NEOTOKYO | a Review
originally published on 13/12/2024;
Hello everyone, I am the weeb, G.E.M.Simov, a plague upon western civilization, and I’ve come to tell you about my favorite thing - Japan! - by proxy of a review of “NEOTOKYO”.
Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it.
Gameplay
NeoTokyo is a standalone Half Life 2 mod. It is an exclusively multiplayer experience, but it is also incredibly reminiscent of Counter Strike Source. As a result of that, it is incredibly sweaty.
However, the best word to use when describing NeoTokyo is unconventional. It does not feature a crosshair when the Player is holding a weapon, only being generous enough to provide one while the Player is aiming down the sights with the Right Mouse Button. Funnily enough, though, most times when aiming down the sights, the Player’s Point of View will slightly shift towards the center of the screen, alongside the weapon. The sights will not actually be aimed down (with the exception of the sniper rifle).
Other funky things that would conventionally be in a First Person Shooter - NeoTokyo is an FPS - but are not in NeoTokyo include:
Hitmarkers, making it impossible to know if a shot has connected or even if the knife the Player has been swinging around did cut that enemy;
Reloading every bullet - NeoTokyo has none of that, instead giving the Player a number of clips and saying that the number of reloads the Player gets is going to be equal to the number of clips the Player has gotten, so no shooting three times and reloading;
Bots - NeoTokyo is so niche and unconventional that not only does it not have Player operated bots (like those in World of Warcraft or Team Fortress 2) but it also lacks ordinary computer operated bots - the Player can’t host a server and choose to populate it with bots, which would be incredibly useful for learning the game or, at the very least, having a slightly believable circumstance to explore the many maps and to get better acquainted with them, as, otherwise, the new Player™ is going to get curb stomped while trying to learn the map;
Easily discernible weapon names - while this is more of a Presentation related issue, it also affects NeoTokyo’s Gameplay, in part due to the fact that there is also no tutorial (another issue stemming from the Presentation and affecting the Gameplay) the Player has no means of knowing what’s what without having someone else explain things to them… Which is a failing on the game’s part;
And so much more! But don’t let that dissuade you from giving it a go, as it is a very interesting spin on the team based FPS formula. So, the Player can move around with the WASD keys and jump with the Spacebar. Due to the fact that this game is a Half Life 2 mod, that means those who are willing and able could, undoubtedly, perform the fabled bunny hopping. In addition to those mobility options, 2 out of the 3 classes (Recon and Assault) have access to Sprinting (by holding down the Shift key) and Recon even has access to an ultra jump, which occurs when the Player jumps while sprinting.
Last, but not least, is the option to lean. The Player can choose to lean left with the Q key or right with the E key, allowing for funky peeking and neat shot scoring. However, let me get back to the classes. That’s one of the things that NeoTokyo does unconventionally - there are three different classes in it, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, paired with distinctly different playstyles.
First comes the Recon - very lightly armored, this is the fastest class. Can sprint infinitely, has night vision tied to the V key and also has a funky cloak tied to the C key, going nearly invisible for a certain amount of time. Can also perform an ultra jump, which requires around 50 of the movement resource, whereas the cloak requires 1 of the cloaking resource per second to maintain.
Second comes the Assault - those have medium armor and are slower than the Recon, but faster than the Supports. They can sprint, though sprinting requires a number of units from the movement resource. They also get to cloak for 1 of the cloaking resource per second, though their cloaking resource supply is lower than that of the Recon. They also get a funky thermal vision off of V, which allows them to see uncloaked enemies through nearly anything.
Lastly, there are the Supports - mightiest amount of armor and slowest of them all, incapable of cloaking or sprinting but gifted with the ability to see movement, which reveals even cloaked enemies.
Unconventionally, armor feels as though it does not mean anything - especially when it comes down to how much damage will be done by a couple of headshots, which is what Players should be going for, as a headshot does considerably more damage than a body shot.
One other difference that can be observed between the classes is the number of weapons they have available to them. Naturally, the Recons have the smallest selection, whereas the Supports have the largest number of options. However, this is not decided exclusively by the class.
Introducing rank - this is a very flawed mechanic that essentially allows Players who are winning to win more. Every match, the Players in a team start off as Privates. Through getting kills and winning rounds, Players accumulate experience points, and at certain thresholds they advance in rank, going from Private to Corporal and from Corporal to Lieutenant.
Advancing in rank allows the Player to pick from a wider selection of weapons whenever they pick their weapons, and, naturally, weapons that are accessible at Private rank suck when compared to those accessible at Corporal rank.
So, there are many PCs here and there, there are many guns and weapons, there are many maps. How does a game of NeoTokyo go, though?
The Player loads in (the game crashes every time the servers change maps, which is half the loading the Player will need to be doing) and is prompted with the selection of a team. There is no functional difference between teams, only a cosmetic one.
After picking a team, the Player is prompted to pick their class, and after that the Player is made to pick their weapon out of the available options. Following that, the Player and everyone else on their team, need to either kill all enemy team members or secure the Ghost. On the topic of killing, getting killed means that the Player can not do anything but spectate for the remainder of the round (which is usually up to 3 minutes long from its start, so it’s not too egregious). Also, friendly fire is always on!
Killing all enemy Players is self-explanatory, but the Ghost is special. It is an object that can be interacted with (the only such object aside from the weapons of dead PCs) and can be picked up. It takes up the Player’s primary weapon slot, meaning that the Player needs to drop their weapon so that they can carry it around. Naturally, there is no indication of how to do that and the Player needs to have looked through the controls (as with every other key bound to a control). Throwing the weapon happens via the G key, and then interaction happens via the F key.
Well, the Ghost - situated somewhere in the middle of the map, it must be taken to the extraction point. That is dependent on which team collects it, as the extraction point for one team is the spawn point of the other team. When the Ghost is successfully brought to the extraction point, the team who did it wins the round.
Now, the Ghost slows down the person carrying it, but it also provides a very neat ability - it can be used to see every enemy Player, through walls, whilst also providing information on just how far away those Players are. With that said, this is pretty much all there is to NeoTokyo.
This game is very neat. The options it provides its Players with really do spice things up in relation to other available games of a similar variety, and the most apparent entity that can be utilized as a means of comparison would be either Counter Strike (now 2) or Rainbow Six Siege.
However, at the same time, it is incredibly unfriendly towards new Players for the exact same reasons. Players learn the layouts of the maps, they get good at handling the recoil of the weapons that are available, and as a result of that they tend to absolutely dominate anyone not on their level. As with almost every FPS or Third Person Shooter, NeoTokyo can be “beaten” via the multitude of “aim training” games that have popped up all over Steam and other platforms.
Being able to get a headshot reliably, as a result of training for tens of hours on end, or playing for hundreds, is very reasonable. However, due to the fact that this game is somewhat dead (being only remotely playable on Fridays and Saturdays, because that is when some of the servers get a little populated) there is absolutely no matchmaking. The new Player is stuck with whoever joins the server - and those are going to be the NT boys, who have at the very least hundreds, if not thousands of hours invested into this game.
But if we abstract ourselves from that New Player Experience and the fact that the game is quite dead, and the fact that there are no options for populating servers with bots, what are we left with? A very unconventional, very unique spin on things that allows for incredible skill expression and countless hours of entertainment.
Unironically, this game is incredibly similar to ex-CS:GO or CS:Source or CS1.6, and in the best of ways. Communication between teammates, tactical approaches to situations - it’s got a lot of good in it. 2/3
Presentation
A lot of stuff was said about this game’s Presentation in the Gameplay section of the review. No tutorial, no crosshair, no hit feedback (that’s a real problem), no soundtrack…
But, then, everything else about it is quite good. The game is 3D, and since it is running in the source engine it also has the room for great visual fidelity - which it makes use of. Everything that is on display, in the not-so-massive maps that the Players get to duke it out in, is very nicely arranged and situated. The attention to detail is quite staggering, as there are some maps that feature incredibly believable and entertaining sights.
The character models also look great, the weapons are reasonably distinct from one another, even if they are of a similar weapon type, and everything is steeped in some weird kind of sci-fi that’s not exactly distantly far in the future, but not quite a year away from us. Yet, at the same time, it can so easily be forgotten as one wanders through the maps and sees stuff that’s not out of the ordinary to see while taking a stroll through town.
Simultaneously, though, there are other maps that are not just empty of any life - as are all maps when Players aren’t gunning themselves down in them - but also… Empty overall. Large chambers with undecorated walls and floors, strangely unfinished in appearance.
Sound-wise, the game does a very good job at most of what it does, with the slight exception that the soundtrack - the musical scores composed or used for this game - do not play at all. Not during the game, at least - but they do play while in the main menu, which is odd.
The emptiness that accompanies all maps is made even more deafening by the resounding silence, though. There are no moving parts, there are no entities or objects that produce any kind of noise - there’s just dead quiet, and the only sounds that can be heard are the Player’s own footsteps, gunshots and the occasional explosion, as well as the beeping of cloaks or the Ghost’s collection. That is understandable - as in a game with folks who can go invisible, one should be able to hear their footsteps at least.
But, again - why is there a soundtrack if it’s only present in the main menu? Or why is the only indication that the Ghost has been taken a beep that is somewhat similar to the beep performed when someone cloaks? Why are there little snippets of useful information that show up for 3 seconds at the start of every round, complete with pictures and stuff, but there is no collection of said snippets in a little tutorial?
Many things about this game’s Presentation are not right, and many of them slightly worsen the experience. But for a game that is as old as it is, it manages to retain a very decent appearance and sound. 2/3
Story
Unfortunately, there is no story in NeoTokyo. There might be a story related to it found in some peripheral, external realms (perhaps a discord server somewhere in the world, or in the design document of the developer), but the game features no such thing.
There might even be a very vibrant and interesting world that can be revealed to the Player if said Player engages in jolly exploration of the Maps, examining the neat things that show up in them, but it might all be very limited, and quite quaint, environmental storytelling. 0/3
Legendary Point
Does this game get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time? If I were judging from just the Main Menu, I might have been inclined to say that it does. However, the game lacks the spark, as a result of which NO, it does not get the Legendary Point. 0/1
Conclusion
4/10. Avery decent game, if closer to the average than to the exceptional, NeoTokyo is something I’d recommend to anyone who enjoys a good tactical shooter. It’s got soul and its got heart, and I’d say that if more games that wound up getting a 4/10 were as good as NeoTokyo, we would not need anything above a 7/10.
I’ll gingerly place it in the bag of mediocrity, though. Dead game, dusty.