Tokyo 42 (PC) Review

Tokyo 42 sees the player going in for the kill, like many games before it have. What's interesting is how completely open the game manages to be. This isn't about sneaking around corners, waiting for the best moment to strike vengeance into the hearts of victims. While running across rooftops and surviving ridiculously long falls is possible, this is all about the ridiculousness of the chase. You won't be picking off enemies from a mile away, instead throwing grenades in their faces and taking off in some very tense chases.

The game is displayed in an isometric point of view. Because of this, the player is able to scope out the landscape, planning the best escape. During tense gun fights, it's important they know the terrain so they can hide well, ready to burst out and rain bullets into their foes. This all requires the use of the mouse and keyboard to run and gun, and thankfully everything but throwing grenades feels decent enough. Grenade lobbing will come down to how good of a mouse you have, and the worse the mouse, the more irritating it becomes.

Fortunately, grenades are best used to sneak kill groups of enemies. Tightly knit groups of enemies erupt into a bowling pin explosion that's pretty fun to watch. Escaping those enemies feels even better, as the player is truly free to fly through the air however they wish. Unlike a lot of other parkour games, the player isn't locked into only running on certain things. Sure, it's maddening when, during a good chase, you fly off the edge of a building, and the screen displays "You were killed by you." Still, the degree of freedom feels incredibly natural. It's a shame how well everything works, because the game's biggest issue is probably its most obvious feature.

The game allows for the changing of perspective, sort of like Fez, but from above. This means stairs, bridges, and other important landmarks are often obscured just by the fortune of the angle the lead character is looking. It's even more irritating because enemies can catch up to you so quickly that there's not a lot of time to adjust your orientation to better see your escape route. This perspective shifting is frustrating, and seems like it would work while exploring, but not elsewhere. This issue manages to ruin the tensest moments in favour of having to meticulously set up the escape route beforehand. While this level of planning sounds very intricate, and like it would make each kill more fun to set up, it only manages to be a nuisance in times where everything should feel a bit more fluid.

Tokyo 42 is, if nothing else, a very pleasant game on the eyes. By turning Tokyo into a diorama, the player is able to get a really good grasp on the futuristic visuals. The game manages to capture the unique visuals Tokyo has to offer, all while presenting them in an equally unique manner. Each section looks like a small display for a time Tokyo hasn't even managed to come into yet.