Review: NeoTokyo – PC

Neotokyo released today, and boy is it swell. For those who aren’t in the know, Neotokyo is a Half-Life 2 mod which has been in the making for 5 years or so. Here’s the description:

NEOTOKYO° takes place in and around a fictionalized Tokyo approximately 30 years in the future. Mankind has begun to fuse with technology. Government and corporate corruption have transformed Tokyo into a deadly dystopian nightmare. After a near-successful military coup by ranking members of Jinrai, the National Security Force (NSF) is formed – answering directly to the Prime Minister, it’s mission is to investigate and eliminate all threats to Japan, both abroad and at home. The initial core of the NSF is made from an exodus from within the intelligence branch of the military. With this betrayal begins the war in the shadows between the NSF and Jinrai.

If any of this is familiar it’s because it is, Neotokyo borrows heavily from Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell. They manage to capture Ghost in the Shell’s world perfectly, the game features some of the best maps and textures around. While it only released with one game mode, capture the ghost (capture the flag), it did launch with around 6 extremely detailed maps. Seriously, I can’t emphasize this enough, these guys know how to make maps.

Let’s get on to the gameplay, boiled down the game is basically Counter-Strike. You have two opposing sides and it’s heavily team-based, so that’s what comes to mind first. Instead of buying your weapons in the beginning, you can pick your class (recon, assault, or support) and then pick the weapons you have unlocked. You unlock weapons by gaining points during the mapcycle, once you go to the next map you need to unlock the upper weapons again. So after you do all of that, your team rushes out and gets lost (hey it’s a new game, like hours new). Really what they should be doing is trying to get the ghost, once you grab it the positions of all of your enemies are known. The ghost has an indicator showing where it is, if anyone has picked it up, and how far away it is. As shown in this dandy picture (click on any of the pictures to see them larger):

When you pick it up you get to grab it’s cyborg tit:

You have to drop your primary weapon to use it, so you can’t go galavanting around and slaughter everyone.

On to the classes. Recon are the fast guys, little armor equals fast running and long jumping. These guys can vault around, which I’ve already seen skilled players use to their advantage. The only problem is they use submachine guns, and the guns need to be tweaked a bit in NeoTokyo. Basically, every gun kinda sucks except for the m41, and recons don’t get the m41 (unless it’s a super-high unlock). But as a bonus, if you know what you’re doing you can get behind the other team very quickly. The only problem is you’ll only gun down one person before you’re killed. Oh, and they also get a remote detonation pack, nightvision (useless), and a large amount of thermoptic camouflage.

Assaults are next, they can use some heavier weapons, sprint a bit, and have thermoptic camouflage. They also have a nade which works out well on some of the indoor maps. They aren’t as plushy as the recons, but in the games I was playing it was mostly support and recons. They have motion vision to boot, which lights people up like christmas trees if they move. The only problem is people tend to stand still while they shoot you in the face.

Support! My favorite class! The reason these guys are so badass is that they have thermo vision, and one of their starting weapons is the m41. I’ve unlocked most of these guys weapons and I still always go with the m41. In terms of thermo, if you enter a room and turn on thermo vision, you can instantly see everyone which is a huge advantage. For an even greater advantage you get smoke grenade which makes every other class blind; all you do is switch on your thermo and it’s fish in a barrel folks. Most of the screenshots will be at the end of the article, but here’s one to illustrate:

Without thermo:

With thermo:

The only problem with thermo is those guys with thermoptic camoflauge don’t show up that well on it. Here’s an example, you can see the guy who isn’t bright, he has a gray crosshair-thingie on him:

Generally though, if you’re paying attention enough you’ll notice them. Also, since knifing doesn’t work so well if they try it you can blast them in the face.

Now about the thermoptic camoflauge, it does mask you from thermo vision but there is that optic part as well. Lookie:

See that NSF guy? He doesn’t even see the camoflauged Jinrai guy. You can’t switch it on willy nilly though, as there is a little burst of light and a noise when you turn it on. There is also a burst of light when you fire with it on, while this doesn’t decloak you, it allows the enemy to know exactly where you are.

I am very happy with Neo Tokyo, hell I played it for 5 hours straight. Some people think it’s a bit simplistic, which it is, but then again so is Counter-Strike. I can really see people getting into this, you just have to learn the maps first. As they are incredibly detailed they are also a bit complicated, sometimes it’s hard to tell where the enemy will come from. As you also switch around spawn points every round, one round you’ll come from one way, and another from where your enemy just came from. Add 6 maps into the mix and you’ve got a nice steep learning curve. If you’ve somehow managed to get this far without starting your 900MB download, do it now.

Also make sure to check out the screenshots below, they’re from one of NeoTokyo’s gorgeous maps, Skyline. I also have some other ones thrown in for fun.