Developer: SMAC Games
Rrp: £14.99 (Gog.com, Humblebundle and Steam)
Tokyo 42 is one of those games that sounds like its been done before and in some ways I suppose you could say it has, it is an open world shooter after all. However there are a few things that I feel make this game a very different beast to many others that share the same descriptors. For a start rather than having the camera as an over the shoulder affair like in Assassins Creed or Hitman, or in first person like the Fallout 3 this game is played entirely in an isometric viewpoint that you can rotate so as to get the best vantage point you can.
The advantage of having such a view point is that the game doesn’t need to give much detail to the characters (though it does a surprisingly good job) since they’re viewed from such a high vantage point and therefore can populate the world with quite a lot of them. Even ignoring all the various people wandering around, the world feels so lively and dense from all the various passageways, stairs and buildings that fill it. There are animated adverts, strange art installations and all sorts of little oddities that make this game feel full of life.
The core gameplay is pretty simple, take on jobs to get money and reputation. Then do the story missions to find out why you got framed for a murder you didn’t commit. Although I will admit it seems a bit strange that the main character evades capture by the police for murder and then immediately takes on jobs that involve killing people in order to prove they didn’t kill one specific person… thats not how you prove how you aren’t a murderer.
Honestly give this game a go, its often on sale and has a really beautiful and striking art style to it.
