if this first part didn't scare you away... ------------------------------------------------------------- The best thing about this game hands down is the atmosphere, design, style, music, and concept. Everything about this game and it's mood is awesome and knocks away most of those glaring negatives. It creates a weird fusion between Ghost in the Shell and Assassin's creed and I love everything about it. The game takes place in a future tokyo where you become a paid contract killer to find answers as to who framed you. The concept even though it's cheesy and a bit over used, it works here. You have the ability to change your appearance at a moments notice to vanish from your enemies, giving you the drop on them. The idea of this game is simple but it's very fun and very stylized. Although I mentioned the 45* rotating camera as a negative, when it works it works damn well. It's so awesome to be able to wrap around buildings with ease of the camera to find paths and hidden secrets. This game is unique in many ways that other games can't compete with. Throw that in with all the chaos of bullets and grenades, you can make some really cool moments. The game provides a ton of difficulty along with one-hit deaths. This is where the game tortures the player. You will die a lot and hate the game for it, but then overcome and feel beyond successful. When I first wanted to write this review I was going to give it a negative review for all those problems mentioned + how annoyed I was with dying at first. After sinking hours into the game and learning how it works, I've fallen in love with how brutal the game can be. If you like collectables and 100% completion like I do, you will love this game. There's a bunch of collectables each one having a little mini puzzle of how to get to it. This sometimes includes jumping onto moving hover cars which you would think are just part of the background, as they zoom by quickly but aren't. You can jump on these cars to get to buildings and certain collectables/unlocks. I will end my review talking about the music. It is simply amazing. It adds a whole extra layer of atmosphere to the future tokyo theme. I've played for hours and have yet to be annoyed or dislike any of the tracks. All that aside, it's just a good soundtrack. If you are planning to buy the soundtrack, I would wait for a sale. Despite the songs being awesome and fairly long in soundtrack standards, it is NOT worth it's current price. Personally I feel as if there just isn't enough tracks here for that price. While talking about the price, I will say I feel 20 USD is fair for the base game. I know there's some talking on the forums about the price, but there's not enough reason for it to be any less. It's a good game past it's flaws.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 10, 2017

  My first ever Steam review...semi-tragically. I'd been intrigued by Tokyo 42 ever since it was first announced, mainly due to its distinctive look. But 20 bucks seemed a little steep for what was clearly a glorified indie title (and being a completionist idiot I'd have to spring for the soundtrack too). But when the new DLC arrived with a minor price cut, I decided my anticipation outweighed any lingering concerns. I'd waited long enough to play this. Turns out I could have waited forever, probably. A lot of reviews have made all the obvious comparisons to Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, Hotline Miami and whatnot. These are more or less accurate, although T42 knows not to take itself too seriously. I mean, if you're accused of a murder you didn't commit, it only makes sense to try and clear your name by becoming a hitman and murdering a ton of other people. Oh, and the game is gorgeous, yeah. Its bizarre and colorful architecture, a shiny, candy-coated version of Blade Runner's LA, is like eye crack, and the various little details here and there - not to mention the sheer variety in NPCs, like the goofy gangs - will ensure you always have something pretty to look at. If you can actually look at it, anyway. As a three-quarter view shooter, I guess Tokyo 42 does the best it can with its camera, which allows you to rotate it in 45-degree increments. The problem is that the architecture is sometimes structured in such a way that there really isn't a decent angle from which to view the action. This is a particular pain when you're in a hurry, since your fingers are too busy making your character run around to try and turn the damn camera at the same time. The combination of the camera and controls is what ultimately threatens to break the game. In fact, it works far better when you rely on stealth as opposed to balls-out action. When you're crouch-walking around, silently killing enemies with your trusty katana (or the golf club), the game's mechanics are competent if unremarkable. Avoiding vision cones and figuring out patrol patterns is challenging and actually quite fun, turning each mission into a kind of puzzle with a decent degree of flexibility (an early, Die Hard-esque assassination, for example, lets you either walk in the front door or make clever use of some external elevators). When the boomsticks come out, however...oof. While switching weapons by freezing the action and going through a radial menu is smooth enough, the actual targeting of enemies and hitting them with your rather slow-moving bullets is a mess. The aiming reticle does its best, with a decent line-of-sight indicator, but combined with the camera it's way too difficult to figure out if your shot is going to land, and unless your opponent is standing perfectly still it probably won't anyway. On top of that, the cover system is wonky; it makes sense that you have to pop up to return fire, but several times I was hit by a bullet I was positive the wall would block. Or maybe that's just the utterly relentless AI, which unloads on you with guns and grenades like nothing else unless you manage to hide long enough for them to give up. This is one of those games where spraying and praying (or ambushing around corners) is actually more beneficial than taking the time to aim. Once in a while the frantic, bullet-hell nature of the combat is genuinely exciting, like a moment in which you have to help a "mate" fight off wave after wave of attacking gang members, but too often I had better results just sneaking and slashing, restarting from the last checkpoint if I set off the alarm. It's even worse when the Nemesis system comes into play, as you often don't realize that random civilian was after you until you're already dead. Navigation, too, is bad. Although a circle under your character is helpful for lining up jumps across gaps or to lower levels, the clash between, again, the camera and the architecture makes it way too difficult to leap with any prevcision, which really sucks in levels like the one where you have to hitch a ride on flying cars to infiltrate an enemy stronghold. Becuase your charcter can't scale anything higher than his waist, you'll spend a lot of time spinning the camera, trying to determine how tall a particular object is, and why you can't tuck your knees in a little more when you jump. This is especially frustrating in the parkour missions (where the time limits are punishingly strict and the checkpoints demand perfection) and in the motorbike missions (which are, for lack of better description, broken af). After four months of waiting and nearly 40 bucks, I simply can't recommend Tokyo 42. For every mission you pull off with a sigh of relief, it's after 20 or 30 attempts where you felt like punching the computer because a sniper capped you from off-screen, you missed a checkpoint in midair, or the bike, the fucking BIKE, went completely off the road again. If you must experience this game - and I have to admit, I'm glad I at least tried it - wait until it's significantly on discount. And don't bother with the soundtrack or DLC if you can help it; one is rather unexceptional and the other doubles down on the jumping stuff, when in fact the whole thing needs a bit of an overhaul.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 30, 2018

  Think your typical open world games. Now try to imagine that all the frustrating bit from every open world game ever being distilled into a single title. - Insta-fail stealth missions where scripted enemy spawn just behind you and within his visual cone. And no checkpoint. - Wave survival missions where the player sports a gigantic hitbox while the enemies are spouting enough dakka to fill half the screen with bullets. And no checkpoint. - Timed packour missions where half the fight is against the camera system. And no checkpoint. - THE F***ING RACE where you ride a bike that controls horribly against AI racers that all cheats; Gives me flashback from Mafia 1 (it even features the exact same glitch from Mafia 1). - Oh and somehow the incredibly easy infiltration and run-and-gun missions are showed with checkpoints because reasons. And you have only 1 hitpoint. Yes, 1 hit and boom, back to mission start. Yeah I dig the aesthetics, the isometric perspective and 'bullet hell'-ish combat. However all the little good stuff got overshadowed by the gigantic issues in mission design.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 30, 2018

  THIS GAME LOOKS PRETTY, BUT WHAT'S THERE TO DO? - Stealthy assassination missions - Massive shootouts while dodging slow-moving bullets - Parkour challenges that pit you against the clock - Motorcycles to race or just ride around the city - Waves of cops to fight, at increasing difficulties - Online multiplayer (player-versus-player) - Collectables and easter eggs - Surprisingly large and very detailed *open-world* to explore HOW'S THE ISOMETRIC CAMERA? Although the world is fully three-dimensional, the camera requires you to rotate manually amongst several pre-specified camera angles. The camera is always centered on the player, but it does not automatically rotate with the player. Personally, I like the artsy aesthetic, but other people are apparently bothered by it. In my experience, you get comfortable with the camera pretty quickly. And to be quite honest, I think the people who are complaining about the isometric camera are being unreasonable. (By the way, I have no relationship with any of the developers.) HOW DIFFICULT IS THIS GAME? This is *not* a casual game. Because the third-person shooter mechanics in this game are quite unlike any other third-person shooter game, it took me awhile to get the hang of things. It's a very weird game, and I wouldn't recommend buying this if you only care about the aesthetics. You have to be willing to commit a couple hours to this game before it will "click" for you. That said, the late-game (on "Normal" difficulty) is probably a little on the easy-side, since you will have mastered the controls by that point. HOW LONG IS THIS GAME? It took me ~20 hours to reach 100% completion, but I'm sure I could've gone much faster. The DLC offers an entirely separate open-world with even more stuff to do, which I haven't yet started. But based on the fact that I probably won't return to this game after I complete the DLC, I guess I'd say the replay value isn't particularly high. I mean, it's fun just to screw around in the open-world, but I feel like I've already done enough of that. IS THIS GAME WORTH BUYING? Yes, this is probably in my top 20 all-time favorite games. It was definitely worthwhile, even at full price. In my opinion, the ratio of *what this game has to offer* vs. *the limited attention it's received* makes it the biggest hidden gem on Steam right now. The fact that this game has anything other than "Overwhelmingly Positive" reviews is frankly baffling to me.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 1, 2017

  Pros: -GORGEOUS world; the devs hand-made every single building because they didn't want to copy and paste -Interesting factions with personalities -Multiple ways to do missions -Loud combat is fun and has bullet hell -Seems like there is enough content for around 10 hours of gameplay in a playthrough -The collectibles are customization things for you character, so they aren't useless -Teleport system lets you TP anywhere in case you get tired of exploring -The world is a great size Cons: -Camera and FOV are a little wonky -The only way to play in stealth is to hide and use your sword; no gadgets or anything -The fucking motorcycle missions 42/10 If you think you might like this game, you will
• gamedeal user

  Jun 5, 2017

  Tokyo 42 is a disorienting game. The art style's flat lighting which looks lovely in still shots and videos turns out to be dificult to read in play. Determining how far away or even at what angle objects are at reliably (especially the most important objects--bullets) requires flicking rapidly between multiple views, but this is frequently impossible due to buildings in the way or the sheer speed it demands of the player. Enemies have nearly perfect aim with excellent movement prediction whereas the player is stuck unable to sort out if that bullet is traveling sideways at an angle covered by the bench you're hunkering behind or from a high upward angle that can kill you. Enemies also have absurdly fast reaction times; I frequently found myself already dodging precise incoming fire from the moment I clicked to fire a sniper rifle from distance. Especially early in the game, with enemies also having substantially faster bullet speed this made combat feel extremely random and frustrating. I felt challenged not to aim and react quickly but to figure out what on Earth was happening and how to position the camera to see it which didn't feel fun or interesting. There are a few section where buildings are positioned such that no useful camera angle is available, as well, making combat and stealth alike largely guesswork. It is difficult to sufficiently stress how little depth perception this game offers to the player between it's visual style, lighting system and camera mechanics and when it further restricts full use of the already severaly limited camera due to it's architectural arrangements, it becomes infuritating. On top of all of these gripes, I found hit-detection quite strange and stealth even stranger. Sometimes, gunning down enemies at a distance would sound the alarm, sometimes it wouldn't with no pattern of enemy positioning, visibility or weapon used seeming to explain the difference. My character would be shot from an extreme downward angle while in cover and enemies would die while adjacent to rather than being struck by bullets--on the one hand the free kills were welcome given how unforgiving the camera was, but it also didn't feel clean and precise and pleasant and contributed to the disorienting feel of play. Similarly, the game's decision about what vertical angle the player is shooting at when not on level ground with respect to enemies seemed inconsistent; sometimes bullets would get stuck on walls the aim tracer said were not in the way and sometiems bulltets would fly clear through apparently obstructing walls. No doubt it's in large part due to these frustrations, but I also did not find this game very *interesting* to play. The storytelling is minimal which was to be expected, but the missions were uninteresting and the map layouts uninteresting. I cannot recommend it. The visual style is lovely, but as a word of caution it is notably less impressive in action than it was in screenshots and preview footage even on full settings so perhaps be careful even if purchasing based on appearance alone. I was still quite happy with the visuals for my part. The only thing I can whole-heartedly endorse is the soundtrack which I found quite pleasant.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 28, 2018

  First of all: I do not think this game is a bad game by any means, but I really can't say I recommend it, I am excited to see if there will be another Tokyo 42 game by this developer because I am confident it will be amazing. Pros: - The aesthetic and art style is a perfect 10/10 - The combat is fun and challenging, instant respawns and options in combat and stealth allow for a lot of fun re-tries - Absolutely full of charm and humor - Extremely interesting story premise - The sound track is perfectly atmospheric and eerie, very dystopian - There are a ton of new, super fun ideas packed into this game in terms of structure, camera and gameplay and the concept of these pills Cons: - Most of the sidequests are awful - There is a total lack of movement options, especially in an isometric game, there is no evasive movement other than just couching or walking - Combat is a constant fight with the camera to the point where I will just avoid certain areas to fight in because I can't see anything, while I love how the camera looks in this game, and it DOES make everything look great, it is frustrating. - due to how this game looks, it is hard to tell if a bullet is going to hit you or completely miss you (I CANNOT EMPHASIZE THIS ENOUGH) you will be killed OFTEN because you can't tell if something is going to hit you, while retries are instant and battles do not last too long, this is still an issue - The motorcycle is awful, there is no place to drive it that is fun, and once you're done with it's quests you will never touch it again - Playing in the open world alone is not fun. Cops are too easy to take down and aside from skins, there is nothing to find or look at that the missions aren't going to show you anyway. - The motorcycle race and the last parkour mission make me want to die, it took me way too many tries to beat it and it just wasn't fun at the end of the day, there was no room for error and I can't say I had fun with it.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 4, 2017

  It's the neon cyberpunk game you never knew you needed in your life. Controls are amazing, missions are varied, gameworld is absolutely bonkers. Whatever you read about the camera, know this... you will not get used to it... you will [i]master[/i] it. I say this from both a controller and keyboard perspective. Devs and publisher need your support, this is a quality title and buying it will enable more quality titles down the track. Don't let your life be a pastiche of the same genre-games in different guises. This is inspiringly original stuff.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 16, 2018

  The visuals are pure eye candy. The gameplay is garbage. I am reluctant to leave a negative review for this one. It has potential. It has good graphics. It has good music. It has an entertaining story. It has cats. I get the impression that its developers have put much effort into it - the game is beautifully polished with lots of attention to visual detail. The developers have great talent for eye candy. The gameplay mechanics, however, have been neglected. The controls are inconvenient. Some game mechanics remain unexplained. In some cases, game mechanics have been sacrificed for the sake of more eye candy. Depth perception is absent (although it would not surprise me if the developers, having polished it so thoroughly, have gotten used to seeing depth through this lousy camera) and the camera has only eight positions. The developers announced that they fixed it, but I do not see what they changed. Perhaps they believe it to be perfect. I want to enjoy the game, but it is too busy selling its sizzle in its usual passive-agressive way. I want to enjoy it, but the developers' bloated "artistic vision" is standing in the way. I hope to see more beautiful indie games such as this one. I hope other developers can learn from the beauty of this game's visuals and the blunders of its gameplay mechanics. [edit] Watched a playthrough on YouTube just for the eye candy. The story deteriorates toward the end.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 18, 2017

  A solid base concept with a cool art style and fun basic gameplay, but the semi-orthographic perspective camera combined with reliance on 3D spatial reasoning ruins it. Be it dodging bullets, collecting items as part of the parkour missions or driving the bike, the game feels far less fair than it should due to its difficult and unituitive controls.