Tokyo 42

About

"Tokyo 42" is a vibrant and stylish open-world shooter, where you must navigate a world of assassins and corporate intrigue after being framed for a crime. The city of Tokyo is your playground, filled with secrets, weapons, and AI-driven citizens. Use stealth, shooting, and parkour to complete missions and survive the technicolor bullet hell of this cyberpunk future.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

67%

Audience ScoreBased on 354 reviews

story48 positive mentions

stability7 negative mentions

Stunning isometric art style and vibrant visuals that create an immersive atmosphere.
Engaging gameplay that combines stealth and action, allowing for multiple approaches to missions.
A unique and humorous storyline that adds charm to the overall experience.

Frustrating camera controls that can obstruct gameplay and hinder aiming during combat.
One-hit kill mechanic can lead to repetitive deaths, making some missions feel unfairly difficult.
Motorcycle missions are poorly designed and detract from the overall enjoyment of the game.

story
298 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
16%
79%
5%
The story of *Tokyo 42* revolves around a cyberpunk narrative where players, framed for a crime, undertake assassination missions to clear their name. While the premise is intriguing, many reviewers found the execution lacking, describing the plot as simplistic, rushed, and often overshadowed by frustrating gameplay mechanics, particularly in later missions. Despite its artistic visuals and varied mission approaches, the overall narrative fails to leave a lasting impression, with many players opting to skip dialogue and focus on gameplay instead.
- “The story and setting is somewhat reminiscent of some movies like 'Equilibrium' and maybe 'The Matrix'.”
- “The story is humorous, memorable, and entertaining all throughout.”
- “The world, story, and atmosphere are great.”
- “The story is not very interesting and characters are forgettable.”
- “The story as a whole is comical but largely uninteresting and serves only as a container for your character to bounce around Tokyo completing cold-blooded contract murders to clear his name after being framed for cold-blooded contract murder.”
- “The story deteriorates toward the end.”
gameplay
163 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
32%
61%
7%
The gameplay of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players appreciating its unique mechanics and aesthetic but criticizing its execution. While some enjoy the fast-paced action and fluid controls, others find the camera angles frustrating and the gameplay repetitive or clunky. Overall, the game offers a blend of engaging elements and significant shortcomings, leading to a varied player experience.
- “The gameplay is fast, fluid, and full of action.”
- “I really enjoy the immersive feel and riveting gameplay.”
- “Tokyo 42 has beautiful graphics, great music, and challenging gameplay.”
- “The gameplay is garbage.”
- “Looks amazing but the gameplay is simply awful; the aiming system sucks and the stealth mechanics are super basic. I was excited for this game, so excited I bought it a few hours after it was released, extremely disappointed.”
- “The core gameplay loop has no progression and the basic mechanics that make up that loop aren’t well flushed out enough to stand on its own in the first place.”
graphics
119 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
52%
45%
3%
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their stunning isometric art style, vibrant colors, and unique aesthetic that draws players into a beautifully crafted world. Many reviewers highlight the visuals as a standout feature, often describing them as eye candy that enhances the overall experience, despite some criticisms regarding gameplay mechanics and camera controls. Overall, the game's artistic design is considered a significant strength, making it visually appealing and engaging.
- “With its stunning isometric art style and hyper-stylized world, the game immediately grabs your attention and doesn’t let go.”
- “The tiny, beautifully crafted city is a joy to navigate, filled with quirky characters and jaw-dropping visuals.”
- “Tokyo 42 has a unique and gorgeous art style that truly stands out amongst any other game set in this style.”
- “I enjoyed the aesthetics, but the gameplay is poor: inconvenient controls and frustrating camera forfend any potential entertainment.”
- “The graphics are passable but with a certain vision of style which really uplift it above the primitive nature of shapes and flat textures that would otherwise be considered flawed.”
- “Sadly this game, while having a lot of potential and graphical prowess, is marred by glaring problems that make it a $5 worth buy (so wait for sales or humble bundles).”
music
75 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
63%
33%
4%
The music in the game is widely praised for its atmospheric quality, with many reviewers highlighting its ability to enhance the overall experience and complement the vibrant visuals. The soundtrack features a mix of lo-fi and ambient tunes, creating a unique vibe that resonates well with the game's aesthetic. However, some players noted inconsistencies in the soundtrack's fit with gameplay, suggesting that while the music is generally excellent, it may not always align perfectly with the game's action.
- “The world is rich, vibrant, and enticing with secrets and unlockables sprinkled throughout to encourage exploration and puzzle solving; the music is a great palette of lo-fi and ambient tunes that helps seal the deal on the texture of the whole experience.”
- “Wandering through the gorgeous color-drenched city and listening to that sweet, sweet neowave soundtrack always makes me feel like I'm wandering the set of Cowboy Bebop 20 years after the end of the series.”
- “The rhythmic electronic music suits the environment perfectly, and it changes as you move around different areas of the map.”
- “Environments aren't especially readable, the soundtrack is oddly mismatching and everything just seems to fall short and a bit too unfriendly to the player.”
- “I never heard the song used in the trailer in the actual game :(”
- “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.”
atmosphere
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
42%
33%
25%
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its immersive soundtrack and beautifully designed environments, creating a captivating experience that enhances exploration and combat. Reviewers highlight the unique cityscape and overall aesthetic, noting that the atmosphere is one of the game's strongest aspects, contributing significantly to its appeal. Despite some gameplay criticisms, the atmospheric elements remain a standout feature, enriching the overall experience.
- “The world, story, and atmosphere are great.”
- “I really liked the chill atmosphere and the exploration of the unique cityscape from an unusual perspective.”
- “It really is a shame, because the world and atmosphere is done well.”
- “The music, atmosphere, and overall aesthetic to this game is awesome.”
- “The best thing about this game hands down is the atmosphere, design, style, music, and concept.”
humor
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
91%
27%
The humor in the game is a mixed bag, with some players finding it hilarious and enjoyable, particularly in multiplayer settings and through unexpected moments. While the script may be seen as poor or repetitive, the campy and amateurish elements contribute to its charm for those who appreciate that style of humor. Overall, the game offers memorable comedic moments, especially when engaging with friends or embracing its quirky mechanics.
- “It’s hilarious when you get a conga line of them chasing after you sometimes.”
- “It has a neat aesthetic and music, and a setting that is simultaneously hilarious and serious.”
- “The story is humorous, memorable, and entertaining all throughout.”
- “The story was poorly written and lacked any real humor.”
- “The jokes fell flat and didn't land at all.”
- “I expected more laughs, but the humor was just cringeworthy.”
stability
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
13%
88%
The game's stability is heavily criticized, with multiple users reporting significant bugs, glitches, and control issues that detract from the overall experience. While some players note that it runs well at times, the prevalence of gamepad support problems and gameplay-affecting glitches leads to a frustrating experience. Overall, the game is described as unstable, with core design flaws exacerbating the issues.
- “So much fun, cool story, runs great.”
- “Possibly the most bug-ridden game I've played in recent years.”
- “The gamepad support glitches out randomly.”
- “Very beautiful isometric indie game full of glitches; its gameplay is ruined by bugs and bad core design.”
replayability
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
Overall, the game's replayability is mixed; while some players appreciate the variety of gameplay and secrets that enhance replay value, others feel that the lack of robust game systems and mechanics limits long-term engagement. Aesthetic enjoyment is noted, but many reviewers suggest that once the content is completed, the incentive to return diminishes.
- “Simple aesthetic fun with good replayability and scaling difficulty.”
- “There are secrets, new mechanics, huge varieties of gameplay, and replay value up the wazoo.”
- “I admire developers who don't just take the procedural route; this game offers visual beauty and a lot of replayable experiences.”
- “I understand the pricing and I admire developers who don't just take the procedural route, but whatever this game has to offer in terms of visual beauty, it lacks in game systems and mechanics that make this a much more replayable experience.”
- “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.”
- “Pricing (very short for a $20 US game, in my opinion) limited replay value.”
grinding
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game tedious and frustrating, often feeling that it detracts from the overall experience. Issues such as losing purchased ammo upon mission restart and the repetitive nature of completing optional objectives contribute to a sense of padding rather than meaningful progression. The combination of underdeveloped mechanics and poor controls leads to a gameplay experience that becomes increasingly monotonous over time.
- “Had issues where I bought ammo mid-mission and upon restarting the mission the ammo was gone and so was the money. This led to grinding to make cash for ammo for the final fight... the shops in this game feel like padding rather than progression.”
- “Whilst it started out as being fun and interesting for the first couple of hours, the story got increasingly more boring. The gameplay is marred by poor camera angles (especially on the bike and parkour missions) and soon became tedious and repetitive; all the while the controls soon started to enter that annoying stage where the only buttons I could be bothered pushing on my keyboard were alt + f4 so I could go and play something else more refined and actually fun.”
- “Which means tediously creeping through a level and meleeing every guard from behind, or finding a far enough vantage point you can snipe from (generally not supported in most missions) so that everyone's far enough away that they can't hear your gunshots.”
emotional
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional aspect of the game is criticized for its lack of engagement, with users finding the story to be dull and uninteresting.
- “The story was really boring.”