Tokyo Jungle Overview

Where did mankind go? They all disappeared...but why?

Tokyo Jungle is a survival game as animals. Animals are either predators or grazers who have to survive as long as possible. 

Story

Story mode is unlocked by finding archives in survival mode. There are 14 Acts and 3 archives for each Act needs to be found before playing an Act. The archives explains what was happening before the disappearance. The Acts will reveal it in the last two Acts.

Game play

On screen, there are 3 bars: Health, Hunger, and Stamina. Toxicity will show up once the area starts to become toxic.

Health = Once it hits 0, animal will die.

Hunger = Once it hits 0, animal will start to lose Health until it dies.

Stamina = Used for dodging/movement. Will recover over time.

Toxicity = More toxicity means more likely animals and plants will be poisoned. Once it hits 100, animal will start to lose Health until it dies. Toxicity is lowered by eating not poisoned food/water or a item.

Each animal has different stats which can decide whether fight or flight is a better option. Size also plays a factor in deciding how hard is it to kill.

Every animal has the ability to attack and sneak attack. Some animals are better at this than others. Predators can only regain hunger from eating other animals and grazers can only regain hunger from eating plants.

Survival

Starting a new game, the animal will always start in Shibuya Station. There are many different areas including underground. The animals will be randomly generated each game. There are 4 marking points in each area. Once all four marking points are taken, the animal can use the area's nest to sleep/breed. There are three types of mates: Prime, Average and Desperate. Mating will give extra siblings and transfer a percentage of stats acquired. Every animal's lifespan is 15 years before it's starts to get old. Once old, the hunger bar will permanently decrease until it hits 0/0 which then the animal will soon die.

There is a list of challenges which can be done for a specific number of years before failing. These challenges yield extra stats which can be vital in surviving longer. Stats that are passed down can be seen in red when choosing a animal in a new game.

Playing specific animals can lead to unlocking a new animal. The animal will have a unlock quest (towards the bottom of the challenge list) and once completed, the animal will unlock after the current game is finished (usually by death). These quests tend to be catch the animal, kill the animal, or take over the territory of the animal.

Items are spawned randomly in the map. They can be quite useful or useless. Equipment can also be acquired this way. For tough missions, using equipment will help with surviving longer. Equipment's have a life span and once depleted, they will break. The free DLC equipment has unlimited life.

Sometimes events will happen in the game. These events tend to make the game more challenging especially when disease hits. It could be something funny such as "Dog and Monkey relations have soured" which Dogs and Monkeys will be killing each other in the area. A specific animal could show up such as a Chick Hero which if defeated and eaten will give an item. It is pointless for a grazer to go after animals since they cannot eat other animals.

There is a multiplayer mode for two players. Each player can choose the same or different animals. Both players have to breed at some point due to the 15 year life span but only one can breed in an area. Four full revives are given for free to revive a fallen player.

Final Thoughts

Surprisingly, this game was a load of fun for the $0.90 I paid for it. It is simple and basic but the random number generator can be very cruel. The first generation or two tends to be easy but after that, it can become very hard to survive due to lack of food and toxicity. Night time can be very cruel for animals who have horrible night vision (grazers) and if there is no nest to sleep on, death can be around the corner.

Sadly, the areas are always the same. Same points to take, and same nest points (should take off nest marker for the large animals that cannot reach the mate point). Large animals can also have the underground areas inaccessible which limits their food supply. A strange problem for grazers is that some animals who are small/mid size may eat a flower in 3 bites (boar) but a larger animal would eat a flower in 4 bites (hippo). Unfortunately, grazers have a harder time than predators.

I haven't unlocked all the animals yet (missing a few grazers and one predator) but overall, the hardest animal I played so far has to be the dairy cow. It was tough trying to unlock the thoroughbred because I always died within the first area or two. The random generator kept sending bears and dogs after the cow so it was difficult to fight or flight. The cow is not fast, not strong and not stealthy. It was probably the most miserable experience I had.

With most of the characters unlocked, I plan to try some multiplayer again. It would be interesting to see what pairs work amazing together. 

Overall, the game is challenging and fun. It can get old fast since the maps are always the same and the random generator can/will be very cruel. 

Recommended for survivalists (its hard mode all the time).
Available for PS3 from Playstation Store only.