Tokyo 42 Reviews
Tokyo 42 takes some of the best features from the original Grand Theft Auto and packages them up in a sublimely gorgeous aesthetic, resulting in one of the most visually pleasing indie games to release this year.
Tokyo 42 is a visually pleasing game for everyone that loves stealth games with some action thrown in to balance the mix.
This is not a bad game by any means – although it can be as frustrating as hell – but the amazing world design feels second fiddle to the lacklustre gameplay and it would have been a lot better to focus on the exploration, or even make it an out and out stealth experience.
Tokyo 42 is a tidy little package, representing another solid addition to the Mode 7 stable. For the princely sum of £14.99, there's a lot of game in there, and you could do far worse for your money.
Thanks to the imprecision of its shooting controls and the cheap behaviour of its AI, I could never really develop any confidence in Tokyo 42's frustrating combat. Which is a shame because, glitches aside, I really loved exploring the wonderfully crafted world and the simple yet still challenging nature of its stealth-based assassinations. This tiny hitman game dresses smart, packs the right kind of ammunition and certainly aims its sights high, it just doesn't quite nail the execution.
Tokyo 42 has been sold on the strong, vivid visual design of its world, but how player's view it is at the root of the game's biggest faults when it comes to play. The isometric angles and transitions between them often hinder smooth movement and a player's understanding of where they are in the world.When the game comes together as intended, it serves up inventive missions with the thrills to match its obvious influences, but those moments are broken up too frequently by frustrating design choices.
With nods to Bladerunner and an isometric design that harks back to Amiga games, this could be great fun if the campaign mode wasn't so tricky
Some flaws in perspective and a few attempts to do a little too much don't detract from a solidly entertaining shooty sneak-'em-up.
On Tokyo 42's website, the developers boast the game as a beloved blend of Syndicate and Grand Theft Auto, and honestly, they couldn't be more wrong and right. It's both those games in spirit, but twists them into something wholly its own. Tokyo 42 is an isometric cyberpoppunk action-shooter with a city that's worth getting lost in.
Beautiful, strange and sometimes a bit fiddly, Tokyo 42 offers a dazzling toybox to explore.
SMAC Games and Mode 7’s Tokyo 42 places us in a stylish isometric open-world; more specifically, as an unfortunate male framed for murder. The answer? Becoming the very thing you were framed for. You climb the ranks of a dangerous assassin in attempt to reveal the truth behind your false incrimination.
Tokyo 42 is just a lot of fun. You can play in short bursts, or long play sessions and still feel satisfied that you accomplished something. Running around the large map, seeing a collectible perched on a ledge will make you forget about anything but figuring out how to get to it. Acquiring cash needed to purchase bigger and badder guns never felt like a tedious chore, the game rewards you in numerous ways with mission rewards, secret coins, and drops from fallen gang members.
As far as debut projects go, Tokyo 42 is a great game with a fascinating sense of style and a confident swagger, let down by a handful of little things. Controlling how to shoot takes some getting used to and that sharp increase in difficulty was unwelcome to say the least, yet I had a fantastic time sneaking around and assassinating targets however I wished. A great effort.
Tokyo 42 offers a pretty cool city of the future to explore, a beautiful art style and tributes masterpieces of both game industry and film industry with great class, but fails to provide an entertaining experience. The game it's quite too hard in part of its (many) missions because of its stiff camera and its not so pleasant way to aim, plus, it has technical problems.
Review in Italian | Read full review
An intricate, beautiful playground for some enjoyably open-ended assassinations.
An isometric shooter with a ton of style, and a lack of complexity that works in its favour.
It's hard to believe that Tokyo 42 is the debut title from developer SMAC as its an extremely polished and enjoyable.
Tokyo 42 is an inventive and strikingly attractive game, with a very natural blend of stealth, combat and figuring out a path, unfortunately hamstrung somewhat by absolute fealty to its isometric perspective. ... An impressive accomplishment, but sometimes a grating one too.
Whilst some of the gun mechanics don't work as well as they should, there's still lots of missions, customisation, and a cracking electronic soundtrack in the vein of Hotline Miami.
Visually stunning but wholly underwhelming, Tokyo 42 fails to capitalise on its inventive premise.